Jails, bike rides and Irish bars in San Fran

I have been to San Francisco twice before, both as a stop off to see the Fodens and both times ending up drunk in Lefty O'Douls, the best piano bar in town.

The RV park was a little bit out of town but right by the 49-ers ground. It was our most expensive park to date and had the worst service. The Chinese people that owned the place just seemed not to care. But the park was clean and showers were good so we weren't really that bothered.

Day one's agenda was to start with breakfast at Mama's, a place that we tried to get into last time I was here but the queue was so long, we decided to leave it. The place came highly recommended in the lonely planet guide, so we were both quite excited. The meal was ok, but not really worth the hype.

It did, however, set us up nicely for our trip to Alcatraz, something that I have always wanted to do. We boarded the ferry for the 12 minute ride to the prison and began the self guided audio tour of the place. I knew this was going to be a bit of a weird place to visit and we were going to hear some stories, especially as the sign on the wall red "Break the rules you go to prison,
break the prison rules you go to Alcatraz". I have never been in a prison but you see them portrayed in films and on tv, but the reality is much worse here. Everyone jokes about the showers, but this was no joke!

This was a huge 24 man shower in the middle of a room with benches around the side so the prison wardens could keep a close watch on all the inmates. For effect, there were bars of soap placed in the holders! (insert own joke here!).

The tour then took us to the recreation area. Rec time was given as reward to the well behaved inmates, but the worst thing about it must have been the beautiful view of San Francisco staring back at them, while they were stuck in one of the toughest prisons in the USA.

Back inside we learnt all about 2 of the escapes that took place, one resulting in a prison riot where 3 inmates were killed and one prison officer. The breakout plan consisted of one guy starving himself so thin that he could squeeze between the library bars, overpower an officer, prise open the bars to the gun gallery using a home made vice, overpower the warden with a gun and break out. This plan worked right up until the key that was needed to open the door was missing, giving time for the alarm to be set off, starting the riot, which lasted for 3 days. The marines were called in and threw grenades into the area that the prisoners were barricaded in. You can still see the holes in the floor and walls from where they exploded.

One other escape consisted of 3 prisoners making fake heads out of soap, hair and dirt to trick the wardens into thinking they were still in bed. They had, over several months, been slowly scraping away at the concrete vent in their cell to make it wide enough to get a man through, escape into the air vents and get out.

Overall 36 prisoners were involved in 14 attempts, two men trying twice. 23 were caught, six were shot and killed during their escape, and three were lost at sea and never found.

It took us about 2 hours to complete this tour and it was one of the best parts of the trip.

We had worked up a thirst, so headed to Union Square, found ourselves an Irish bar and set about getting smashed. Luckily for us, there were loads of businessmen in town on a conference who were kind enough to buy most of our drink on their company credit cards!! Great night had by all.

Day 2 we were planning on cycling across the Golden Gate bridge, so it was off to the bike rental shop where we decided to hire a tandem for the day. I thought this would only end in tears but I'm please to say that it was a great success, even though we did feel like real idiots!



After a few beers on Pier 39, we headed to another Irish bar, which had live music on. The plan was for a couple of drinks and then back to the van, but we ended up drinking after hours with the band, the owner and the staff. Another top night.

All the highlights are here.

Stuoobs

xxx