San Francisco is considered by many as the most beautiful city in the world. While that may be arguable, there is no doubt that the city has its own very distinct charm. It has many touristy spots and landmarks. In the following pictorial, you will see a very small number of city’s countless delights. Most of the pics were taken yesterday (August 24, 2002) when we went to the city and went to some of the most high-profile touristy spots. Some stock photos were added to add more flavors to some spots. Hope this will give all those who have not seen the city, a chance to know and appreciate the beauty of San Francisco!
We were into San Francisco from the south side, and this is the first glimpse of the city of South San Francisco. Technically, South SF is a different city than San Francisco itself, and both are on opposite sides of the hill.
This is a close up view from below the Bay Bridge. San Francisco is famous for its Golden Gate bridge (which we’ll cover a in a bit), however, infact, SF is connected via two main bridges. One is Golden Gate and the other is the Bay Bridge. San Francisco is basically the northern most tip of the peninsula, with the SF Bay on its east side. Golden Gate bridge connects SF to the Marin County on the North, and the Bay Bridge connects SF to Oakland across to the East Bay.
From, here we continued to drive on the Embarcadero, where piers are on our right side. The most famous of these is Pier 39, also commonly known as the Fishermen’s Wharf (will cover later).
This is a beautiful view of San Francisco. Since SF is built on the hills, so almost all roads are climbs, and in some cases, the climb is quite steep.
A famous landmark of San Francisco is its crooked street. This is Lombard. Though the Lombard itself stretches from one end of the city to the other, but the crooked part is only a quarter mile or less. Since the angle is so steep, so the city planners designed a series of zig zags. Its a one-way (going down) street and its really one of a kind. There are houses on both sides (not much privacy, of course) and the people who live there, maintain beautiful patches of gardens on both sides. It is always fun to drive down the crookedest street in the world. Some people drive down really fast, to give themselves a real life roller-coaster drive, but its only possible when there is little or no traffic. As you can see, since we went there on the weekend, so there is a long steady line of cars enjoying this landmark.
Another landmark of the San Francisco city life is its trolleys. They run on tracks and are open from both sides, so people can enjoy the balmy Californian weather and enjoy all the sights of the city.
From Coit Towers, one can have an aerial view of the city and the ocean. Here is a pic of the Alcatraz island. This was a federal maximum-security prison, which kept noted criminals like Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly. They claim that no one ever escaped from there, since the water of the ocean is always freezing cold and on top, there are sharks in the area too. They closed the prison years ago, and now it is a tourist spot, and cruise boats take tourists for tours of the island and its prison cells. Almost always a sell-out. From SF coast to Alcatraz is less than 10 minutes of boat ride.
A view of the San Francisco city from the top of the Coit Towers. As you can see, there was a dense fog and the fog hid the tips of many sky scrappers. The distinctive pyramid-style building in the foreground is another city landmark, the Transamerica Pyramid in the heart of the financial district.
From here, we headed towards the Golden Gate Bridge. To get there, one gets through the Marina district, which is essentially reclaimed land, which is very level (unlike the rest of SF which is hilly) and extremely expensive (of course). The houses on the way to Golden Gate are perfectly maintained and the owners use their front window to showcase their houses and keep beautiful decoration pieces on display for everyone to see.
The first view of the Golden Gate bridge. The dense fog meant, you can’t see very far.
Keep following the pics to see how the Golden Gate emerges from the fog, as we drove across:
Continuing on, we finally went to North Beach, which is the home to premiere Italian dining and fine cuisine. It is right next to the China Town. This pic is a night shot of the China Town portion of the area,
Italians use garlic extensively in their cooking. In fact, garlic and extra virgin olive oil are two of the essential elements of fine Italian cuisine. One of the most popular restaurants in the North Beach is, actually named “The Stinking Rose” which refers to Garlic. The waiting line outside the place was a whole block long.
The last picture I captured was the top of SBC building in the financial district of SF, on our way back.
ps. Most of the pics here were taken by my friend (as I was driving). The pics are reduced in resolution to fit here and the camera used is Olympus C-700 Ultra Zoom.
haalanakay main kabhi saan fransisko nahin gayaa - laikin pataa nahin kiyooon yeh pics daikh kar mujhay saan fransisko buhat yaad aa rahaa hay main home sikh hoo rahaa hoon
main home sikh hoo rahaa hoon 
