Day 18: San Francisco

So today we woke up in San Francisco. For the first time, we didn't need air conditioning in the room overnight, but rather heating. We had a small breakfast at the coffee chain with the green mermaid, and then we bought our 3-day MuniPass to use public transportation at a hardware store. This store didn't advertise it, but according to the internet, they sold these Muni passes. It felt a bit strange, like buying fresh carrots at a hardware store, but they actually had these passes. After buying the passes, we drove down to Pier 39. We wanted to see if there were more lazy sea lions today. There were a few more animals there, but we learned that currently, only the lazy males are there because the females have moved to Southern California in the summer to give birth to their young. Well, we learned something new! Well, it was still nice to see the animals, especially to hear and smell them. You really can't stand the smell for too long at the pier. Time passed very quickly as we continued to wander around Pier 39. I bought a sweater, which you really need here, and a few other small things. Now we had the famous crab soup from 'Brotteller' at Moudin. Everything looked great visually, but the soup couldn't win any prizes in terms of taste. The USA is just not a gourmet temple. Afterwards, we looked over to Pier 33, where the ferry to Alcatraz leaves. Since we're taking the early bird ferry tomorrow, we wanted to make sure where we have to go. From there, we also saw the Coit Tower, which offers a beautiful view of the city. That's still on the to-do list. But now we wanted to visit the highlight of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge. We had to change buses twice to get to the famous Golden Gate Bridge. Public transportation here is very well developed for America, although the buses are very old, they run very regularly.

Now we were finally at the Golden Gate Bridge. First, we took photo number 1 before enjoying a coffee with a view of the bridge. Then we finally went onto the bridge. Here, cyclists and pedestrians share the paths, and it can be quite aggressive. It was very windy and cold on the bridge. I quickly envied Uli's idea of putting on another sweater under his jacket. But anyway, we were now on the bridge, walked a bit forward, took touristy pictures, and before freezing completely, we went back to find more photo spots. And we found them, and the time flew by.

After a while, we took the crowded bus back to the hotel to eat something and make plans for tomorrow.

This report may sound short, but we were really on the go non-stop from 9 am to 7 pm.