San Francisco

A beautiful mural along 'The Wiggle' in SF. The wiggle is a famous
section of bike route which saves your climbing impossibly steep hills.

Where does one start when writing about San Francisco. It was my first time there and I just loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Ellen's brother Martin had lived there for 10 years so sent me this fantastic email full of ideas and things to do and see. By far the best piece of advice I took was to join some of the free walking tours. They were organised by the public library and staffed by volunteers, usually retired knowledgeable folk who just loved SF. You could give a donation at the end of the 1-2 hour walk if you wanted. A gem.

A newly designed zebra crossing in the Castro area.

Our fantastic tour guide for the Castro tour.

Our tour guide explained how the original rainbow symbol contained eight colours. Both the pink and one of the blues were then eliminated mainly because mass-producing flag makers didn't stock pink fabric. No flags of the world contain pink seemingly. So the rainbow symbol that now represents gay pride has only six colours.

A plague in the Harvey Milk Plaza to remember the much loved activist.

Harvey Milk's bookstore in the Castro district.

You may have seen the movie Milk. If not I think it's worth a watch. I saw it years ago, but need a refresh. I watched the movie Jobs last night as Apple was founded in Palo Alto just a stones throw from here... so Milk might be on the menu tonight. (I have rare access just at the moment to electricity, wifi AND a sofa - quite the luxury). He was not just an activist for the gay community in San Francisco but also for lots of other minority groups. He was truly loved it seems but was assassinated in his early 50s.

The famous Castro theatre, built by Syrians in the 1920s.

I knew nothing about the Castro theatre before I stumbled across a queue outside its door at 17.20 one sunny day. When I asked what was playing someone said a 1930s German thriller (it turned out to be M) with English subtitles. I bought a ticket and went to the movies. And yes, when the movie was over an organist playing the organ was lifted out of the orchestra pit in the theatre and played for 10 minutes. It's an iconic structure in the Castro district... famous for its sing-a-long movie nights. Sing-a-long to Annie was playing that weekend. Would have loved to see that. Me thinks there is a niche in Ireland for a sing-a-long cinema. Anyone agree?

Beautiful and poignant words I thought. In case you can't read it says..
'when I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men
and a discharge for loving one'

My favourite tour was that of the Castro. When I asked a shop keeper at an intersection of two roads, if 'this was it?' i.e. 'is this the main drag of the Castro' he say 'it sure is, welcome to the gayest corner in the world. There was such a great vibe and the streets were lined with rainbow flags.

The other major highlight of SF was my warm showers host. Mary Ann. She lived over the river from downtown near the city of Oakland and was a total and utter bike nerd. She is one of the founders of Bike East Bay. She had hosted many touring cyclists and was just such a gem. Just so kind. On the night I arrived she ran a bath for me, filled it up with bubbles and Radox (good old Radox) and even played some French Cafe music for me on her computer. She introduced me to Pandora and great online music radio. I've tried to log on but failed so I think it may only be accessible to US computers. Below is a picture of the lunch she sent me off with to discover SF.

Home made fritata, yogurt and hummus and chips. 

Mary Ann is an artist (and a retired nurse) and has painted her own
mural on the wooden fence which surrounds her house.

Zee cat.

Mary Ann paints pictures depicting peopele on bikes.
This particular painting had a real chain and lock.

A Mary Ann bike painting

As I said, the lovely lady is a bike nerd.

She also took me for a days cycle up to Golden Gate Park which literally links the city to the ocean. She knew all the best bike routes and showed me how to bring the bike on the BART (as opposed to the DART). It stands for the Bay Area Rapid Transport.

That's Mary Anne ahead of me on a lovely SF bike lane.

Sherpa, fully loaded on the BART.

Every BART carriage has its own priority area for bikes.

That beautiful mural has the 'victorians' in the background, (wooden houses built in the Victorian style
the GG bridge and a cyclist wearing earphones while riding. You have to love California.

And then came the San Jose Bike Party. Mary Ann asked if I wanted to join, San Jose is about a one hour drive south of Oakland. To be honest, just being driven in a car is luxury enough at the moment to drive to San Jose. We packed up the two bikes in her van and headed south on the freeway to this...

Some great bikes altogether.

Me, Mary Ann and roughly 2000 other bikes.

Bikes of every shape and size join San Jose's Bike Party on the 3rd Friday of every month.

An example of one of the music trailers.

Young and old.

Anything that lights you up will do.

In California you can go to a Bike Party every single Friday night. Four cities in California have a monthly Bike Party. It was an idea which started in Sacramento, the capital of the state of California. The idea is the cyclists come along, dress themselves and their bikes up with lights and ride off chatting and laughing and drinking beer. The Bike Party I took part in in San Jose, has been running for nine years. On the night I joined they had roughly 2000 riders.

The ride began at 20.00 and as we rode, with speakers on trailers towed behind bikes blaring with music, along the 20 mile route, cars honked their horns, kids waved from the gardens of houses and shouted 'San Jose Bike Party'. We all then roared back 'San Jose Bike Party'. Cars pulled in, rolled down their windows and shouted 'San Jose Bike Party'. It was one of the most euphoric atmospheres I have ever experienced. There was so many of us and we were travelling so slowly and all other traffic just had to stop and get out of our way. Many people stood out in their gardens with their kids waving and taking pictures and videos.

Anything that lights up the bike will also do.

As someone who believes strongly in bikes taking their rightful place again on our roads - I was of course, in my element. There were two stops along the 20 mile route. These stops were basically massive open air discos. People danced and bought hot dogs and beer and partied and blue bubbles. As you do. The ride ended back in the original car park where it had started at about midnight. What an experience. Amazing. Thanks Mary Ann.

Some stats of the tour:
Miles cycled: 1710 (2813 kms)
Nights spent camping: 23
Night spent with Warm Showers hosts: 14
Average daily spend: €11.97
Punctures: 2
Bike replacements: Cassette, chain, housing for gear cable

Listening to:
This American Life podcast. This particular show brought a tear to my eye. If anyone reading has lost someone close to them, has a spare 30 mins and wants to hear a beautiful piece of radio have a listen here. Click on the link for the audio.

My friend Tania B also gave me a few tips on new podcasts. So I'm now fully loaded up on a whole host of podcasts from BBC 4, The Irish Times Women's Podcast, 99% invisible, The New Yorker Radio Hour and thanks to Niamh McN for suggesting Guardian Books.

Reading:
Blogs by solo female cycle tourers Emily Chappell and Anna. And Alastair Humphreys' 'Thunder and Sunshine'. I'm trying to read this one as slowly as possible. I usually keep it to savour for when I'm alone in my tent and wild camping somewhere random, where I'm feeling a little vulnerable. He gives me a kind of courage to say I shouldn't be afraid of the dark. And I relax and fall asleep.