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    If there's one thing that could be bad for the reputation of San Francisco, it's the weather. When it's hot in august in California, that doesn't mean at all it's warm in San Francisco. Even in summer a thick fog can appear from the ocean and block the sun away. But San Francisco is the city where I noticed the least what weather it was. I mean, I saw the fog, but it seemed like the city is build that way to make you forget about the weather, especially when you're walking on Market Street.
    The cable cars are THE stereotypic thing of San Francisco. These trams are pulled up the hills by a big steel cable that runs under the ground. Whenever the driver wants to stop, he pulls his clip up so he isn't connected to the rolling cable anymore. When he wants to get pulled up, he just lets the clip down and the tram gets pulled forward. The first cable car drove on the streets in in 1873, and at the beginning of this century about 800 miles of rails were being used. Now there's only 11 miles of rails. On the trams you can find nowadays a lot of tourists, but also a lot of the inhabitants that live along those streets use the cable car.
    People who have never been to California often speak of Los Angeles and San Francisco as if it was the same. However, no 2 other cities differ that much geographically, culturally and politicallly as LA and San Francisco.

There are different ways to visit San Francisco.
    The best way to get an impression of it, is by following the 49-mile drive. You can buy a detailed map of this touristical route everywhere in San Francisco. The drive is also indicated by blue-white signs with '49-mile drive' on it, but (again out of own experience) it can be very dificult to find these signs in heavy traffic, and sometimes the signs are not very well placed. So a map is definitely necessary. When you follow this drive you'll pass along the major sights of this city like Chinatown, the Golden Gate Bridge, Twin Peaks (from where you get a 360° view of San Francisco) and the Oakland Bay Bridge.
    It would be a shame to only visit San Francisco by car. You should at least walk in the eastern part of Market Street and it's highly recommended to walk along the following sights. It'll take about 2 hours, but at least you'll see the most interesting places of San Francisco.

        * Crocker Galleria: This mall with a dome made out of glass is created as a copy of the Galleria in Milan.

        * Transamerica Pyramid: The highest building of the town. At the 27th floor there's a platform to look out over the 
                                                city, but recently acces has been denied to that floor. Instead you can stay at the ground
                                                floor and move with arrows the 4 cameras that are placed on that 27th floor. It's nice, but
                                                it's not the same, and if you want to make pictures, you'll have to take pictures of a
                                                screen. It'd be better if that 27th floor became back accesible for tourists.

        * stairs on Filbert Street: Go up the stairs 'till you reach the top of Telegraph Hill. On that hill you've got a
                                                beautiful view over the city. If you want a better view, just go up into th Coit Tower.

        * Coit Tower: In this tower you can see wall paintigs of the 1930s. From the top of the tower you've got a
                              magnificent view over the city and the bay.

        * Chinatown: Stockton Street is the real Chinatown. Here you can find a lot of chinese shops, groceries and
                              shopping Chinese. Grant Avenue is the Chinatown for the tourists with gift shops, jewellers and
                               restaurants.

Although I've tried, the beauty of San Francisco cannot be described that easily. You just have to be there before you can fully understand it...
 
 
 
 

Suggestions or comments are always welcome at  vannoppen@pandora.be
 

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