3 more freezing days in New York

Our days have been much the same ...... wake up, chat to some other awake adults, chat to Lach while he cooks breakfast, chat to assorted of the 5 kids, get ready to go out ( which takes ages and ages to find hats , gloves,  extra layers etc despite leaving everything at front door) , go to where ever we have decided to go, battle crowds, take kids to park to,run around and warm up, while we feeze watching them, eat, visit somewhere else, come back  and repeat maybe.  Bath and get kids to bed and ignore them as they chatter and play together in bed.

Yesterday it was a little warmer, -6 maximum, and it snowed, much to the delight of all the kids, so there were a few more stops in parks to throw snowballs.

It is lovely to see Wendy's 4 sharing in looking after their younger cousin.

More New York

On Monday we did go on the Staten Island ferry,  past Lady Liberty, got off the ferry and immediately queued up again to return to Manhatten and a small Italian restaurant for dinner.

Tuesday we packed up our stuff, went to a late breakfast, then wandered past lots of the Christmas windows that some of the big stores organise every year. Some very clever. We found the fancy apartment and were very pleased to be warm again. Wendy and Lach retrieved our luggage and organised take away Thai,  then Carol and Katie arrived. Apparently  Katie had only slept for 5 of the almost 36 hours they took to get here. She was delighted to have her 4 cousins to look after her, but after a while they were less impressed when she would not go to sleep. Carol was exhausted when they arrived, but she was still smiling. Wendy was delighted, if not completely surprised.

This morning  Wendy , Lach and Carol went for a run in Central Park, then we went to an off- Broadway performance of The Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe. Katie had never been to a live performance before and it was fun to listen to Lainie trying to explain to her what was going to happen.  After lunch at some American burger place that Lach knew of, we wandered down Broadway with all the other tourists trying not to loose each other,  through Times Square and to Bryant Park, then back to the very welcome warm apartment. It got to a high of -4 today, but sometimes when you rounded a corner the bitter wind hit you . Katie did a great job of walking for ages, always with a cousin on either side of her.

2 Daughters and 5 granddaughters 

New York at Christmas.

Firstly, I have not been slack , just aware that my priorities are spending time with my grand children rather than remembering what I have done.

On Saturday I moved to the cheap hotel in Chinatown wendy had booked for us for 3 nights then pottered around. Wendy and Co turned up mid afternoon after driving from Killing ton in Vermont.  We went to a nearby Chinese restaurant  at 5. 30, only just got in and the kids fair hair was definitely not the norm. LateR Wendy, Lach and I went to a performance of Handels Messiah at Carnegie Hall.  It was absolutely wonderful.

Yesterday we walked to a cafe in Little Italy for a very late  breakfast.  Ground zero and the surrounding memorials was next on the agenda. Then wendy and her family had to finish their Christmas shopping.  Century 21 is a huge store with lots and lots  of racks closely packed with clothes, lots of people and lots of noise. Not my thing so I rapidly pealed off and found the cafe which turned out to be some comfyish chairs and vending machines. Very few other people. Later we went to Washington  Square park to sing some carols  then we found a Turkish place for dinner.

This morning, Christmas morning, we went to breakfast at a nice hotel that Wendy had booked then to a Christmas Service at Trinity church. Very old, huge, very full ie standing room only,  ( we got there early enough to get a seat) ,  wonderful choir,  soprano soaring above everyone, interesting slight differences in liturgy. When we left we had to walk through the area where they serve lunch to whoever wants it every day of the year.

I think next we are going on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, but I have yet to be told the details by our tour director, Wendy. I am enjoying doing what I am told.

Train to New York

A long boring day, but quite relaxing.

Despite being told that the old people would be boarded first onto the Amtrak train from Montreal we were not.  However I still managed to get a window seat. However the view was of white snow, greyish trees, white ice nd more white snow. Several pops of colour stood out. I knew we were going round the edge of some lakes, so I knew to look out for it, but if I had not known, I would have missed the lake. It was odd suddenly to see appearing out of the gloom a whole lot of largish boats on their cradles. Bigger than anything that sails on Lake BG.  So that would have given me a clue we were near a lake. We got on the train at 10 am,  it left promptly at 10.20, we stopped at the US border while customs people interogated everyone, some more so than others and we got off the train at 9.2pm.

I booked a hotel right near Penn Station . It is a new Holiday Inn. A tiny room, but quite adequate. It has a king size in width bed with only about 50 cm of space around it. But it is short. Lying on my back my heels hang over the bottom edge. A most odd feeling. Just as well I am not over 6 foot.

Museum of Fine Arts, chapel Notre-Dame de Bonsecours and assorted

Apparently 3/4 of the world's maple syrup comes from Quebec.

Montreal is the second largest French speaking city in the world. When I read this I wondered about Marseille.   According to one website Montreal has 1.75 million in 2016.  One website said Marseille would have 1.5 mill in 2017 and one said 1.1 in 2015.  Both websites said Marseille was growing very quickly.

Quebec didnot have , e.g. 60, 62 A, 62 B, 64 street numbers in a street but 60, 62,
62 1//2, 64. I would rather live in 62 1/2 than 62B

Today I went to the Museum des Beaux Arts.  The gallery is spread over 4 buildings . I looked at the modern art, skipped most of the older European stuff, could not make sense of the Contemporary stuff, enjoyed the early settler stuff. Lots of the paintings of Europeans and natives were vaguely similar to paintings of the early days of Australia except  most had reference in some way to the Catholic church.  I quite liked the work of Marc-Aurele Fortin, a Canadian. They didnot have much Inuit art. Apparently there is another gallery that specialises  it.

Along the street from where I am staying is a small chapel, the oldest stone church in Montreal. It has become known as a church for sailors and there a re quite a few models of boats hanging from the ceiling.  In 2003 there was a special ceremony to marK  the 350th anniversary of the lady who started the chapel. The Port of Montreal gave the church a model of a container ship to mark the occasion.

There are many things I would like to have seen but my priority today is to catch up on little things and rest a bit. It would not be sensible to arrive in NY tired. I know from the 10 days I spent with Wendy and Co in July that the kids go full speed all day, some of the night and then the next day and the day after etc etc

When I arrived there was snow everywhere. It snowed on the first  day but then stopped and got cold.  Today many of the footpaths were covered in treacherous icy patches. Quite difficult in places. Quite tiring, I have to concentrate.

Basilique, rehearsal and Leonard Cohen

Today was a good day. I found a nice place where I got a similar breakfast - eggs, potatoes , ham and fruit- to what I got in Qebec. Then I went to the Basilica Notre Dame .  This was designed by an American Protestant and built in the mid 1800s. The outside is quite plain -good stonemasons in  N Americz in those days were rare, but the inside is , according to 1 guide book, " a magnificently ornate tribute to the importance of woodworking and decoration in the Quebec is tradition".  Over the years I have not been impressed by very ornate European churches , especially Rococco ( I think), but this was quite different. Lots of carved painted wood. Around the walls were lovely fairly plain carved statues of different people.  The architect who designed the church converted to Catholicism just before he died so that he could be buried in the vault.

I went from there to the Museum of Contemporary Art. A large part of their exhibition space was occupied by stuff about Leonard Cohen, who died just over a year ago. Very interesting. The other stuff I saw was a bit obscure.

I went from there to Museum of Fine Arts but only got as far as the bistro. I  changed my plan for the day and after some  nice soup I decided to go to a different area that my book said was called the Latin Quarter and was quite bohemian. I did find some quite nice coffee, but not much else in this weather, though today at a high of  -1 was quite mild after Quebec.

Next stop was the Basilica again. There is apparently a concert every year at Christmas with quite well known performers and it is tonight. I overheard someone this morning saying that there was a rehearsal this afternoon. So I sat for about N hour listening to some music I didnot know and some I did and thoroughly enjoyed myself.   About 25 mainly string musicians, 2 soloists, and a large choir. All for no cost. I had decided that I didnot mind paying the $6 entry fee again but the lady at the counter recognised me when I was half way through my " I was here this morning" French sentence .

 I have just had a nice dinner which would have been improved if I could have seen a bit more clearly what I was eating.  I had a glass of a different Canadian red but forgot my pen so didnot write it down and have forgotten the details. I had an interesting conversation with a couple from Masachusetts at an adjacent table.

An easy day

I woke up feeling like i wanted to do very little today so I did. I trudged through more snow to the nearest metro station,  bought a 3 day pass, caught the subway, very efficient and easy to follow, to the main railway station. I have a reservation for the train to NY on Friday but no reserved seat. Not possible. Bit antiquated. I wanted to find out how long before the train  boarded did I have to be there to ensure I got a window seat Also what I could take to eat  ie what do the US customs people object to. There were about 30 people lined up half an hour before it boarded.  Nearby was an area for old people and families. I stood for a minute thinking would i say i was an old person with a dodgy knee. A lady came up and asked if she could help. I explained what I was doing. She said , without looking at my ticket, just my tired haggard face, your are a senior , you can wait here. We board you first. I do in fact have a senior ticket because I am over 65. Good.

Next I went to an area a bit north of the main centre where there was a knitting shop. I must have left my crochet hook in San Fransisco and want another one. The area is known for its outdoor coffee shops, though not in this weather. I did find a crepe place that made buckwheat pancakes, so I had one.

Then a supermarket that took ages. It was not in a neat rectangle. Curved aisles here and there. I did find the bacon, not because I wanted to but any. Avid readers may remember that I was not complementary of the bacon rashers served by a particular hotel chain that Wendy and Co organised for most of the week I was with them in june. They were all exactly the same length and width and seemed to have the fat and lean part evenly distributed. The bacon I got in SF and in Quebec was the same. So today I found that all the bacon sold in a large IGA was exactly the same. They do not have rashers like we know them, with a round bit of meat at one end tailing off .

I stopped on the way back to my apartment for a coffee and I splurged on a maple syrup and pecan brownie. I saved  half for tomorrow. I decided it was my duty as as tourist to sample something with maple syrup in it.

For most of the afternoon i have done little other than crochet some flowers for a new project, try to work out ice hockey rules , read anD watch an extremely inane game show

Arrived in Montreal

I caught a very comfortable Canadian train to Montreal today. The trip was white, white snow everywhere, white ice over the rivers, and white everywhere else.  The sameness was sort of relaxing.

I  caught a taxi to the apartment even though I had spent ages working out what subway to take or which road to walk along.  At 4.30 pm it was almost dark, it had been snowing for ages and presumably the footpaths were as treacherous as those in Qebec. I decided I would practise at being a sensible person and save my energy.

The apartment is nice, spacious and well located in the old part if Montreal, now a bit trendy and a bit touristy, but I will know more tomorrow.  I had a nice dinner of fish and a glass of brouilly.

Wandering the streets of Quebec city

Background : before I go away I try and read something about the places I go to or a book set in the places I am going to. This time I have found and have been reading a series of books set in Canada and based around Montreal where the lead character, a detective, lives.  One of the series was set mostly in quebec city where he was visiting a friend who lives down the road from where I am staying and eats in 2 different places, both off the beaten tourist trail.  Today I wandered down the part of the street and the houses all fit the description. The 2 cafes both exist and are as described.

Highlights from today: I mastered walking down hill. I mastered the toe tap - bang toe of boot hard into the rise of the step when entering a building to shake as much snow off as possible. I visited a lovely shop selling woolen products made from sheep in the Charlevoix  area 100km north of quebec city. I enjoyed a salad in a place where there were only locals or maybe regular visitors, going on how everyone seemed to be known to the proprietor. I had some delicious onion soup in another simple place where they were mostly locals. I enjoyed a glass of cab/merlot in a pleasant bar with a view over the St Lawrence River in the fanciest hotel in town. It was from a vineyard in Okanagan , south British Columbia. The wine lady reckoned this particular vineyard's white was better.  I looked at the temperature when I left for the bar at 4.50 and it was -16,  but feels like with the wind chill factor considered -23.  I told her I would have red!   Places in Canada do not seem to be heated as much inside as the US. Several people today, as yesterday,  have addressed me in French, understood my halting French reply, realised I spoke English and  then asked, in English,  if I would prefer them to talk in English or French. I always reply 'French slowly  please because I am trying to learn' in French, which they do. How kind and thoughtful is that.

View across lower old Quebec City from upper old quebec city to St Lawrence River

 On way to  Chateau Frontenac

Transport and Quebec City

Friday was a long day of travel.  Walk to local train station, train to airport, plane to Montreal,  wait around, plane to Quebec City, taxi to hotel. The taxi driver and I communicated quite well, until the end of the ride.  Arabic was his first language and English, Italian and French equal second. I tried to use French but quickly realised he could equally understand the Italian that often came out of my mouth if my brain could not find the French quickly enough, so just carried on regardless.  We arrived at about 9pm in this little square,  lightly snowing, all the buildings lit up and sparkly, big drifts of snow everywhere, happy people walking around.  I said it was like being in a fairytale. He didnot know the English word and I didnot know the French or Italian.

This morning breakfast in the hotel was a huge ham and cheese omelette,  a large amount of lightly fried potato and some cut -up fruit, all on the 1 large plate.

It was  -15 degrees when I set off at 9.30. It got up to the maximum for thE day -10 at 2pm. Mostly bright blue skies.  I wandered around, looking at the view over the partially frozen St Lawrence River, the Basilica,  the English church , windows of shops for most of the day.  I walked  to the railway station and returned a different way and decided that on Monday I would chose a different method when I go to Montreal. I am fairly sure my boots are as good as most people's and better than some but I have not got the technique of walking down hills in the slippery thick slush that covers the footpaths mastered. Several times I have almost fallen. I have seen quite a few other people slip and slide down the hills.  So dragging a suitcase would be silly.

Apart from my eyes which run in the cold, mostly I am fine in the conditions, as long as I donot take a photo or look at a map!.   I cannot take a photo on my phone with my gloves on. I will try with my camera shortly.   If I stop to look at my map, my glasses fog up.  This evening I went to a supermarket about a km away and did not try very hard coming home and followed my nose, which didnot work particularly well and my route home was longer. Maybe because my nose as well as my eyes run in the cold,  it didnot lead me very well.

San Fransisco extras.

On every bus I have been in,  I have one of very few non Hispanic,  Black or Asians.

People often say Happy Holidays in situations we would say Happy Christmas

I have been very pleasantly suprised by the lack of tacky blow-up Santas.  Just about all shops have lots of decorations, but quite tasteful.  Mainly sparkly trees and green garlands. Very few flashing lights.

Golden Gate bridge:  The most difficult bit was the foundations of the south tower, 345m offshore. The foundations go 30m down into the earth below the water. The main cables are 1m thick

A lot of people wander the streets in christmassy clothing , more than in Canberra.

I pass regularly a man begging on the pavement. I have no idea what he is saying,  but I cannot not smile because it sounds to me like "small change for a Ferrari".

THursley. Lots of steps and lots of walking.

As well as old  cable cars , SF has some old historic trolley buses.  The Coit Tower is on top of Telegraph Hill, one of SF's hills. It was built in 1933. This morning I combined the 2.  I walked down to the nearest trolley bus stop , waited about 20 minutes, got the trolley bus to near the Filbert stairs, one of the ways of climbing the hill. The 449 steps go up the side of the hill, weaving through the houses in little lanes. I was a bit puffed, paid my $5 to go up in the lift to the look out and discovered I have another 36 steps. The 360 degree view was worth it.

I came down an easier way, walked through North Beach, another interesting part of SF to the City Lights Bookstore, the first paperback bookstore in the US. Over the years it has gained a reputation for supporting all sorts of  wild, often subversive at the time but worthy causes.

More walking to the Jackson Square historic area, which was not very impressive. A block of reddy brown brick 2 or 3 storey  buildings,  warehouse like, that survived the catastrophic  fire in 1906. They look the same as buildings all through the Rocks ( although maybe those are sandstone, I cannot remember but the same style) and along the river in Teneriffe and Newstead,  Brisbane.

Then a walk back to my hotel. Too much walking. Tomorrow I will be sitting at airports and in planes all day.

Spanish mission

Yesterday I visited a small old church commonly called Mission Dolores. It was one of about 18 missions built all over California in the late 1700's early1800's with the aim of converting the local Indian people to Christianity.  However within 50 years all of the local Indians had died about 5000, mainly from disease.  To quote one book I read " their entire universe, from their daily life to their spiritual beliefs, was erased. As psychotic a transformation as Pol,Pot's regime."  What does  that say about our history.

Anyway, the small mission church , built in 1791 , is still standing. It is considered the oldest building in SF.  A Basilica was built next door in the early 1900's. It was pleasant enough,  but I looked everywhere for some thing to acknowledge the Indians and could not find anything. Next I went into the small museum. There were clerical clothes , odds and ends the priests used, tools the Indians used, but no mention of them dying out, except for a book on display entitled " A .Time of little Choice, The disintegration of tribal culture in the SF bay area 1769 to 1810"  So into the cemetery I continued to search. I found 2 graves which looked like their wooden headstones had just been redone and a little statue of an Indian lady on a plinth with the inscription "Prayerful memory of our faithful Indians" . Lots and lots of other graves.

I walked off and found some lunch -another nice salad but with too many green leaves, not the first time . I talked to a local at the bar about the Mission museum. He said everyone knows the history of the area, how the Indians got wiped out, so why do they need reminding?  I said, what about visitors? He shrugged. I said goodbye and went to catch another 2 buses nd walked to the Haas- Lilienthal House, a Victoria House in the Queen Anne style built in 1886. I found it interesting.

Then home, then out for dinner.

Murals 

Murals, Spanish mission, Queen Anne house part 1

One of the things San Fransisco is noted for are the murals painted on walls and buildings in lots of areas, but mainly in an area called Mission where there has always been a high concentration of Hispanic people .   It took me a walk and 2 buses and a walk to get there which, although took about an hour,  was quite interesting. I was underwhelmed though by having to wait 20 minutes for the 2nd bus in a less than salubrious neighbourhood.  There is a particular street that has a lot of murals, many with a great deal of detail of, Eg people that was lost on me.  Mostly protesting against injustices to minority groups. See photo below.


Next stop was a wool shop, a bus and walk away, though the walk was broken by a stop for delicious freshly squeezed veggie juice. I thought  I was being very good when remembering to ask for the bathroom rather than loo or whatever else we ausiess say. I was gently corrected when the lady said ' the restroom is over there' , with the emphasis on rest. How ridiculous. I no more intended on resting than having a bath. Any way, the wool shop was amazing.  Bigger than any wool shop I have seen in my life. There was a huge range of yarns, a huge range of books, a huge range of bits and bobs.  There were 3 people serving customers and another lady who seemed to be the boss. I bought a ball of wool for the project I have bought with me. If it had been my last stop before returning to tiny Cbr, I would have bought some books at least.

Next stop was Mission Dolores.
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I left this account and went to dinner at 5.45. I had intended on just getting a quick ish  meal. However I have just returned and it is 8.30. I got talked into a glass of wine  -because it was before 6pm he said it would cost me $7 instead of $12- and a dish of cioppino, a sort of fish stew which had heaps of all sorts of delicious seafood, but took ages to eat, the crab bits were huge, very messy. I also spent longer than I intended because I got talking to 2 local guys sitting at the bar near me. One of the interesting things I learnt from the bar man is that right across all of the hospitality trade in SF numbers of tourists are about 50% of normal for this time of year. He said Europeans are not coming because they are afraid of what might happen with Mr Trump at the helm.  Now I want to play with my new wool and will write part 2 tomorrow.

SF Museum of Modern Art

On my way to the SF MOMA I went to look at the outside of the Contemporary Jewish Museum.  It was designed by Daniel Libeskind, one of the group who designed the One World Trade Centre and built in 1994. It is a bit odd. A rectangular reddish brown building that used to be a power station with a shiny black cube on 1 corner next to it. It is right up close to other buildings, 1 a church, and it is impossible to get a good photo of it - well, impossible for me.  Nearby is the new  Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts in a new park, about the size of a whole block, with garden beds, lawn and seating.  There is a memorial to Martin Luther King which was quite moving. You could walk behind a large, long waterfall and there were excerpts from his speeches on the wall.

The SF MOMA,  another new building was built in 1994. There were 6 floors of exhibits. I sat looking at a Rothlo for a while. The colours seem to get more intense the longer you look, or is it a mind trick.  There were lots of groups of children with their teacher scattered around the gallery. There was a painting by Edward Hopper of a single woman in the corner of a theatre. I listened for a while while the teacher asked what his 12 15 or 16yr old boys thought she was thinking about. Several thought she must  be lonely. To me she looked like many of his single women, alone but quite self- contained and not lonely.

When I was in Washington I saw an exhibition in the Guggenheim gallery of John
Chamberlain's 20 or so old cars that he painted bright colours and then squashed . I could not see the,point. Today I saw a washing machine that he had squashed. The label associated with this work says " metal from an old washing machine was thoughtfully crushed and fitted together to create this torquing form. Hmm. 'thouhtfully'?

There were some lovely sculptures by Alexander Calder that made me smile.  Then I enjoyed a proper cup of coffee before walking a bit to the start of another cable car line. I rode  to the end, then started to walk back but stopped in an Italian restaurant for a salad and some gf pasta. Delicious.

I went to look at Grace  Cathedral, the main church of the Episcopal Diocese of California , mainly because it has 2 labyrinths, one inside and one outside, both based on the labyrinth of Chartres cathedral. When I was in sydney , I walked around the newish labyrinth in centenial park which is similarly based on the Chartres one.  Today, I could not see the inside one because of the yearly performance of the Messiah that is performed in this cathedral and the one outside was disappointing to me because it was hemmed in by a stone wall , a building and was overlooked by several buildings.  So I was a bit grumpy when I went to look at other things inside.  There is peaceful,  modern AIDS memorial interfaith chapel.

That was it for the day.  The temperature had dropped and I was not aware at the time,  but it was also at 3.30 getting a bit dark because my photos that I
took on the way home are a bit dark.

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge and other firsts

This morning,  breakfast in the hotel was a delicious omelette.  A good start. Then I went to a nearby Walgreen - seems to be the supermarket of choice around here - to but some almonds. The price was 7.00 or 4.00 if you had a loyalty card.  The checkout lady seemed surprised that I didnot have one. She asked was I a visitor and I said yes, so she gave me the cheaper price. Did I look like I needed financial help? I am sure she was just being friendly.

My rough plan was to get public transport to the southern end  of the GG bridge, walk over it ( about 4 km including the approaches) and on to Sausilito (about 3 km to the edge of the town and another km to the ferry wharf)  and then catch a ferry back to SF.  However I had not planned what  mode of transport or anything , just had a rough idea of which direction. I had looked up the ferry times and seen they ran about every 60 to 90 mins  and thought that will be ok.  For me, very unprepared.

 There is a cable car stop about 10 m away from the hotel front door. Soon a full ish one came up the hill going in the right direction for me.  There's room for 1 more, the brake man called out to me, so I squashed onto the running board and held on and kept my elbows in because there is little room sometimes between the people standing on the outside and adjacent cars.  Normally if I go somewhere I like to take photos and watch a map as we go - my way of remembering where I have been and what I have taken a photo of. Neither possible this morning so I just enjoyed myself and the wind in my hair. Over a fairly short distance we went up quite a few hills and down the other side. It is really obvious -smaller houses at the bottom of the hills and larger houses at the tops.

At the end of the line I walked a few m to a nearby biggish road that had busses running down it. I asked the first one that came along was he going where I wanted to go.  He told me no and told me what number bus and where along the street to catch it. Normally I would be embarrassed to do this because I know that I can look up timetables myself, For some reason today I didnot care. Must be something in the air, or part of the 50th celebration of 1967, the start of the hippy era.

So, I walked over the bridge. 6 lanes of traffic made it a bit noisy. About 6 groups of about 20 cyclists went past. There were not many walkers. At one point crossing the bridge I wondered about what particular mathematical function created the curve of the supporting cables.  Luckily I am not (anymore!)  my mother , dismissed the thought and the need to find out, and went back to enjoying the wind in my hair.

When I got to the end of the bridge and started following the signs to Sausilito I could have been in bush anywhere miles away from civilisation.  I didnot see anyone else on the path. I followed the path through a military base, through a magnificent stand of what looked to me like Syney Red Gums, through more bush to Sausilito.  Walking through the town I thought a cup of calm chowder would be nice for lunch.  I chose a place at random , went in , was shown to a nice table on their deck overlooking the water to S F.  It was a lovely fine sunny clear, no fog, day.   A waiter who was good at up selling convinced me to have a bowl of soup and a glass of Gruner Veltliner, which I didnot know. I needed very little persuading.   It took me a long time to savour every morsel of my delicious clam chowder. At some point, I remembered that I had bought myself a powerbank.  If I use my phone to take photos (lots today) and to navigate ( less than normal today) it almost runs out of charge before the end of the day.  I had remembered to leave it in my bag this morning but not, as I discovered at lunch, the connecting cable. In the past I would have been annoyed at myself. Today I just laughed.

The views of the GG bridge coming back on the ferry where made different by the sun near the bridge. It was 2pm, but the sun seemed lower than 2pm here and the brightness changed the colour. I have yet to sort my photos. I enjoyed watching the shapes and colours of SF as we approached it. The wind in my hair was good too.

The ferry stopped at Fisherman's Wharf - a tourist collection of shops and I have to admit that I looked up on my just-still-charged phone where to get which bus from.

I discovered this afternoon that over the road from my hotel the little cafe serves nice proper espresso coffee.

For dinner I went to a cafe and ordered a spinach salad which had lots of veggie stuff in it. The waiter asked if I wanted some chicken as well. More up selling,  but it was an excellent idea . He charged me an extra $2 for quite a large piece of grilled chicken.

A great day.

Another trip started well.

All yesterday's flights went well. Cbr to Syd then Syd to San Francisco.   I got asked 3 times about my reasons for visiting USA. Once at the gate to get onto the bus from the domestic to international airport, second time getting onto the plane and the 3rd time getting into the country. Each time I said vacation and was asked where, why,  etc and once who else was going to be at the 40th birthday etc etc. They usually gave up when i said i was looking for ward to seeing my grandchildren. I was tempted to say that my lovely Tahli the Terrific Tiger was too young to be a Terrorist but knew not to.

From San Fransisco airport I got almost straight onto a BART train ( Bay Area Rapid Transport)  a painless and cheap way of getting into the city. The stop nearest my hotel was next to the tourist bureau, which I discovered was only open on Sundays from March to October, despite what it's website said.  Never mind,  up the hill to my hotel. The first hill of many. Luckily my bag only weighed 12.8 kg. About 2 of that was christmas presents. I left my bag at the hotel, went for some lunch , then wandered a bit and ended up at Macy's where there was another tourist info.  They did not have a map to scale. I had to explain what I meant. Ah well. I often use my phone when I am walking around,  but I much prefer to have a paper map when I am planning my route.

Now to plan tomorrow.