A South-African journey

San Francisco (part VI)

Final post !
The IROS conference organized a cruise in the bay, with dinner and views on the city by day and night. It was quite nice ! (though I had to pay for it at the end ... and no-one checked my ticket !)

Anyway, we spent a nice time with Masayuki and took a lot of pictures, drank quite a lot of champagne and wine, ate a good buffet, and enjoyed the views of the bay.

The boat

Buffet !

Alcatraz

San Francisco

Under the bridge !

So, that's it for the photos of San Francisco. There would be lot more to say and to show (Laura has more photos, but I don't have them here ...). In particular, we were in a really cool hostel, rather hippie-style, it's called The Green Tortoise. It was really nice atmosphere - a bit noisy, but it's not too much a problem. It is located in North Beach, on Broadway, surrounded by strip clubs ! It is also close to Chinatown - actually Laura had to cross Chinatown every day to go to the conference venue (Hilton on Union Square). I should also talk about the Stinking Rose (a garlic restaurant !), the burgers, the burritos, and the Chinese food ... I should mention our shopping session ... And also the amazing number of homeless people, just there, in the street, by dozens, they look like they are in another universe. This was particularly shocking as some places where they are given food are located just next to the Hilton and the area with very expensive hotels.
Overall, we enjoyed our stay in this relaxed city San Francisco. I could also mention the flight in A380 on the way back to Geneva (via Frankfurt), the almost paranoid security checks in (or towards) the US, etc, etc. But I feel I should resume talking about the primary subject of this blog : SOUTH AFRICA !
So ! Next post will be about South Africa, since I'm now back in Johannesburg !

San Francisco (part V)

The Golden Gate Bridge
After two days of clouds and fog, we decided that we had to really see the Golden Gate Bridge under a clear sky ! So we did, and we walked a lot ! The sky was blue, the sun shining, perfect conditions !
But when we started getting close, we noticed that there was actually clouds just on the bridge ! We had seen only the bottom of the bridge until now, and now we could see the top ... :-)

The top of the bridge !

Anyway, we continued towards China Beach.

Isn't that frustrating ?

It really looks like we could never see that bridge. But we decided to wait, because the wind was blowing and we were hoping it would push the cloud further !
In the meantime, we saw dolphins and seagulls.

Dophins

Seagulls

:-)

And finally, we were rewarded by a nice clear view of the bridge !

The Golden Gate Bridge - no clouds !!

Tourist picture

A few days later, I could also catch a nice view on the bridge from the city

So, finally, we could see this famous bridge !
Next (and last) post will be about the cruise organized by the conference ... more bridge photos to come, woohoo !

San Francisco (part IV)

Second session of photos of San Francisco.

Cable car museum
The cable car museum is very interesting (and free). It's quite impressive to see that still today, the cable cars are operated from this point. There is also an interesting part with historical pictures of after the 1906 earthquake.

Cable car museum, from which the 4 cable car lines are operated.

Cable car museum (of course, it's an old sign :-) )

Golden Gate Park
When you look for the Golden Gate Bridge, it's better not to go to the Golden Gate park instead ! Not that the park is not good (it is !), but it is quite far especially if you're walking, and also the park itself is very, very large. We did not go in all the places. It contains several "attractions" (museums, botanical gardens), but most were closed the day we went there (we went another time for the Academy of Science Museum).