On one of our first days, we walked down Market Street until we got side tracked by a street fair. Today we decided to start at the bottom of Market Street and work our way up.
Starting at Market Street and The Embarcadero, we first perused the outdoor food stalls, and then made our way into the Ferry Building. While many people do indeed commute by ferries, the Ferry Building has been converted into boutique food stores. We sampled several olive oils at two places, some nuts, as well as some chocolate, and finally ended up buying a jar of Burnt Caramel.
We crossed the street and walked through the large Embarcadero Center, then got sidetracked when I saw a cable car. At Fisherman's Wharf there is a huge line up, often an hour long. Here, not touristy at all, it was empty. We hopped on board and road the cable car for a few blocks.
While I often used cable car, street car and tram interchangeably, there is a difference. A cable car operates by a gripman gripping a cable that runs under the street, which then pulls the cable car up the hill. He releases the cable, and applies the brake to stop. You can hear the sounds of the cable running under the streets where cable cars operate.
Our little joy ride on the cable car distracted us from our original plan of walking up Market Street. So we made our way back to Market Street, to explore the financial district.
We entered several buildings, each distinctive in their own right. The most impressive however was walking into the Sheraton Palace Hotel. If in town, you must drop in yourself to take a look. Or maybe even splurge for an afternoon tea.
Above the financial district is the shopping district. Men and women must be wired differently. Yesterday as we rode our street car past the area, we observed a Scandinavian family next to us. The two daughters and mother were almost begging the father, as he rolled his eyes. I knew exactly how he felt.
Hera is quite good. While she does like to shop, she did limit herself to only a few stores, and while I resisted, the only purchases ended up being for me!
Hopping back onto our street car, we rode up Market Street to do some grocery shopping before heading towards home.
Cheers,
Hera & Anthony
