San Francisco
Got up and went out a bit later than normal but we wanted to relax a bit as it was the penultimate day of our holiday.
When we went out we got a bowl of clam chowder for brunch which was served in a sourdough bread bowl. It tasted ok but I think it could have been better. We then walked around the area for a while until it was time for us to board our boat to go across to Alcatraz.
We departed from Pier 33 which was about a five minute walk from the main Fisherman’s Wharf area.
The ferry journey was short ride until we reached the island, but was very windy so sprayed a lot of waves over the front of the ship.
When we docked we had to listen to a short orientation speech about the island and it’s history before we could carry on.
To get to the jail cells you needed to walk up the steep roads until you made it to the top. Here you were given the audio tour earphones and entered the cell house.
The audio that you listened to guided you around telling you who stayed in that cell, what you did for lunch, etc. it was quite interesting. Once thing I do not agree with though is the mythology, some my even say admiration people have for the prisoners who escaped from the island or people like Robert Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz). At the end of the day these people were nasty pieces of work, some of them even cold blooded murderers who deserved to be locked up in such a desolate place. I was glad to see a memorial in one cell for a guard who had been killed there when he foiled an escape attempt.
After touring the cell block the audio part of the tour came to an end so we were free to explore where we wished. We went out to the yard and it was so windy there it almost blew you off your feet.
We then walked around a bit more visiting the gardens, museum, morgue, pretty much everywhere we were able to go until we had nowhere else. So we walked back down to the docks waited for a while and then boarded the ferry back to Fisherman’s Wharf.
After spending a few minutes back at the hotel we decided to go for a walk to Chinatown which was not too far away. We saw loads of oriental shops and restaurants there (what else would you expect). We then walked back over to Fisherman’s Wharf where we stupidly had a meal at Johnny Rockets, not only was the food very over priced it tasted bloody awful and the service was dreadful.
We bought some last minute souvenirs and gifts and went back to our hotel to pack for our trip home tomorrow.
