08.08. San Francisco Tag 2

After the long walk yesterday, we dare to use the 'Uber' app for the first time and call an UberXL (for 5 people). No more than 6 minutes later, the Toyota with a young Asian driver arrives at the hotel and takes us to the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge. Uber works amazingly smoothly, just book the ride, get in, drive, get out. The app takes care of the payment, there are plenty of drivers in the San Francisco area.

When we get out, Sammy asks, 'Does the girl come with us?' and he means the driver... well, 'practice starts early' ;)

We walk back on foot over the Golden Gate to San Francisco and enjoy the view of the Bay Area and Alcatraz. The headwind almost blows us off the bridge. Yesterday we thought about booking one of the many bike tours offered at Pier 39, today we are glad we didn't. There is a lot of pedestrian and bicycle traffic. It is hard to get through with a bike and it is not much faster.

Then we hike along the coast towards the piers, it's a beautiful area with sandy beaches, but quite a long way. After about halfway and with whining children, we call another Uber. This time we go to downtown Union Square, the shopping district of San Francisco. We briefly consider taking a cable car, but see the line of tourists who want to ride. A ride costs $7 per person, and the Uber taxi costs half that - we decide to never complain about the prices of public transportation in Vienna again.

We stroll around Union Square and go to the nearby shopping center. It's nice, but considering the prices, we don't buy much. We walk back through Chinatown to the hotel, we can't really rest much because at 6:30 p.m. the ferry to Alcatraz departs.

The ride across the bay in the twilight is impressive, the arrival at Alcatraz is somehow haunting, it's unbelievable how inhumane the prisoners were locked away here. We spend about 3 hours on the island and visit the museum and the cell block. On the way back in the dark, we have a great view of the glowing skyline of San Francisco.

Today we are really exhausted, the clock shows more than 30,000 steps, but we have experienced a lot.