Day 16-18 San Francisco

Finally, it's time to go to San Francisco😍

After a good hour's drive, we finally reached the Golden Gate Bridge. After a long read on how the toll fee works, we were able to drive over it with peace of mind. 

You simply have to book a one-time payment online and it will be automatically charged to your credit card. We arrived at the hotel in North Beach around 12:30. 

After checking in, we headed down to the Cable Cars, where we first bought a 3-day ticket for public transportation for $32 each. 

Then our first ride on the Cable Cars started towards Union Square. Amazing ride through the steep streets of San Francisco. Fantastic 😍

From there, we walked down to the Ferry Building through Chinatown. 

Next, we took a ride on the historic streetcars. 

We went down to Pier 39, where we watched the sea lions and had time for a snack. 

From Fisherman's Wharf, we walked towards the Golden Gate Bridge. 

A very long walk past the beautiful harbor. 

Before reaching the Golden Gate Bridge, we visited Presidio Park. From there, we went up to the lookout point where we took our first pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

From there, we were supposed to go to Golden Gate Park. Unfortunately, the bus driver didn't announce any stops, so we went too far. It was already late, so it wouldn't have been worth getting off at the park. 

So we headed back to the hotel, which turned out to be not so easy. The bus system in San Francisco is quite a challenge.🙈

Nevertheless, we eventually managed to return to the hotel. 

The next morning, we took the Early Bird Tour to Alcatraz. We stayed on the island for a good 2.5 hours and let the stories of Alcatraz be told to us on an audio guide tour. An interesting and recommended tour.

From Pier 33, we took the streetcar towards South of Market and Civic Center. Unfortunately, it wasn't a nice area, so we quickly continued towards Alamo Square. There, we saw the Painted Ladies and then went to Japantown. At first, we took the wrong bus. If you're not paying close attention, it's easy to do here in SF.🙈

After a short detour, we arrived in Japantown. 

We didn't really like it either, so we didn't stay long.

So we got back on the bus and went to Union Square. 

There, we went to a Cheesecake Factory for the first time. 

First, we admired the amazing cakes before being assigned a table after a 15-minute wait. 

We ordered 2 cheesecakes and an Oreo shake. Each of our orders had well over 1000 calories 😀🙈

The portions were so rich that we couldn't finish everything. But it was very delicious. 

From there, we took another Cable Car and went up to Lombard Street. 

Incredible how steep and curvy this street is. 

We couldn't resist going down this street by foot. At the bottom, we got on the bus and went to Fisherman's Wharf.

There, we ended the day. 

We walked along Pier 39 for a while and then had dinner at a seafood restaurant. 

On our last day, we went to Twin Peaks in the morning. Fantastic view of the San Francisco skyline. From there, we went to Golden Gate Park. After a good 1.5 hours, we went down to Baker Beach. From there, we took great pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. Then we parked the car and walked over the Golden Gate Bridge and back. 😍

In the afternoon, we briefly returned to the hotel to park the car before heading back down to the Cable Cars. From there, we took it to Union Square and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Then we got a cheesecake to go, which we enjoyed in the hotel in the evening. 

Now, it was time to take the Cable Car one last time and go back to the hotel. 

Tomorrow, we have a long journey ahead. We're going from San Francisco to Pismo Beach, which is around 400 km.🙈