San Francisco

Hello again. We are still on holiday, nearly two weeks in and feels like our annual fortnightly holiday should be drawing to a close...but mercifully, it ain't!




Arrived in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon after a 6 hour flight from Newark International. The first thing that hits you is the steep long streets - evidently built on hills. There are 43 hills in the city. We took a bus tour this morning which lasted 3 hours and the tour guide gave us information about the effect of the gold rush and all sorts of other facts relating to the emergence of San Francisco. Typically as that was before lunch, I have forgotten most of it by now. I do recall one detail though and that is that there are 5,000 homeless in this city - actually you can see them everywhere rummaging through the bins and begging. Some man with some political clout shut down two big mental hospitals in the early eighties (must have been a Republican!), and all the patients were thrown out into the street.It's a city of great wealth - very much in evidence so some stark contrasts.

Tonight we have tickets for Janis Joplin at a local theatre and tomorrow we are hiring bikes so that we can cycle across Golden Gate Bridge and then boast about it.

The weather is in the low 70's today, with quite a bit of sunshine and a bit breezy too. Apparently their autumn is now their summer - according to our guide. So far so good and no earthquakes and no one flying into buildings here and there are quite a few tall ones to have a go at!!!

Just blogging off now.

Leigh:

Time for tea now - hope Rita's not too disappointed to find that Janis won't be singing live tonight - it's just a play.