Since I woke up pretty early this morning, I decided to go to the Japanese tea garden in Golden Gate Park. When I left the hostel, the sky was still clear. Unfortunately, it started to rain when I arrived at the Golden Gate Park. As I arrived at the tea garden by 10 AM, the admission was free. The garden was nice but rather small and I was glad that I didn't have to pay the 8 USD for the visit, since it just wouldn't have been worth the money.
I took the next bus east and got off in Downtown San Francisco, where I took a historic street car after checking out the location of a hostel. There were some flyers about the street car museum and since there was a stop right next the museum, I got off the street car to check it out. The admission here was free as well. The museum was tiny and there wasn't too much to see. Still, it was an interesting 10 minute stop. I took the next street car north to Pier 39.
As the sea lion museum was closed the last time I was at the Pier, I paid it a short visit now. I was surprised to find out that sea lions and seals have some kind of fur instead of a slick skin. What is more, I found out that the seals that I saw on my first day in San Francisco were actually sea lions.
By now, it was raining heavily and I hurried to get back to the hostel. The rain had stopped when I arrived there. I still decided to take a break and eat a lentil soup and a salad at the hostel.
I took the next bus east and got off in Downtown San Francisco, where I took a historic street car after checking out the location of a hostel. There were some flyers about the street car museum and since there was a stop right next the museum, I got off the street car to check it out. The admission here was free as well. The museum was tiny and there wasn't too much to see. Still, it was an interesting 10 minute stop. I took the next street car north to Pier 39.
As the sea lion museum was closed the last time I was at the Pier, I paid it a short visit now. I was surprised to find out that sea lions and seals have some kind of fur instead of a slick skin. What is more, I found out that the seals that I saw on my first day in San Francisco were actually sea lions.
By now, it was raining heavily and I hurried to get back to the hostel. The rain had stopped when I arrived there. I still decided to take a break and eat a lentil soup and a salad at the hostel.
I had already booked a tour to Alcatraz for this evening weeks ago. Because of the weather forecast, I had been a bit worried about going tonight, but the date couldn't be changed anymore. However, I got really lucky and the weather was just perfect.
Nowadays the island is a national park and serves as breeding ground for many birds.
The Alcatraz tour was pretty interesting, we were told many interesting stories:
The Alcatraz tour was pretty interesting, we were told many interesting stories:
Alcatraz started as a military base and became a small prison for deserters soon after that. It only became a state prison much later in 1934 and stayed that way till 1963. There has been a total of 14 attempted escapes. The 14th escape succeeded, although the prisoner ended up escaping into a military base. The 13th escape is the most famous one and still an unsolved case. No one knows if the three prisoners survived the swim to the shore.
The tour ended with a demonstration of the prison cell doors.
The tour ended with a demonstration of the prison cell doors.
No comments:
Post a Comment