Beyond the Golden Gate: ruta for San Francisco
It is not always easy to live with icons. They are a perfect postcard that often ruins the perception of the environment, if not diluted. San Francisco Golden Gate is the same as Moscow es el Kremlin, Paris the Eiffel Tower or Rome the Coliseum, but none of these cities runs in myth fueled by tourism catalog. I'm taking a tour of one of my favorite cities, go ahead in mitigation, to which I almost by accident and, I must admit, without excessive enthusiasm. Beyond the famous Golden Gate, San Francisco is hard to feel a stranger. The Bay Bridge himself gives a clue when, often shrouded in fog, seems to invite you to know that instead of you heard speak for the first time when television episodes of "The Streets of San Francisco" the unforgettable Karl Malden.
The shelf life of the city bustles around Union Square and nearby Market Street, the avenue connecting the Castro, global epicenter of the struggle for gay rights, with the Waterfront, recovered docks for the enjoyment of walkers. With his back to the Pacific, the Ferry Building, long the main access to the city, make more than one eye rubbing. Its clock tower, crowned by the inevitable American flag, was constructed the Giralda Seville as inspiration. The world is a book of matches.
Who can resist a ride to travel on the steps of the tram clinging to the railing?
From anywhere in rising above the skyline of San Francisco's needle Transamerica Pyramid, the most representative building of the city (and also the highest, with their 256 meters). Located in CBD, is a display of economic muscle of the California city. Walking through these streets near the Embarcadero Center requires heating the neck and fingers crossed you do not trip while walking looking up as if we waited the imminent fall of a meteorite. Do not fail to enter the lobby Hyatt Regency Hotel, superlative proportions. The view from the revolving restaurant on the top floor are overwhelming.
The tram is one of the references of the city. Survives only as a tourist attraction but who refuses to ride to travel on the footboard grabbed the railing? And Powell Street, where two of the most popular lines, the liturgy of giving back to the tram manually on a wooden platform (a circulating operation necessary since only one direction) is repeated day after day. Tourists who attend the show are waiting their turn like the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace they were, occasionally startled by the angry soliloquies stray from the usual alienated aspect that cross the center (someone said a few years ago closed the city's public mental hospital, that triggered the presence of mentally ill in the streets, but to me the explanation sounded like urban legend).
At Pier 39, sea lions await tourists as if someone had anchored to the pier
Fisherman´s Wharf is one of the landmarks of San Francisco. Full of restaurants and shops that have displaced the old port warehouses, a visit is lame without sampling Dungeness crabs (sold in street stalls) and the unforgettable bread loaf (focaccia) relleno de sopa de Boudins Bakery. Accommodated to the stomach, the walk along the docks on the Pacific is inevitable (before drop down the quiet Ghirardelli Square). At Pier 39, sea lions await tourists as if someone had anchored to the pier.
The tram North Beach, Little Italy, has a stop inexcusable: Lombard Street, the world's crookedest street (27Number of outstanding), where it seems that cars, instead of circular, are embedded in a tetris. We walked Columbus avenue to the peaceful Washington Square, where improvised dinner in an Italian. Close, on top of Telegraph Hill, is Coit Tower, which can be reached on any of the steps that ascend the hill (Filbert Street, eg, on the east side, as Greenwich St.). The lookout tower, at her feet is a statue of Columbus, offers very beautiful panorama of the city and the bay.
Finish walking along barefoot is almost a tribute of thanks to the vast ocean
And yes, clear, must approach the Golden Gate, but above all to walk over the bridge (to the other side if you have time and patience). It's cold and the wind gives an idea of the treacherous currents of the bay. Fortunately, is clear. The fog that often swallows the Golden Gate, for the time being, must wait. The line 28 leads first to Palace Fine Arts, surrounded by houses of the rich, and then Fort Mason, where embarked 1,6 million soldiers from the front road in the Second World War. The walk from Aquatics Park to Fisherman's Wharf is great, always with the Pacific, the Golden Gate and Alcatraz as a reference (the prison island, another of the landmarks of the city, published an extensive report on VaP.: https://www.viajesalpasado.com/alcatraz-la-perfecta-escapada/). Finish walking along barefoot is almost a tribute of thanks to the vast ocean. La visita se remata en la relajada atmósfera dominical del Golden Gate Park. Exercise of tourists here and rented a pedalo to navigate the lake before imbue the Zen philosophy Japanese Garden.
A Nob Hill have to walk up to sweat the slopes we have seen a thousand times in movies, those of sparks jumping reckless police pursuit. An apple is eternal. Up, two buildings in posh: Hotel Fairmont (where they recorded the famous series "Hotel") and the apartment building, and former hotel, Mark Hopkins, that on the top floor houses the restaurant Top of the Mark, the best place to photograph the skyscrapers of the financial district, with the Pyramid the head. The tram California Street passes a few meters, but it is better to proceed on foot to the nearby Chinatown. If we continue the line until the end, Van Ness, we are one step from the famous Victorian houses Lafayette Park, they give off the aroma of the past of San Francisco. A 15 minutes is the Alta Plaza Park, arrive far too crazy, so do not drop by there in the evening. Surrounded by mansions, The city lies at his feet between hills and slopes that require ladders.
A Nob Hill have to walk up to sweat the slopes we have seen a thousand times in films of the reckless police pursuit
Any Spanish to go to San Francisco should approach Mission Dolores (on the bus 22 from Fillmore Street), rebuilt after the earthquake 1906, one of the most devastating in a city accustomed to shake the foundations from time to time. In the church, an organist plays "The Swan Lake", here resonates with greater emotional intensity if possible. Outside, in the garden, the lonely statue Fray Junipero Serra, the Franciscan evangelization of California, a reference in the Spanish roots of the city.
We walk Castro, the gay district of San Francisco, full of rainbow flags. Here are the self-proclaimed gay four corners of the world (Castro Street with the 18th), something like the big bang of the struggle for gay rights. From the metro station of the same name, that of Embarcadero. In a city like San Francisco have to leave at the seaside. What better place than the Pier 7, a pier that juts into the Pacific as if to play with your fingers Bay Bridge, a bridge in the shadow of Golden Gate. This is what has to challenge the icons.
