The orange Golden Gate Bridge...Sunday 10 May

The not grey Golden Gate Bridge.

And look who we found on it.

Up bright and early, and then Jim took a big gamble....Andrew got to drive his car,   All the way to the local BART (Bay Area rapid transit)station at Millbrae.  Public transport into central SF very easily.  Then we used the Hop on-hop orf bus, through the pier area again then across the GBB. This is an amazing feat of construction.

It is big....and long.....especially when you walk from one side to the other.....length ways that is, crossways it is only twenty or so metres , but length ways its total length is 2,737 meters.

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Such is the allure of the bridge to sad people, (two a month)that the walkway of the bridge is locked overnight, and three or four spots along the walkway there are intercoms which connect to counsellors...I'm pretty sure it would not be appropriate to use this facility just because our feet are a bit sore.    

It is interesting, however that there is no compunction at all to put a wire barrier/ fence there as well.... But obviously it has been a balanced decision, and the the barrier is not high at all.

Who knows what a road zipper is......pictured below

Well we do now...across the GGB there is a variable direction traffic depending of the need of the peak.  So what this yellow being does is drive over the top of the center barriers and moves them from left to right (vice versa depending on the need) ...well....Andrew thought it was interesting.  Officially known as the Golden Gate Bridge Barrier transfer machine , installed in January this year....And late breaking news from Jim is that the zipper has yet to be used!!

Then back onto to HO HO bus through the Golden Gate park, then got off at Haight Ashbury, where the 1960s counter culture was born.   

            

Haight street.Just down from Ashbury 

Then rather than get back on the bus we decided to walk along various streets back to the centre of SF.  Some of the houses are so beautifully finished with gold guilding  window seat sticky out bits (I'm sure there is a more technical name) 

Alongside Alamo Square.

The number of obviously homeless people appears to be quite high here.  Maybe it is because we have been in predominately touristy areas that this explains such high numbers....who knows.  

Had planned to do the night time HO HO bus, but in our wanderings we managed to miss that one.....maybe tomorrow.

Back on BART to Millbrae then another plesant evenings with our bestest American friends.

Tomorrow....Alcatraz ....the real place...not Camelot....(a model )