Sunday, August 27, 2006

We biked the bridge!

Today we dusted off our biking skills, strapped on our helmets and biked the 1mile across the Golden Gate Bridge.

The day started with breakfast down in the hotel restaurant. We noticed there was a gift card in our room for the restaurant, so we decided to try it out. Turned out it was pre-loaded with $25 of credit. Thanks so much Wes, the manager here! Breakfast was on him. Feeling very stuffed we boarded a trolley down to Fisherman’s Warf to hire our bikes from blazing saddles bike rentals. It’s about $40 per person to hire the bikes, insurance and ferry tickets back to San Francisco.

The bike route took us along downtown San Francisco through mid-morning traffic, then out via the Golden Gate Park up towards to the Bridge. The views back to the city where breathtaking as we approached the Bridge. I must admit, I was a little frightened crossing it – Vinnie was fine. There where crisis emergency phones located every 100metres for those thinking of jumping off. Frightening!

Once across, it was downhill all the way to the town of Sausalito, where we stopped for burgers and chips! The weather was the total opposite to that of the city. For once we where baking in sunshine. Looking back towards the city, you could clearly see the veil of fog swallowing the high rises. We took the Ferry back to the city and refreshed in the hotel.

That evening we walked through Chinatown, which at 10pm on Sunday was practically a ghost town. Turning into North Beach, aka little Italy, we found a lively Italian restaurant where we stuffed ourselves on pesto-chicken and drank very strong Mojitos! We finished the evening with a pint in O Reilly’s Irish bar, taking the trolly back home.