Welcome to The Rock!

Well, it has been a long day with a lot of walking. We can personally confirm that Alcatraz is awesome! That's an understatement.  It was worth the fifteen year wait.  The only thing that could make it better would be to go there on a private tour and have all the buildings completely derelict and quiet.  As it was, it still rocked.  Unfortunately our time there was cut short, as we got to about 2pm but couldn't last any longer without food. The island doesn't have anywhere to eat, so the only choice was to leave and go back to San Fran on the boat.

For lunch we ate at Boudin - the sourdough factory. It very much reminded us of Prague as we had the soup in a bowl made of bread. Needless to say, my plate was stripped bare.

After lunch we walked towards the Golden Gate bridge, eventually catching a bus which should have come with a free neck support; the driver had a thirsty right foot.

I haven't mentioned yet, but the weather in San Fran was foggy and pretty depressing. It was cold!  The golden gate bridge was shrouded in fog and so the iconic cliche photo was never going to be.  However, we walked along the bridge and sucked up the atmosphere - it was great.  

We took a long walk in order to get a bus - by now our feet were tired from almost fifteen miles of walking throughout the day.  The bus took us moments away from our hotel and then we headed to Westfield to grab a bite. Here we had such cheap sushi - awesome value. The whole meal was about $25 and we were full.  This included quite a lot of sushi, Edamami beans and miso soup.

We retired after this to plan the next night's stay in our current 'boutique' hotel room. We finalised on the 'Good Nite Inn' in Salinas, just outside Monterey, CA.