Kathryn's hols - day 9 - San Francisco, ride the cable car, bike the bridge and flight home

Trying to figure out how to 'do' San Francisco in a day is a bit much. We opted for quite an early start.

To start with with headed for the cable car. To me, 'cable car' conjours up something hanging from a cable in the air destined for a mountain top. Not so with these. They are the classic San Francisco trams. Well, they look like trams but are in fact pulled along on cables - a system which owes its existence to mining technology. Quite a nice way to experience the sights of the town and hit fisherman's wharf.

Next stop was the excellent Blazing Saddles company who run an excellent 'bike the bridge' operation. In short order we were on the bikes and away, though not before a complex sounding map briefing. The operation was very slick indeed, helmets available, bike pump and repair kit, little bag for your sandwiches and a map case on the bike. Even ferry tickets back which you could return if you didnt need them.

So, off we went in the direction of the Golden Gate Bridge. After only about 100m things got a little tricky since there was a marathon being run over the bridge and along the path we were planning to use. On balance though not too bad. We crossed the bridge in pretty poor weather with little visibility.

Then on to Marin and Sausalito, Redwood forest (the world's tallest trees), then Tiburon. That's a short sentence which belies the complexity of the route. Because of Kathryn's flight we had to be on the 12.00 ferry back from Tiburon so we didn't hang about. After a bit of faff finding the Redwood forest, where we didnt have time to scout out the really big trees, we headed for Tiburon and the legendary 'Sam's Cafe'. Problem was our map was appalling. It became clear why we had a 10 minute map briefing at the start. We got lost a few times, which under normal circumstances would've been fine but today we had to catch a ferry.

We finally slogged it into Tiburon and got to the ferry with 5 minutes to spare. Except that, the ferry schedule had changed that day and we had another 30 minutes. Just in time for an excellent feed at a local deli/cafe.

Ferry back was impressive though had more stops than we hoped and time was pressing. Eventually got back to blazing saddles and gave up our mounts, complained about the map (I think they get that a lot) and headed back to the car. We tried to catch a cabble car but after 20 minutes of standing in line we gave up and got a cab (as cheap as cable car).

Then on to the airport and yet another farewell through airport security.

I headed back to San Francisco alone and just about managed to navigate to my $80 a night hotel - Cathedral Hill. I think the girl at the desk was horrified with how cheap I got my room so turned on some surley service since that was all I'd paid for. Other staff at the hotel very nice and the room great. For the price, fantastic. They even switched my room for me to one with an ethernet connection because my crappy work laptop doesn't have a wireless card. Neat!

For dinner I had an excellent feed in the Maharani. It wasn't until I was seated I noticed some flyers on the table declaring it the "10th most romatic place to eat in San Francisco". Oh well, I think the romance was going on around the back with their foofy seating. Food, beer and service excellent. Harry Potter is a good dinner companion!

The next morning I called Cooper to ask for directions to their office and got a "honey, you don't wanna walk from there". I ended up walking of course, less than 2 miles!