Snafu Blog

Well we’ve made it back into the UK, though not quite to our house yet. The flight back was okay (not sure about a lovely flight though!) We did have a slight panic as it appeared we had about 50 chavs on the flight, thankfully they stuffed them into the back of the plane so we didn’t see them Got our car back (weren’t overly impressed we had to walk about half a mile to terminal 2 to catch the bus though…) and headed out.

Unfortunately we’d underestimated quite how jet lagged we were. We’ve found that the jet lag from this trip is much worse than that we usually get when we go to/from Florida. Claire wasn’t really in a condition to drive far and I was knackered as well so we though it’d be a wise to idea to spend the night in a hotel rather than try and slog our way back home and possibly end up dozing off while driving. This means I’m writing this in the Premier Travel Inn at Clacket lane services It’s actually a really nice room and one of the cheapest we’ve stayed in on this holiday The services restaurant has improved a lot in quality (and price) since we last tried one. Hopefully after a good nights sleep we can trek on and get home. I’m not sure this bodes well for work this week though, I suspect I may be dozing off by lunchtime

Well, we’re sitting here at SFO waiting for our plane, so I guess the holiday must be over Thankfully it hasn’t rushed by too much, as holidays are apt to do, and we’ve managed to accomplish much of what we wanted to.

It’s been quite interesting really. Previous to this holiday we’ve been to the US twice, both times to Orlando. It’s interesting to see the difference in peoples attitudes between the places. In Las Vegas we found that most people were quite rude and impatient. If you were walking down a sidewalk, we’d move aside like normal whereas people coming the other way would often be walking five or six abreast and bash into you. This may well be because Vegas attracts people from all over the world, and so the people you meet probably aren’t that natives, but it still leaves a bad impression.

Though we enjoyed Vegas (and it’s always going to be a special place as we got married there) we’re not entirely sure we’d want to go again anytime soon. Not being gamblers we didn’t think there was that much to do. Sure you could walk down the strip and marvel at the hotels, but one casino quickly begins to look like another after a while. There are plenty of shows to see, but they quickly become expensive. The hotel rooms are some of the best we’ve stayed in, but even so, it’s nice to head out and do stuff and there isn’t really that much to do (for us anyway).

San Francisco we enjoyed much more, I think mainly because our hotel was nice and central in the city and so much more was in easy walking distance. There were also more varied attractions to enjoy, though I’ve pretty had as much as I can take of American food and portion sizes. We’ve found to difficult to find places that do healthier food, and as such we’ve eaten a huge amount of junk. I’m beginning to feel like the bloke off Supersize me. Still, we’re doing a detox program the week after we get back so hopefully that’ll make us feel better and shift a bit of the weight gain. A couple of games of badminton versus Martin will probably help too

We found the people in San Francisco more friendly, though still not as friendly as those in Florida. As it’s quite a big city I expect the hustle and bustle of city life detracts a bit from the experience. Still, I think James has the right idea moving down the deep south, the people are friendlier

I’ve just noticed the noticeboard for our plane proclaims it’s “A lovely flight!!!” I wonder why they’ve decided that. Maybe we can sue if the flight isn’t lovely after all

The ads on TV over here really make me life, especially the ones for medicine. Over here they must have to list the side effects on the ad, which they don’t in the UK. My favourite one so far was the ad for a drug to reduce the chances of a severe asthma attack. This all sounded fine till the point the voice speeded up into side effects mode and stated that during testing a small number of subjects had died from severe asthma attacks from the drug. Sounds like the drug doesn’t quite do what it’s meant to

It’s lucky the adverts are entertaining as they run every 5 minutes

We went to Ghirardelli square today to have a look around a buy some chocolate. This chocolate is unique in American chocolate in that it doesn’t taste like vomit, which is a good thing. After a bit of souvenir hunting we had a look at the historic ships that are at a nearby pier and soaked up the sun a bit. Had lunch at an Italian place called Cioppinos. Excellent risotto and Claire had a huge chicken sandwich when she was only expecting a normal sandwich sized sandwich It consisted of half a french stick and half a chicken it seemed Caught the cable car back again.

We’ve used the cable car loads this holiday, mainly as public transport rather than a tourist attraction. Certainly more fun that catching a bus anyway. Today we managed to get outside seats which were great fun, especially as we were at the front and got to look straight down some of the slopes that were approaching vertical as we went over the edge I’d definitely recommend the muni passport to anyone that comes to San Francisco as it makes public transport really economical (and you can ride the cable cars loads like we have too!)

Today we went for a little walk round San Francisco (I suspect Claire may disagree, hence the title, but hey, it’s nice to get some exercise!)

We started out wandering through Chinatown which was fascinating. Walked through there and on up to the Coit Tower, which we wandered to the top of and took some photos. Great views to be had at the top. Wandered back down again and through North Beach where we had a great lunch at a place called justabite which is on Columbus. Superb sandwiches (and free wireless access if you like that type of thing )

Next we walked up lombard street and then started our walk back. Went into the cable car museum which I found fascinating, it’s really neat how the whole system works. Then it was just a short walk back over a couple more hills to the hotel.

Today we went on a tour of San Francisco with Gray Line who do coach tours. We thought we’d do this as it gives us an opportunity to see some bits we’d find it hard to get to without a car. The tour was really good and did all the usual tourist hotspots like Golden Gate Bridge and park, chinatown, pacific heights etc. We got a Chinese guide again so understanding him was a bit of a challenge sometimes At the end of the tour we got him to drop us off at Pier 39 so we could have a look around properly as it was a nice sunny day. Had lunch/dinner at a Mexican place there (nice Fajitas) and caught the cable car back again.