Day 9 San Francisco, Alcatraz

We had tickets booked for the 9am boat to Alcatraz so we were up early and breakfasted in the hotel. We walked down to Pier 33 and joined a massive queue of people who were also waiting for the first boat to Alcatraz. Lucky it’s not school holidays here so it’s apparently not busy! It was pretty cold on the boat and also foggy so although we could see Alcatraz we could barely make out the Golden Gate Bridge which isn’t too far away.

Alcatraz is a small island in the San Francisco Harbour which has at various times been used as a fort and a prison in the past. The tour was quite fascinating. We first had a talk from the ranger as it is now part of the SF National Park. Then we watched a short film about Alcatraz and then walked up to the prison block where we received headphones to listen to as we walked through the different sections. The cells are tiny with a bed, shelf and toilet, barely leaving room to stand. The showers are open and they only had two per week. There was a dining room and a prison library and the prisoners averaged reading about 100 books per year. There was 1 guard to every three prisoners. A lot of the guards had families who also lived on Alcatraz and the children caught a boat across to the mainland for school every day. The gardens were and still are very well kept.

We listened to a talk about a notorious escape attempt in 1962 where four prisoners chiselled out of their cells and made a raft out of raincoats. There is some dispute about whether they made it to the mainland or drowned in the attempt.

We left Alcatraz around midday and had some lunch and then went on the cable car. It was interesting but apparently not the best one to go on (there are two). Then we went on the hop on hop off bus to see sites around SF, the best being crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. We were sitting on top of the bus and it was absolutely freezing. It was also quite foggy so we didn’t get a great view but still fantastic.

Tonight we met John Pople for dinner at the Franciscan Crab Restaurant. It was lovely to catch up with John. He lives about 120km from where we are. Dinner was delicious- clam chowder, shrimp Alfredo and a huge chocolate sundae to share.

Tomorrow we are up early to head to Yosemite.Read more