Monday 23rd April 2007. LA to San Francisco, California.

Back to the airport via bus and subway enroute for San Francisco. After seeing the traffic here on LA's freeways I am sure the M25 has a contender for the title of world's largest car park.

At the airport the security checks are enhanced even from my last visit to the USA at Christmas 2005. You now have to leave your bags unlocked or go through extra security...I chosse to go through the extra security as I don't want my luggage riding around unlocked.

Anyways at the departure gates it is shoes off for the enhanced screening. I am not sure though that all of this works or whether this is simply typical American over-reaction to the terrorist threat?

Landed at San Francisco International Airport and this place takes the prize for greatest level of customer dissatisfaction. There is a very helpful information desk, just no staff to man it? Courtesy phones for information that don't work? and a meaningless collection of posters?...

I have had enough of this and so I march back through security...now that gets some attention and WOW some service.

So I get on the transit as instructed and encounter ignorant elderly American couple all baseball caps, bad taste lipstick/eye make-up and Gee Hank!...
Please don't worry about me or any of the other passengers trying to exit the transit, just you and Delores keep that door blocked now!...
And to crown it all the helpful staff in the train station send me off in the wrong direction...but this is America so...Y'all have a nice day now!!!

Finally I take the BART and the Muni which when it comes out to ground level becomes a trolley with the floor descending at the steps to meet the street rather than the platform. It is a great system once you figure out how it works and this place can't be bad after all they have a Dublin and a Dumbarton Bridge so it has some class!!

I arrive at the stunning Parker Guest House a compound of two Victorians on Church Street surrounded by stunning gardens and outdoor terraces.

Nearly 514 blocks of San Francisco, including much of Nob Hill and Van Ness Avenue, were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire with many of the fine examples of Victorian architecture lost. Yet there are still some 14,000 Victorians preserved in the city today and that is a treasure.

It is lovely here with my big bed, power shower, fancy freebie soaps and gels...its an establishment that gives you robes and it is clean and pleasant and not at all like the half star I stayed in in Los Angeles...and it is cheaper!! I am so happy to be civilised again and as I set off to explore these bay area neighbourhoods my first day in San Francisco shows me that it really is like the Herbie movies!

Tonight there is a wine social at the B&B and I meet up with two Scottish guys who are here on holiday. I then head out to explore the immediate neighbourhood and dine at Luna on Castro.