Breakfast in Lori’s Diner and we meet more people for a chat than we do on a visit to our local village.

This morning we have a date with the US Prison Service. So, already short of time, we decide to use the famous cable car system to take us to Fisherman’s Wharf.

After an excruciatingly slow journey we are dropped at the bottom of Hyde and then realise that we are a long way from Pier 33 for our ferry to Alcatraz Island. Dodging the many tourists, joggers, panhandlers and street entertainers setting up for the day we really have to ‘step-out’ and just make our boarding slot with barely a couple of minutes to spare.

The 30 minute ferry ride is a delight, the characteristic city skyline looks stunning in the early morning sunshine, but the most famous of the city’s landmarks, the Golden Gate bridge, is completely hidden in the infamous San Francisco fog.

The visit to Alcatraz is incredibly thought provoking, the tour of the cell block especially so. Hearing the many stories (via a narration delivered by ex-prison officers, assisted by ex-in-mates) including of riots, military interventions and bold escape attempts, one involving 3 prisoners who made it into the water and were never seen again, I can’t help feeling that the ones who suffered most in this place were not the prisoners but the families and children of the officers working here. It was a brutal place for all and ceased to house offenders in 1963.

We were last in San Francisco back in 2007, the city has changed in many ways since then. Certainly the skyline is recognisably the same, although new buildings are added constantly. But the crowds seem to have grown much busier, the city seems much noisier and traffic congestion so much worse. The impression is of streets at a perpetual revving, honking, siren-wailing standstill.

Coming from the ferry we make our way along the Embarcadero towards Fishermans Wharf, for a spot of lunch and a quick visit to see the Sea Lions and then try to catch a cable car. Several full cars pass straight by so we decide to tackle Russian Hill, the hard way, straight up and on foot.

Eventually securing a space on a car we ride to Washington and Mason to explore the iconic hills. We inadvertently stumble upon the “Cable Car Museum”. It’s free but is the most fascinating place, not only does it explain how these amazing cable cars run, but also lets visitors see the actual live cables and machinery powering them around the city. It is “Heath Robinson style” Victorian Engineering at its best…

The streets are strangely quite, it must be Sunday. Our plan today involves riding the California St Cable Car, to Chinatown.

We begin at Stockton and find ourselves in the quite alien world of the Asian street market, with all of its strange language, produce and smells assailing the senses.

Turning a corner we find ourselves on Grant Street, clearly this is where tourists are “supposed” to be. The shops selling cheap plastic souvenirs line both sides of the street with “minders” drawing in the unwary. We eventually emerge onto Bush St at the iconic Dragon’s Gate, and make our way to Union Square…a complete contrast!

The skyline of San Francisco is quite distinctive due to the skyscrapers of the Financial District, usually seen from a distance we decide to explore the canyons between them at street level and were surprised to see older more ornate carved stone buildings hiding amongst the modern towering glass and steel blocks. These provide a nice contrast but also make for really interesting reflections in the glass facades of the ultra modern.

A distinctive feature of the San Francisco skyline is the Coit Tower, sitting atop Telegraph Hill. Built in 1933 it is neither the highest nor the lowest building but having climbed the precipitous Filbert Steps and ascended the tower itself, the oxygen debt certainly enhances the 360 degree view from the Oakland Bay Bridge through the Financial District, the “Seven Hills”, the Golden Gate Bridge and the waterfront along the bay.

Now off to recover at Ghiradelli’s for Ice Cream, eaten in the sunshine, outdoors, it is obviously calorie free!