Alcatraz

On Thursday morning we took the boat across to Alcatraz. I booked it ages ago to make sure that we got spaces, but I wasn’t sure how interesting the famous prison island would actually be. It turned out to be very interesting indeed thanks to the excellent audio tour, which directed us around the prison while providing fascinating stories about the lives of the prisoners. From some of the cells they could hear the sounds of people having New Year’s parties in San Francisco; they were so close to the city but it was almost impossible to escape because even if they had managed to escape from the prison, the water between was too cold and too treacherous to swim across. There were nevertheless some escape attempts which were amazing to hear about.
Back on the mainland we strolled down flower filled Lombard Avenue, allegedly “the crookedest road in the world” before having a tasty lunch at the Blue Mermaid Chowder House down at the waterfront.
We also took the opportunity to ride several times on the ancient, rattly and gorgeous trolley buses, which are called “cable cars.” The most fun is to hang onto the poles on the outside of them while they trundle up and down the steep hills of the city. It really is a wonderful experience.
In the evening we went to a cinema at Embarcadero to see a film of Muse's Drones Tour, which was being released in cinemas around the world at the same time. We ended our day with a convivial dinner at Seaside in Fisherman’s Wharf.