Big Red Bus

There are many ways to see this beautiful city and, after a marathon search for my travel card (was inside my passport thankfully), we decided to buy the twenty four hour pass and see the sights on the big red bus.  The 'thing' sticking out of the top of the bus is the top of the city hall which was directly behind the bus at Stop 7 of our journey.

We saw everything from the very sad and deprived suburb of the Tenderloin to the beautiful city hall and eventually made the incredibly windy and icey cold trip across the Golden Gate.  Once we got to the other side it was definitely a tad warmer.  Only then did our hilarious (although very informed) tour guide tell us we were going BACK over the bridge and that it would be even colder. Yes, he was right. Even though it was quite foggy, the view across the bay, Alcatraz  and on to the city was great.  We got off at Pier 39 and had lunch and then headed off to find the Bubba Gump Shrimp shop :)    Some of you know that Darren loves Tom Hanks so this shop was a 'must see'.   

Once we had thawed out back at the hotel we decided to take another taxi driver's advice and off we went to Rose Pistola - Italian restaurant in our favourite suburb of North Beach.  Complete with live jazz, AND, at a decent level so you could hear each other speak, Rose Pistola ended our day on a beautiful note.  

(A few more photos below - ending with one of the the lovely restaurant).