If you're going to San Francisco be sure to take a camera everywhere

For the number of folk to whom I have waxed lyrical about our trip to San Francisco I have been pretty tardy about putting up this blog. Sorry. This has in part been due to the fact that we came back absolutely shattered and because we took that many pictures and had that much fun that it is difficult to know what to tell you about without potentially boring you rigid.
We resided at the Monarch Hotel, Geary St. It is a European style hotel which has recently been refurbished. P may not have booked it if he had seen the neighbourhood first, it was truly difficult resisting the adult entertainment centre opposite especially when it was just $7 an hour to watch the lap dancers from your own private room. Not to mention our other Mecca to adult pleasures.


I did consult some friends as to whether I should put this photo up and for those of you disapproving I obviously asked the ones with bad taste. Other than the area the hotel was clean but there was no coffee in the room and the breakfast is additional.
Close by there was an Edinburgh Castle pub but trust me, not even the lad from Fife Mr Hynd would venture in there, the password was a grunt, plus a flash of your scar and gold teeth.
SF is fresh, cool and still v hippy but with an intelligent speed so there is not a huge amount of jesting material, occasionally we found our own….
The second one I thought was a new branch of the Yorkshire Bank..



There are great views at every turn. Central SF from Russian Hill, view from the top of Coit Tower (Russian Hill) which was followed by another hair-raising ride down Telegraph Hill, Phil in Alamo Square with the Victorian painted ladies and SF city view in the background, Bay Bridge and Pier 29.







Here I got a sudden rush of work sickness so got a photograph which I may use as a screensaver to remind me of all my work colleagues. The publicity says that you are extremely noisy (understatement of the year) and smelly (possibly after conferences).

The highlights were…Cycling over Golden Gate Bridge to…..



Sausalito, which is Italian Alps in flavour

And Tiberon where Sharon Stone apparently has a property, the rest of the residents looked that old they would make great props at US Halloween party…It was like Toy Town or Camberwick Green…not a spot of muck on the Fire Engine or Patrol just shiny shiny bells and paintwork.

You then catch the ferry back having cycled lots of kilometres and the view of SF is spectacular.

We cycled the bridge twice, second time in an attempt to get to Muir Woods..We stopped two thirds of the way up the photo is halfway looking out over the valley (has to be said said in Welsh accent). We freewheeled all the way back down and I didn’t realize just how high we had climbed despite what my legs and lungs had been telling me for the previous hour. It was exhilarating especially as being barmy English we didn’t wear hats. By the way I cannot exthol enough the benefits of a wide, gel seat.

We did culture too, going to the DeYoung Museum of Art in Golden Gate which has a top floor 360 degree viewing lobby which is just spectacular. I also tried to get with the artistic flow.





Then we went sporty and played a round of pitch and putt. It had been 30 years since I had wielded a golf stick. Last time was Sewerby Park near Bridlington, with my dear old dad who managed to slice a ball into the flamingo compound of the children’s zoo. I also followed him in true style hitting a branch of a tree 8ft above the point I struck the ball. Raargh I was as awesome as Tiger Woods and as effective as “Frosties” Tony the Tiger…It was the only branch on that side of the tree….accuracy was all. The best bit was watching everybody duck as the ball went into free fall pin ball machine mode between club, branch, tree and floor. I must have hit the ball hard as even Phil ducked and he was 50 yards ahead on the other side of the freeway doing a David Bellamy impersonation.
And so to the Trolley buses, they are wonderful to ride and the trolley men are as sarky as any New York taxi driver.


The other great tourist attraction was Alcatraz.. I picked the evening tour on our last night so we would see it partly in daylight and then once inside dusk would be coming in. What a sense of hopelessness there must have been for many men.




And apart from our burgeoning property acquisition business,




I momentarily considered branching out into this profession, then remembered all the POOH
and was worried I might have to deal with owners who prefer their pedigree to go about in luxury only.

Laugh we nearly crashed our bikes …xx