ALCATRAZ

We caught the ferry to Alcatraz Island.  Strange how all prisoners housed inside one building, with several lines of three tiers of cells, back to back.  Audio tour was informative.  No privacy there, as front of each cell just bars.  Plus cells so small: 9 feet long, 5 feet wide and 7 feet high.  They were cold and damp places.

Next we toured round on top of the Hop On Hop Off bus, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.  So windy there.  Most San Francisco streets are very narrow.  Went into the centre of 1960s Hippy Culture, the famed Haight Ashby area.

Some residential areas command monthly rents of $10,000 per month - very exclusive areas.

San Francisco still regarded as Most Liberal City in USA.  Provided it is part of an official event it seems it is legal to be naked in public.

We drove past one famous High School which had produced many famous students and were told the football ground had once been named after OJ Simpson, and some records he set on there have not been beaten.  But the ground has been renamed since.  Understandable.

These houses had a false front on the top which looked attractive from the front but slightly weird from the side angle.

And I had my first "Po boy fried shrimp sandwich" which I was looking forward too and the shrimp were delicious.  But I just ate them and left the slabs of I buttered roll.  

PHOTOS

 Chinatown on our long walk home to hotel.

Below mid afternoon beer and marguerita.

 The famous Pier 39 was a buzzing with tourists, buskers, bars and cafés, a merry ground and tourist shops.

The famous Bay Bridge.

Room view

I am having frustrating teeth problems.  I will try to publish this photo again.

LA TO SAN FRANCISCO

We flew out of Tullamarine about 10:30 am on Monday 3rd August.  But we landed at LAX around 7:30 am on Monday 3rd August.  Talk about fast!!

You hear stories about Homeland Security and Border Patrol but we had no issues.  No one asked to see in our suitcases.  There was some small issues, eventually sorted, on how we connected to San Francisco.  We had to leave one building and walk up to the next terminal, to American Airlines.

At San Francisco, we walked down O'Farrell Street then down Market to the Wharf Ferry building.  This is pier one and it looked a long, long walk to the famous Pier 39.  We opted to hire a pedicab to pedal us down.

Here we glimpsed Alcatraz across the choppy water, the Golden Gate in the near distance, and lots of sea lions lazing in the sun.

We walked back via Chinatown and Union Square, but it took 90 minutes.  Here is what we see from 18th floor of The Hilton.

THE WEDDING

So here is a photo of how our gorgeous our two daughters looked on the day of the wedding.

Jenna (on left) proved to be an incredible Maid of Honour to her sister Delanie.

This is posted as a way of me getting to know the blog again.  Poor Delanie is being most patient in instructing me, but we think Google has updated and it is proving not as user friendly as in 2012.

USA: HERE WE COME (AT LAST)

So the blog title is misleading, as we are heading, in just over a week, to the USA, not Europe.  But it made sense to just continue using the blog we set up in 2012.

So after three years, during which our daughter Delanie got married, we are off again, albeit only for six weeks this time.

We hope you can share our adventure.

Souvenirs for Lyn

Before our trip, my sister-in-law Lyn asked us to bring her home a souvenir for her desk at work.  She already had a few there and wanted to add a memento from our trip.

We took this task seriously.  We were on a mission.  We really had fun collecting a few items from various countries we visited.

Our first selection was purchased in Prague.  This little wooden doll is in Czech national costume.

This little Mozart statuette caught Robert's eye, to represent our time in Austria.  We went to a Mozart concert whilst staying in Vienna, where all the musicians were in traditional dress of Mozart's time.

We were trying to avoid the Eiffel Tower from France but there was no other souvenir that screams "Paris" quite as much as a sparkly little tower.  Turns out Lyn already has a mini Eiffel Tower on her desk.  Maybe this second one will start a trend and she will end up with a dozen of them???

Lace-making and Chocolate were tourist favourites in Brugge, Belgium.  We could not bring back chocolates, although we sampled quite a few on Lyn's behalf.   Whilst I was at the hairdressers in Brugge, Robert was set the task of choosing a suitable souvenir for his sister.  He found this framed image in lace of a lace-maker.

I don't care if Dutch clogs are a cliche for The Netherlands.  Our tiny little painted clogs are so cute and even have windmills on them.  Double cliche!  Ker-ching!

Somehow we overlooked Scotland, so we next found this little musician character in Ireland for her.

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Which only left England to scour for the perfect souvenir.  This cheery red post box not only in a typical English item, but this particular one doubles as a pencil sharper!  I think we really hit the jackpot here.

So here they all are below.  They now live on Lyn's desk, along with the three items she had already received from the trips of others.   Lyn was one of this blog's most loyal and dedicated readers.  She had asked for one memento to add to her collection ... and seemed pleased when we gave her all these.