Day 3 – Farmers Market and the Golden Gate Bridge

We had intended to head off early for the Farmers Market but our hosts were very chatty so we ended up talking to them for much longer than intended.  We got shown this piece of satire about this guy Bundy which was on Comedy Central and was seriously funny.  You didn’t even have to know the circumstances.  I will find the link and post it when I am on-line again

The market with the Bay bridge in the background

It was very cool when we went out to catch our bus to the Market.  The public transport system in the city is very good.  On our route there were trolley buses (and to think that Wellington is planning to get rid of them when they can use our plentiful power which does not come from fossil fuel plants) which  went by all the routes.  Using the bus costs $2 a trip and we bought ourselves a Clipper Card which is a stored value card where you can use it to tag on.  Not only that cost of a trip lasts for about an hour and a half.  Brilliant.  Not only that on the routes we were on people were using the system.  Compared to New Zealand the cost obviously encourages people to use he system. 

The Market was great lots of very nice found grown or made by local farmers.  The only thing I did not see were eggs.  It was all seasonal food so cherries were just arriving as were some stonefruit.  Definitely much earlier than our fruit reflecting the warmer climate although given that the sun was out but the temperature was not much above 14 degrees you had to wonder where it was warmer.  We got some very nice dried fruit, tasted lots of things including some interesting cheese (the Americans can actually make cheese that is not a funny colour!).  There were lots of strawberries and we got some organic ones that actually tasted the best I have tasted in a long time. 

Artwork, the bridge and Bev

We then walked along the Embarcardo to the Fishermans Wharf area where we found a place to hire bikes so that we could bike across the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was the one place where the service was not great but the bikes were good with the right number of gears and seemed to have been maintained.  It is eight years since I was in San Francisco and around this area and it seemed to have  changed a lot.  The one thing I noticed was that cycling had taken off.  There were bikes everywhere.  It could have been because it was the weekend but  given the number of hire bikes I suspect not. 

Ready to bike across the bridge

The route to the Bridge has changed a bit and it is easier in parts due to being paved.  There are a couple climbs that really tested my fitness and willpower but I was able to do them without dismounting.  Bev just zoomed up them!

The ride to the bridge was into a strong headwind so it was hard work but very satisfying after getting to the top and other younger people were pushing their bikes. 
The wind on the bridge was very strong.  One side of the bridge is for cyclists and the other side for pedestrians.  The biking side had a huge number of bikes.  There were the people like ourselves who were recreational then there were those who were clearly very fit with bikes that were sleek top line bikes and who were coming at us with speed.  In fact I think they should have had a bike speed limit.  Despite that there were no

On the bridge

collisions and people were well behaved. After the bridge we went into Sausalito where the intention was to take the ferry back to the City.  This meant riding on the road with cars.  However, car drivers, unlike in New Zealand, seemed to be very mindful of cyclists and we felt quite safe. 

We did not get to Sausalito to get our ferry of choice so had to take a later one.  We wandered around a pretty little town, a bit like Queenstown but it seemed to be on a slightly smaller scale.  We were going to have a coffee but decided to take our bikes to be closer to the ferry.  We were very pleased to do so as they had started loading us on about half an hour before we were due to leave.  The line snaked for hundred or so metres.  They had begun loading the cyclists prior to our arrival so that by the time we got on board it already had a large number of bikes on board.  Like on a car ferry we were called prior to docking at the wharf.  Since we had loaded our bikes there were what seemed like hundreds more and it needed the people who got there last to take there bikes off first.  What seemed like chaos at first turned out to be remarkably orderly. I wished I had got a photo of it all.

Sausalito

We had been disembarked at the Ferry Building so we rode back to where we hired the bikes and then found a bus to return us to our accommodation. 

We recovered for an hour before going out to a restaurant called Bistro Aix which was nearby.  It too was humming and we had a half hour wait.  So we went next door to a wine bar where we tried a French Chablis and a local Chardonnay.  In terms of taste Bev and I both preferred the Chablis. 
Our meal was lovely, not great but well cooked and not too large.  I had a steak  with frites and salad.  The steak was cooked to perfection but while Bev’s pork chop was nice she enjoyed her risotto more.  We had local cabernet and a syrah to accompany the meal.  They were both nice but thought both had a slightly almond or medicinal taste to them.  I wondered whether it was the area in which the grapes were grown. 

As were flying out early the next morning we tried to go to bed early but ended up talking with our hosts for a bit longer before packing.  It was a very full and interesting day and I was both ready to sleep and also still somewhat stimulated by what we had done.