Phew! We’ve walked our legs off but had a great couple of days. Yesterday morning we went to Alcatraz & we found the audio tour of the cell block very interesting & very well done. The view of San Francisco from the island was lovely. They said that they have 300 varieties of birds nesting there & many volunteers involved in their care but we saw just one crow & thousands of huge sea gulls.

In the afternoon we went on a tour of Muir Woods to see the giant redwoods- beautiful tall, straight trees and, of course, only three percent of the original forest remains today. It was so quiet & so beautiful in the forest.

We’ve read about the amazing bakeries in SF & of Tartine in particular. They say you have to be there early to try the ‘morning buns’. So this morning we headed off on foot via The Painted Ladies, five beautiful old homes which have been spruced up, to Tartine

The queue at Tartine was short luckily but we shared a table with a friendly business woman from New York who had also read about the morning buns. We couldn’t resist the breakfast brioche & butter pudding with fresh berries either & it was all amazing. The dietary restrictions went out the window. The coffee was the only disappointing part as it was almost cold.

Public transport here is excellent & we’re finding our way around well. We then headed off to Market Street in the city to ride the famous cable cars. Our guide fromMuir Woods suggested dodging the queue at the start of the track by getting on at the second stop & this worked well. The hills which the car climbs are very steep & views are great but the cars are so crowded that you wouldn’t really say it was enjoyable. We rode up to Fishermen’s Wharf & then caught the tram back to Market Street where I had fun buying some new clothes at Macy’s. Fun!

Then it was home to rest & do the washing. Our legs needed an early mark after doing over 14000 steps each day for three days on these hills.

I’m just so thankful that we are fit & healthy & can still manage to walk these lovely places the way we love to do.