Alcatraz

Joe had to leave a day before us, so Thibault and I had decided to do Alcatraz on our last day. We had booked a few weeks ahead as is recommended. It is a very popular trip. The walk down to the Pier also gave me the opportunity to take some photos of Coit Tower on a sunnier day than when we actually visited it.

 The boat cross was a nice trip in itself, also allowing photos back of the City.

Alcatraz island actually seems quite a benign spot as one approaches. One doesn't notice the currents which made it almost impossible to escape by swimming.

 Up at the top one gets a an audioguide for a "self-guided tour" This is actually brilliantly done, with voices from both prisoners and guards. So much better than almost any audio guide I have ever listened to.

What was conveyed was just how boring prison would be for these people. And this was about punishment, not reform.

Outside, the island is surprisingly beautiful with well-kept gardens (on a steep slope) and nesting birds, especially cormorants and egrets.

  

I think my best photo of the whole road trip

 Back on land we headed off for a late lunch at a nice Italian restaurant. Feeling a bit wistful at this stage as our holiday was just coming to an end.

We stopped in a the tram museum. Which was incredibly tiny. Indeed what I assumed was the foyer was the whole thing. Its main exhibit was the end of an old tram with a dummy.

But then as Thibault pointed out, when the City runs a system of historic trams, the whole area is the tram museum, and that was really just the gift shop.

 

So then a final few meanderings and photos, before heading back for dinner.

 I had expressed an interest to Thibault of trying "Californian Cuisine", and since it was just the two of us, he found us somewhere. It was a restaurant in a hotel, but it served the purpose. Things like my starter of deep fried oyster and pork belly in a bed of lettuce. It was a nice end to the holiday, in a swanky hotel. I bought a corkscrew on the way back and we had a couple of glasses of wine out of the bottle Joe had left us with, and so it all ended.