I often shy away from doing really touristy things, but despite all of the tourists I really wanted to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. There are bike rental shops all over San Francisco's tourist heavy areas so getting a bike is not a problem. As it happens Tony, our male swing, also wanted to make the journey so we met up and headed over to Fisherman's Wharf to get our bikes.
The view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Fisherman's Wharf area.
Naturally we had to fortify ourselves for the arduous journey.
...and stretch (notice the ill fitting helmet!)
When you rent the bike you really have two options for how long you want your journey to be before returning the bike. First you can bike to the bridge and then turn around and go back the way that you came. The second option is to ride across the bridge and then continue down into the town of Sausalito. From there you can take the ferry back to San Francisco. If you ride all the way to Sausalito it ends up being about 10 miles of riding. We decided to go for the second option.
The ride up to the bridge is actually the most challenging technically. It is quite hilly.
Sadly the most frustrating part of the ride is the actual bridge. There is no bike lane on the Golden Gate Bridge so you have to ride with the walking pedestrians. This might not be so bad except for the fact that only one side of the bridge is open for bikes and pedestrians. So what you see above is actually a two way thoroughfare!! This picture makes it look much less crowded than it really was. Imagine a steady stream of pedestrians who insist on walking at least 3 people across mixed with novice cyclists coming from both directions. It did not make for fun riding!
This was the only spot that I found where you could get a straight ahead picture of the towers. (Well the only spot that did not involve standing in the middle of traffic!!)
The view of San Francisco from across the bay in Sausalito.
I expect that the inhabitants of Sausalito have a fair amount of money.
Relaxing on the ferry ride back to San Francisco.
Alcatraz Island
Bay Bridge (the other bridge)
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This is the sort of activity that I would normally do once and then cross off of my list of things to do. Sadly I feel the need to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge again, and I'm sure that you can see the reason why. I am sure that you noticed the grainy quality of the photos, the extra dark shots in the bright light, the overall lack of clarity in all of the pictures...yes I had my camera set on a nighttime appropriate ISO yet again!! All I can say is that in bright sunlight these problems do not show on the little screen on the back of the camera so I don't notice until I am home at my computer and it is too late! Honestly I can say as I write this blog entry months later, I have learned how to avoid that problem. But looking at these pictures is killing me!! Oh well I love San Francisco and would not have a problem with returning one day to get better pictures.
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