Day 160-204, 18Dec08 – 31Jan09: San Francisco. Part1: a tour of SF

It has been a long time between updates, but this week we will be catching up a bit, so you can see where we have been this year, what happened with my knee and much more!

We spent about 6 weeks in and around San Francisco, a wonderful city in many ways. I will write a few posts about this as I want to share many pictures, so we will be hopping back and forth in time a bit 🙂

SF: entering and viewing the city

After crossing the Golden Gate we stuck to the shoreline, not only to avoid the heavy traffic, but also the steep hills! Yes, it is true: due to the fact that some smart city planner placed the standard grid-model on top of a hilly place, some of the roads are incredibly steep, a few more than 30%! Still the place is bicycle friendly, with bike lanes and-routes and off the main roads, the traffic is much more relaxed and there are many cyclists.

Touring SF

We had met our new host Mitch at a CouchSurfing meeting and he not only offered us a place to stay, but also took us on some city tours, so we could get an idea of the place. As he is a great photographer, we also finally got some images of ourselves!

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Views from the Twin Peaks (we summited :), the old but still running Streetcars and the famous Lombard Street, though it is not the curviest street nor the steepest, it is fun to go down it. We spent the evening playing ‘Rockband’ with Mitch, which was fun 🙂

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Later, in January, we spent some more time with Mitch. We drank Belgian beers, ate in Chinatown, walked to his friends house Downtown and we had some great ‘mate’ on one of the western beaches before dinner in a Burmese restaurant. SF is great, it is small enough to be able to cycle around, but every neighbourhood is different and there are many nice places to hang out or relax.

Culture & science

We also stayed a few days with Nate & Kim, who lived quite close to Mitch, also in the Latino-flavoured lively Mission District. Besides taking us to one of the best Mexican restaurants, we also took advantage of the free museum day in SF, visiting the small Yerba Buena, the huge MOMA and the tiny Cartoon Museum before heading back on the bus.

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Ivana managed to get into the new Academy of Science Museum on the free Wednesday (otherwise $25), but when I arrived an hour later after seeing the doctor, the line was so long that it was no use. She enjoyed it a lot and will post pictures on her blog soon.

We also spent time (drinking Belgian beers) in Little Italy, Japan town, Chinatown and Bernal Heights; every part has its own culture and diversity of people and places, while being completely free of strip-malls and McDonalds and such, SF is a good as a US city gets.

Tomorrow, in the next part: pain, ethics and doctors, civil rights and microcredits!

1000 Americans: CouchCycler Louise from McKinleyville, California

Louise, Her Husband Brian and her kids have lived in Malta & Mongolia but are now based in McKinleyville, California.

She loves to ride her bike and came to pick us up on the road when inviting us to stay in her place! next day, we rode together to the city of Arcata, where this picture was taken.

It is great to see that many Californians care about their health and that of the planet and ride bikes everywhere…

1000 Americans: Kristen Walmsley, Vancouver, BC

Kristen and her housemates live together on the outskirts of Vancouver city. All of them are vegan or vegetarian and most of them can be found doing something with a laptop on their lap (like me and Lenny 🙂

She made us feel at home, gave tips about our upcoming trip towards Mexico, as she had cycled the entire route a few years before.

She works with children, has created wonderful hand-made toys and has a beautiful heart, I  trust she will make her dreams come true..

1000 Americans: Luigi & Pete

Luigi & Pete were cycling through Stanley Park when we met them. They noticed our bikes even without luggage and started asking about our trip.

When we bumped into them a few kilometers away, a few hours later, they invited us for dinner. Thanks guys!

1000 Americans: Beth, from Bend, Oregon

Beth works for one of the tour companies in Alaska and visits Wiseman regularly. I noticed the tattoo aroudn her wrist: a bicycle chain with a tooth.

‘Yeah, I crashed hard one time on my bicycle and lost some teeth, this is to remind me. I run a Bicycle coop in Bend, Oregon. We try to promote cycling, repair bikes and teach about road safety.’

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Now there is a real biker-chick! Thanks for making the world a bit greener, maybe others can follow in promoting cycling.