tomashi

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San Francisco was on top of my 2005 to do list for a long time and I already had a trip planned in February but we (me and my parents) decided to postpone the trip. Spring came and went and for months i tried to figure out what to do during the summer-holidays. As we are currently spending more and more time at our apartment in western Austria, Munich or Zurich were the departure-airports of choice. To make things short: the first version of this trip included CO flights from ZRH via EWR to SFO but unfortunately they were not able to issue the tickets as their system did not accept a credit-card with a billing-address other than Switzerland. Strange, as we were able to book flights with them last year. Anyway! I did not give up and in mid-July I finally found even cheaper tickets on AF from MUC. A quick discussion with my parents and we booked the flights.

We spent the night before the flight at the NH Munich Airport as the drive to MUC takes more than three hours from where we live in western Austria. Not much to say about the place. Just your typical airport-hotel. After check-in at the hotel we drove to the airport, already checked in for our flights at the AF counters in Terminal 1D, left our Volvo at the remote parking-lot (only 55EUR for two weeks) and took the overloaded complimentary shuttle back to the hotel. They should definitely buy a bigger bus! 20 people were waiting almost 30 minutes for a van with only 10 seats.

After only 3-4 hours of sleep it was time to grab our carry-ons and catch the 05:40 shuttle to the airport. Nice touch: coffee, tea, juices and some other breakfast items were available at a small buffet-area in the lobby. At the airport we just presented our carry-ons to the lady at the end of the long check-in line to get the necessary "Cabine" tags. Security was a breeze and boarding started perfectly on-time at 06:50.

September 2, 2005
MUC-CDG / AF1123
Sched: 07:10-08:55
Actual: 07:15-08:55
Airbus A-320-200
F-GFKP
Tempo - Economy Class Seat 9F

The flight ended up almost completely full (just some empty seats in biz) and after some problems with double-booked seats were sorted out, we started our push-back and took off just minutes later. Soon we left the gray clouds below us and were on our way to Paris. Flight-time was announced with one hour and fifteen minutes but it took us a little bit longer due to high traffic at CDG.

As it was my first flight with AF I immediately noticed some things:

• much friendlier FAīs than those of LH or OS
• more male FAīs than on any other airline I flew with
• nice contemporary, electronic boarding muzak; very relaxing
• itīs difficult to understand most English announcements due to the strong French accent and therefore wrong intonation of the pilots and some crew members

Service on this flight was limited to the distribution of small croissants and pastries as well as coffee/tea or water. But at least they offer something. I don't need a complete hot breakfast on a one-hour flight but I highly appreciate that an airline is at least trying to fulfill the basic needs of shorthaul passengers. After I got my second refill of water it was already time for descent into a sunny place called CDG, which is the French version of a big international airport.

Connecting at CDG Airport from Terminal 2D to 2C
After taxiing for about twenty minutes around the French countryside and crisscrossing different highways, we finally arrived at a parking-stand near the D-part of terminal 2. They crammed almost all passengers into one bus and took us to the building. Iīd heard bad things about CDG but nothing prepared me for all those narrow hallways, tiny escalators, run-down buildings and chaotic signage we were confronted with in the following stressy one hour. I don't know how we made it but we managed to arrive at the overcrowded 2C terminal some minutes before the boarding signs started to flash on the screens. But the sea of people which was the line for security didn't move at all. They only had one checkpoint open for hundreds of US-bound passengers with extremely tight connections. How can an airport be that disorganized? The atmosphere was horrible. Some people freaked out and started shouting nice things at the airport-employees. It was difficult to stay relatively calm but I tried to assure people around me that their flights won't leave without them. Anyway. It took them about 15 minutes to realize that they simply had to activate a second x-ray machine to get the crowds through to the flights. Of course US Homeland Security should not see how the security-checks were carried out at this point. Nobody had to take his shoes off, there were no additional bodychecks, the metal-detectors beeped and the officers just waved most people through assuming that their belts or watches were the reason.

September 2, 2005
CDG-SFO / AF84
Sched: 10:15-12:25
Actual: 10:30-12:55
Boeing 747-400
F-GITI
Tempo - Economy Class Seat 31H

Another chaos awaited us at the boarding-area. It was almost impossible to fight your way through the sea of people "queueing" up for various flights at the narrow gate-area. After we presented our e-ticket confirmations and passports, the agent handed us the green US entry-forms and we could finally board the plane through door 1L. ... Sigh!

I immediately noticed that this 747 did not yet feature the new premium products and the outdated seats in both First and Business-class were pretty worn. I expected the same for Economy but surprise, surprise: the seats looked almost brand-new and they even featured PTVīs. Under such circumstances I would never pay the extra-money for premium-classes.

Despite the chaos, boarding was completed soon and they quickly closed the doors. The captain came over the PA announcing a short wait due to traffic-restrictions and a quite long flying-time of eleven hours due to strong headwinds. Push-back commenced 15 min late but we taxied another 30 minutes to one of the runways so our powerful take-off roll did not start before 11:00.

After we had reached our cruising altitude the FAīs sprang into action and delivered small amenity-packs (crappy earphones, towelette, earplugs, sleeping mask) as well as a "Tempo" menu-folder.


Next was a full drink service accompanied by some nuts and as itīs Air France we're flying, champagne was also offered. The cheerful male FA serving our rows already had to open the third bottle when it was our turn to order. The champagne was OK but far from being spectacular.

Soon the cabin was filled with typical airline-food smells as they prepared the lunch trays. In the meantime I played around with the very user-friendly touchscreen IFE-system and perused the offerings. I soon found out that itīs not an AVOD system (as I originally thought) but one where you have to wait for the showings to start. The movie-selection included "The Interpreter" (saw it before) and "Sahara" (with Penelope Cruz) among others. To be honest I only watched Airshow the whole time as I had no special interest in any of the movies, TV shows or documentaries. I played some games though. The Air France Quiz, Who wants to be a Millionaire (the UK version) and Memory (childish I know!). Airshow was a little bit disappointing too as they did not display any flight-information, just the map. I really hate when I don't see the remaining flight-time or expected arrival-time on any screen. Somehow it makes the flight slower when you don't have these informations at hand. Anyway! I still had my watch so it was not a big issue at all!

When the meal-carts were brought out I switched to the Jazz-channel and waited for my chicken-dish to arrive. I opted for chicken like I (almost) always do on flights. Itīs generally the safest option. Airline-fish tends to be of extremely low-quality and itīs the same with beef too. So chicken it was. My drink request of Chardonnay was also fulfilled and the friendly FA placed the small bottle on my tray. Catering at CDG did a good job as the chicken and all accompanying dishes were really edible! And the portions were huge compared with recent developments at OS, LH or LX. At this point I already made a mental note to consider AF for all future longhaul flights. They really did a great job so far. After the meal they came around with another drink-service and also offered brandy and cognac. No more alcohol for me, thank you! Trays were cleared soon and I decided to take a stroll around the plane. The cabin-layout on this plane was quite comfortable. The nicest feature was the gathering-area around the self-service buffet in the galley. A good place to have small-talk with fellow passengers or the FAīs and to enjoy the view from the emergency-exit-window.

As announced in the menu-card a box of Häagen Dasz ice-cream bars was put up at the buffet-area as a midflight snack. Wonderful! Ice-cream is just perfect to freshen up after five hours of dry airplane-air. I suppose most other passengers had the same thought as the supplies lasted only ten minutes. After the ice-cream, people raided the sandwich-trays and soon all the salmon-sandwiches were gone too. As I secured some of the sandwiches while most people were busy with the Häagen Dasz, I can say that they tasted really good. The time after the midflight-snack was spent with some games on the IFE-system, the AF magazine and frequent visits to the galley to get water and some nice views. As our routing took us right across the midwestern-states instead of just northern Canada, there were some great scenic landscapes unfolding below us. The plains of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas were followed by the snow-capped mountains of the Grand Teton Range in Wyoming and again flatlands and deserts in Utah, Idaho and Nevada.

About two hours before touchdown the crew swung into action again to prepare and deliver the second meal. This time the food offerings, except the apple crumble and some parts of the pastrami, were not really edible. Something definitely went wrong with both of the salads. The potatoes in the potato-salad were sort of raw and the olives in the greek-salad appetizer were awful too. But no problem for me. I wasn't hungry thanks to the midflight-snacks! The trays were cleared when we entered California south of the Lake Tahoe-region and soon our final descent into sunny SFO started at Modesto. The cities of San Jose and Palo Alto were displayed on Airshow, before we touched down at 12:55, just 30 minutes behind schedule. A short taxi later, we finally arrived at the A-wing of the International terminal.

Immigration and Customs at SFO
Immigration would have been a breeze but we ended up waiting more than twenty minutes in the slowest-moving line! Almost everyone in front of us had difficulties with the passport and/or other parts of the US VISIT process. Most of them where sent to secondary inspection after long discussions with the not very cheerful female officer. But when we reached the desk everything was done within seconds and we just had to pick up our lonely, rotating bags from the belt, cleared customs and were on our way to catch a BART-train to Powell St.

... to be continued! Read more about our stay in the Bay Area soon! More pictures coming soon!

Gnopps

Thanks for the detailed report Thomas! I'm glad you got a B747 with PTVs, there are others who were not so lucky (like no sound, light or headrest)... :-) Looking forward to reading more!

plat

Looking foward to the report on your stay in our beautiful city

PhilH

Sounds like you might have been there at the same time as me!

(Will finish my report this weekend. Sorry for the delay, have been totally snowed under since I returned ).

tomashi

new pictures: Marriott San Francisco
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San Francisco
Friday, September 2, 2005
After getting accustomed with the BART ticket-machines at SFO, it took only some seconds to retrieve three US$ 4.95 tickets to the city-center. Itīs easy when you finally realize that there is a button to subtract 5 cents from the 5$ bills I inserted! As I payed five dollars for the first ticket assuming the machine would give me change automatically, I now am the proud owner of a BART-ticket with a value of 5 cents to keep as a souvenir (normally the machine eats the tickets when leaving the station). Anyway! A clean and comfortable BART-train soon pulled into the station and minutes later we disappeared into the typical mix of fog and clouds just after the South San Francisco-station.

The smooth 25 minute ride soon came to an end for us at Powell St. in downtown SF. We hauled our bags upstairs and were suddenly right in the center of it all. The hustle and bustle of Market Street, right in front of the San Francisco shopping center. The weather was colder and windier than we expected it to be but still comfortable. We just had to walk some meters to 4th street and there it was - the San Francisco Marriott - our home away from home for the next five nights.

San Francisco Marriott
The check-in process was a one-minute affair and it surprised me that we got a room on the 29th floor as our promotional rate was quite cheap. Off to the high-rise elevators we went and just ten seconds later (high-speed elevator) we unlocked the door to our nice non-smoking room (2955). The room featured two double-beds, a big table and office-chair, a big TV, a lounge-chair, a nice bathroom and of course a fabulous view to the south of the city. Landmarks and places we could see from above: the dome of the City Hall, Market Street, parts of Union Square, the Mission district, Twin Peaks and the TV antenna on top of Mt. Sutro. All in all a really nice Marriott with all the necessary amenities and impeccable service. We never tried their breakfast, room-service or any restaurant but the offerings sounded delicious and were reasonably priced.

Some words about the building. Many people (especially architects) say the SF Marriott is one of the ugliest structures around (itīs also called the jukebox-building I think) but I don't think so. Of course itīs not really avant-garde but it was build in the 80ies, what else can you expect! I would rather call the parking-garages or the Moscone Convention center ugly buildings. Back to the hotel: The atrium-lobby on the second floor is particularly impressive with all the palm-trees, fake waterfalls, ponds, marble and gold. More Dubai than San Francisco but still nice in a certain way! Almost as impressive is the rooftop-bar on the 39th floor, although the decor is outdated and not very classy. But I had a great time there with my Dad - more on that later!

After unpacking some stuff and taking a shower we ventured out again to explore the surrounding areas. We walked up Powell Street to beautiful Union Square, saw the first cable-cars and already visited some shops on the way. Before returning to the hotel we bought some stuff (water, juices) at a nearby Walgreens and enjoyed the atmosphere of Market Street by night. At 20:00 local time (5 in the morning at home) me and Dad again left the hotel to get some 6-inch subs from Subway. Suffice it to say we were all really, really tired after the light dinner and finally crashed. What a day!

FLYGVA

Thanks for another of you fantastic trip reports ^ ^ .

I have never been on an AF flight, as I stick to "my" alliance. Honestly, it sounds better than LH et alii. Thanks also for the nice pictures of flight and hotel.

I am looking forward for the next "chapter" of you trip report.

civicmon

Nice report.

I have to apologize though for the weather. September is supposed to be the warmest month on the California coastline and it's been very cool this september.

Plus, SFO customs are the worst i've encountered in this country... Everyone dreads LAX but I went through LAX in March and it took 10 seconds. Guy wanted to know how Brazil was.. despite the fact I just got off a plane from Japan.

Teacherflyer

Great report!! Can't wait to give AF a try. Enjoy the USA!

Steady-EDI

Another great report, tomashi ^

Looking forward to hearing how you got on in San Fran.

tomashi

Sorry that it took me so long to post the next part!
New pictures are here.
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San Francisco
Saturday, September 3, 2005
Jet-Lag demanded an early-start and we were down at street-level by 7:30. The nearest Starbucks was just across the street and the nice hot Caramel Machiatto was highly appreciated to reboot my brain. After enjoying the hot drinks and some nice pastries we returned to the hotel-room to freshen up and get another layer of clothes as it was quite breezy outside.

First stop: the famous Ferry Plaza farmer's market. We walked down Market Street and turned right at Montgomery St. to see the famous Palace Hotel and also the Academy of Art university. We then continued on Market until we reached the Ferry Building. The farmers market was in full swing and we spent almost two hours exploring the offerings. You could taste most of the produce and what can I say - everything tasted much, much better than anything we can get here in Europe. You can almost taste the sunshine! I also enjoyed the whole ambience there. Families shopping for Saturday-night dinners and Sunday-brunches, people who just come here for a snack or lunch, Chefs buying stuff for their restaurants. Wonderful! And so casual. I almost forgot about the beautiful setting in the San Francisco Bay with the majestic Oakland Bay Bridge just in the background, while tasting peaches, strawberries, apples, nuts, cheeses and grapes.

We then left the market to explore the Embarcadero-area and parts of the Financial District. Our walk took us past Justin-Hermann plaza, a nice park, the impressive Maritime Plaza-building until we arrived at the corner where you have the Transamerica Pyramid in the background and the Flatiron-like Sentinel building (which is owned by Francis Ford-Coppola) in the foreground. A picture-perfect view which is featured in almost all publications about SF. Back at the Ferry Building we decided to have lunch at "The Slanted Door", a Vietnamese restaurant frequently voted into the top-ten of SF-restaurants. Surprisingly we immediately got a table although the place was really full. We ordered some items from the menu and were informed that everything is served family-style. Fine for us! To keep things short - the food was delicious or should I say heavenly! Only fresh, organic produce from the region combined with Asian herbs and spices to create artistic dishes.

After the luxurious meal we purchased some grapes at the market before heading home towards our hotel on Market Street. The sun finally came out when we left the Embarcadero area and within minutes the air warmed up significantly. My plans for the afternoon were flexible but as we already were tired of walking, we decided to catch one of the MUNI lightrails up Market Street to the Civic Center area. Sounds easy, but as the MUNI turnstiles only take quarters and we did not have enough small bills for the change-function of the BART-machines it took us quite long until we finally managed to get on that train. Of course the BART to Civic Center would've been much easier but it never came to our mind! So we purchased some afternoon pastries at a small counter on Market and finally had the necessary quarters for a quick ride to Civic Center. The whole area is quite trashy and there are many homeless people wandering around. But we were not surprised as this is exactly what a friend, who frequently stays at the nearby Holiday Inn, told us about this part of town. But it was not really scary or something like that. Nobody was interested in us at all. Although I would probably not recommend the area after midnight! The city-hall is a quite impressive building though and itīs a nice starting point to explore the Hayes Valley-area.

Before that, we used the transfer-part of our MUNI tickets and took the 21-bus up to Alamo Square. We took the necessary pictures of the famous Victorian houses (unfortunately the weather got bad again and there was no view of downtown at all) and took a short walk up the hill. Soon it got far too cold and windy up there and we returned down Hayes Street to the area where all the small boutiques are. We had a great time there and were the only tourists in the almost deserted, otherwise mostly residential area (Labour Day weekend?). From Japanese designer-kidswear to smart sneakers and useful travel-goods (at Flight001) almost everything was on offer here. We stayed there until many of the shops closed and walked back to Market Street. After early-evening coffees at Starbucks it was an easy decision to save some dollars and walk some blocks back to the hotel. On the way back we could not resist to browse the shelves of Abercrombie&Fitch, Old Navy and other stores for some minutes. This was the last activity of the day. For dinner we again had some crisp and fresh 6-inch subs accompanied by the wonderful organic grapes.

San Francisco
Sunday, September 4, 2005
It was the day of the big bike-race and we decided that this might be a good chance to enjoy some time at Fisherman's Wharf without the crowds. So after our usual Starbucks-breakfast we jumped in one of the F-streetcars and put our 3-day MUNI-pass to use for the first time. We already purchased three of them on Saturday at the Powell St. cable-car booth but decided to use them from Sunday to Tuesday. The F-tram is a funny experience and it brought back memories of riding the famous 28-tram in Lisbon two years ago. This time we were sitting in a historic streetcar from Philadelphia, if I remember correctly. The ride took us past the ongoing preparations for the bike-race at the Ferry Building were hordes of people already waited for the race to start.

Next stop Pier 39. As a friend of mine likes to put it: "On weekends they carry almost all Americans to this place." Itīs the center of trashy, touristic activity in the whole city and Iīm sure there are thousands of people who only know this part of the city from their package-trips and city-tours. Maybe it was the bike-race or the cold, cloudy weather but not too many people were there when we arrived at 10 am. We had a quite relaxing time, saw Alcatraz in the middle of the bay (no tour this time, maybe on a future trip), spent some time with the sealions (two of them decided to give us a noisy wrestling show - quite entertaining!) bought some souvenir-stuff at the shops and had a genuine Fishermanīs Wharf lunch of take-away food from a place called "Pier Market". Items we ordered: clam-chowder in a sourdough bowl, fresh salmon burger with fries and one of the crab-salad sandwiches; Everything was delicious and the fish of high quality. One of the best fast-food lunches in my life! Next was a quick visit to the California welcome center on the "upper deck" to get some info-material for future trips. When the sun came out again at about 14:00, we continued to Hyde St. Pier to see the old WW2 ships (from the outside) and finally reached Ghirardelli Square. This is where got the first glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge on the horizon. Impressive!

The weather changed from horrible to marvelous in a few minutes and we enjoyed the bright sunshine and blue sky. Our plan to return to the Union Square-area with one of the cable-cars was soon cancelled as we saw that the line at the turnaround was far too long. More than 200 people were waiting and the cars did only depart every 15 minutes or something like that. So we walked or should I say climbed up the steep hill along the tracks. On the way we had some very impressive views across the bay which made for some good pictures with my camera. Soon we reached the crookedest street of the world, as they call the famous part of Lombard St. Itīs funny to watch all the tourists in their cars driving down the street and making a lot of "ooohīs" and "aaaahīs" during the process. As we did not yet have our rental-car we walked down the steps which was nice too. Further down the road, away from the crowds, we found a nice place for afternoon-coffee and cookies called "Caffe Sapore" (790 Lombard). I like these parts of traveling most. There is no comparable thing to sitting in a nice cafe somewhere in the world and sipping your drink while slowly realizing where you really are and how far away from home that place is. People-watching is another hobby of mine which can be perfectly combined with such coffee-shop visits.

The afternoon was spent in Hongkong, a city which was only a short bus-ride away. Of course I mean one of the biggest, lively and most genuine Chinatowns in the US. Along and around Grant Ave. there are hundreds of restaurants, shops and groceries and the atmosphere is not very different to what I saw in Hongkong last year. Just the weather was friendlier in San Francisco. More sun and less humidity! We spent almost the whole evening there before climbing up to the elegant Nob Hill. Up there it was quite cold again but the views were gorgeous. Itīs almost like standing on the peak of a mountain. The good old Fairmont-hotel is the main landmark along with the Mark-Hopkins hotel right next to it. I also recognized the apartment-building on Sacramento St. from the Hitchcock movie "Vertigo".

To get back home we tried to catch one of the cable cars at the junction of the California St. and Powell St. cable cars. An empty California St. arrived soon and we really enjoyed the ride down the hill. At the end of the line we took the lightrail back to Powell St. and after some shopping at Market St. stores we returned to the Marriott, before leaving for dinner at around 10 pm. We craved for some high-quality American diner food and with "Melīs drive-in" just around the corner the right place was found soon. The juicy burgers were awesome and I also liked the creative combinations with different local cheeses, avocado and crisp bacon. Mom had a chicken caesar salad which was equally impressive.

As we were still sort of active we decided to take a late-night cable-car ride to Fishermanīs Wharf afterwards. Minutes later we were sitting on the outside of the Powell and Hyde St. line rattling up the hill. But the cable-car god did not mean it too good with us that night. The ride came to an abrupt end shortly after Mason St. Some idiot decided to park his SUV almost directly on the tracks and after trying to activate the alarm and finding the owner our operators gave up and called a towing-truck. As the street was to steep it was not possible to tow the car so they tried to push as past the car with the truck (quite exciting experience!). In the end we had to walk down to Mason St. and change the line. The route was quite unspectacular though. We then returned from the ghost-town like Fishermanīs Wharf with a complimentary shuttle-bus (running instead of the last cable-car) back to Union Square.

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... read more about San Francisco and our "round the bay" road-trip soon!

Steady-EDI

Don't worry about it ... it just gets better and better

tomashi

Thanx for your patience and nice replies! Too bad that we had no chance to meet PhilH and the reports on your webpage Steady-EDI, were a big help while planning this trip!

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new Pictures
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San Francisco
Monday, September 5, 2005
Labour Day. A beautiful sunny morning awaited us and after some hours of shopping in the Union Sq. area we took one of the light-rail trams to Church St. Station in the Mission district. It was already past noon when we arrived there and we were surprised how hot it already was. As long as the sun is shining September really seems to be the warmest month of the year in the Bay Area! We soon found our way through beautiful palm-lined residential streets to the epicenter of Mission-lifestyle, Valencia St. Unfortunately many shops and restaurants were closed due to Labour Day but it was still a fascinating area. Our first activity there was having lunch at a very authentic, hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese place called "Sunflower" right at the corner of Valencia and 16th St. They had some very tasty (and inexpensive) lunch-offerings and we could not resist ordering some of their signature-dishes from the regular menu as well. The vegetarian Vietnamese crepe was as good as my lemongrass chicken dish and the deep-fried pot-stickers. Wonderful!

With fresh energy-supplies we continued our walk down Valencia St. and occasionally stopped at interesting stores. We did not visit Balmy Alley as my guidebook suggested but all the murals on Clarion Alley were also very interesting. I took many pictures there with both of my cameras (Iīm also carrying a good old manual Nikon F3 around). A thing I immediately noticed in the Mission were the sensitively integrated modern buildings you can see everywhere. I made a mental note to spend an entire day of exploring in the Mission district on a future stay. There is so much to see there. And a perfect place for people like me, who are interested in high-quality small-scale, urban residential architecture.

After seeing the beautiful Mission Dolores Park, adjoining Mission High School and of course the Mission Dolores building itself, it was time for us to continue to another well-known area of the city: Haight-Ashbury. The way to get there was soon found with bus Nr.33, leaving directly in front of the Mission High School. It was a quite interesting ride through parts of Castro, then up the hills below Twin Peaks before descending again to arrive directly on the corner of Haight and Ashbury Streets. The somewhat run-down area was the eye of the storm in the "Summer of Love" - the starting point of the peace- and hippie-movement and therefore the perfect place for my parents to remember the good old times! We followed the so-called "Beatnik-Hippie-Tour" suggested by our guidebook to get directions to famous places like the house where "The Grateful Dead" lived and other places like the "Red Victorian Bed&Breakfast" owned by Suni Sunchild, a woman famous for creating psychedelic paintings and traveling the globe in search of enlightenment. On the way we stopped at "Coffee to the people", a very atmospheric coffeeshop at the corner of Haight St. and Masonic Ave. They had some very nice pastries and cookies too.

Anyway! The area was still a big disappointment for all of us as it was far too touristy and shabby. We expected nice stores featuring hippie-clothing and organic restaurants but all that was offered were souvenir-shops, loud pubs and mainstream-shoestores. Even GAP opened an outlet on Haight St.! At sundown it got breezy and cold again so we decided to skip the walk through the upper parts of Golden Gate Park and returned directly to the hotel with the Nr. 5 bus. I donīt know why but the bus did not run further than Civic Center (instead of continuing along Market St.) so we had to walk the ugly part of Market St. down to the hotel, as we already did the night before. After a stop in our room we ventured out again for some take-away pizza-slices on Powell St. and did some shopping (Borderīs, Virgin, Apple store) until most of the shops closed their doors earlier than usual because of Labour Day.

San Francisco
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
The morning was not as on Monday, but it was again quite sunny and warm. It was our last full day in twn and after the Starbucks-run Union Square-shopping was on the agenda again. There were still many shops to see and things to buy! It was noon when we stopped at the hotel to get rid of the shopping-bags (just a few of them) and stock up our water-supplies.

Our next destination was right around the corner - the SFMOMA - San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It was free Tuesday (every first Tuesday in a month is free at the museum - it pays to do some research on the web before departing for a destination!) and we were surprised that there were no queues at all and we just could walk in and continue directly to the galleries. A big difference to what we experienced at all the museums in New York! We especially enjoyed the permament-collection and the new acquisitions shown on the top-floor. As I have a personal interest in old photography I also liked the special exhibition of old photographs by the likes of Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston on the third floor. The big show about Richard Tuttle was nicely curated but Iīm generally not a big fan of his objects and sculptures. All in all a top-notch museum housed in a beautiful and functional building by architect Mario Botta. I can also highly reccomend the extensive shop on the ground floor.

After the museum-visit we were hungry and found the clean and modern "Chipotle Mexican Grill" just around the corner. There we ordered three custom-made Burritos - which was a big mistake. Donīt get me wrong! They were extremely tasty but completely oversized. In the future we know that two of them easily feed all three of us!

Completely stuffed we discussed the afternoon-program and I managed to persuade my parents to accompany me across the bay to see the campus of UC Berkeley. Off to the Montgomery St. BART station we went and after we bought three tickets (somehow it really isnīt that easy with all those subtracting buttons and stuff!) a train soon arrived and carried us to the "Downtown Berkeley" station in just 25 minutes. On the way over we had a great view of the vast container-ship terminal in Oakland and also got some glimpses of downtown Oakland. I really enjoyed walking around the beautiful park-like campus and watching the students carrying around their books, riding there bikes and lying on the grass to relax in the sun. We spent around one hour there all in all, but there was no time left to see the shopping-district around Telegraph Ave. or Gourmet Ghetto (with famous Chez Panisse) on Shattuck Avenue. Maybe next time! After some minutes at the BART ticket-machine and a 15-min wait, a Millbrae-bound train brought us back to Civic Center Station in downtown SF.

From Civic Center we walked straight to Hayes St. as Mom wanted to buy shoes she had seen at a store called "Paolo" on Saturday. After this was done we also visited some other stores there as our visit on Saturday was not very extensive. As low-lying clouds mixed with fog came in again it got very cold within minutes and we went over to McAllister Street to catch a Nr.5 bus back to the hotel. But again the bus did only run to the corner of Market and 7th St. where the driver announced the last stop. As we did not see any bus or F-streetcar on the horizon we just decided to walk back down the same route to the hotel once more!

Dinner again consisted of Subway-sandwiches and as it was our last evening, me and Dad went up to "The View"-bar afterwards. As I mentioned earlier in this report the decor is not that nice but the amazing views from the top-floor of the hotel make up for the lack of ambience. I had a Martini and Dad enjoyed a chilled bottle of Anchor Steam (local beer). A very nice and somehow sublime experience. The stay in San Francisco was wonderful and there still were many highlights waiting for us on the upcoming roadtrip!

airoli

Excellent reading, thanks a lot tomashi! SF is one of my favorite cities in the US and I am glad to see that you enjoy it as well.

As for AF, their Tempo product doesn't sound as bad as I'd always thought, but the idea of connecting through CDG gives me shivers...

Vaclav

Amusing and fun descriptions of your trip, Tomashi!

I have been to SFO many times, and from YUL you can do it over any long weekend as well.

You've got me intrigued about AF service in Tempo. I fly to Europe quite often, and due to point accumulation, I always fly *alliance, usually YUL-FRA-PRG on AC/LH. If I get upgraded, AC service is very good indeed, if not - it is not that bad either but I am curious. AF actually serves champagne in Y? Do you remember which one?

My brother flew recently MUC-YUL-MUC on LH (he lives in SZG) and said that it was just OK, my boss flew that as well and was less than impressed. In YUL, we have a wide chocie of airlines to Europe and it is always good to see what the competition offers!

JOUY31

It used to be Nicolas Feuillatte. Not the best, I agree, but definitely better than the sparkling "Champagne" I was served by UA across the Pacific a few years ago. According to Falco Peregrinus on the AF board, it has changed to Gauthier.

And AF also serves Cognac, Poire Williams and Mirabelle in long-haul Y (except for the Caribbean Indian Ocean destinations).