Cycling San Francisco Part 2: Golden Gate Bridge - Sausalito - Ferry Building Marketplace

Hubby and I loved San Francisco when we were there in August. Continuing from the first part of my recount of our cycle through this beautiful city, here are a few more photos. The best part of that day was finally realising my 20-year dream of seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, and I never thought I would be biking across it! The most amusing part of our ride was seeing gloomy and grey San Francisco on one side in stark contrast to sunny and blue-skied Sausalito at the opposite end. We arrived at the bridge at 3:30pm, where we discovered that bicycle access on the East Sidewalk are restricted to 3:30pm. We were glad that we didn't take longer to eat our lunch(es)! I spotted emergency phones offering crisis counselling at regular intervals along the bridge, which I pointed out to hubby, and he told me a very sad fact about the bridge. I was sad for about a second, but the fact that I was actually on the Golden Gate Bridge cheered me up instantly. We battled against the wind for a little bit, but the ride into Sausalito was pretty sweet and downhill most of the way - a nice change to the uphill ride towards the bridge. Click on images below for larger views!

The red Golden Gate Bridge, the top enshrouded in fog. It was very windy!

I was ON the bridge!

View towards San Francisco, where it was grey, gloomy and still slightly foggy...

... in contrast to the other end of the bridge where it was bright and sunny with blue skies:

We arrived in Sausalito around 4:30pm and headed straight for the ferry pier where we saw a long queue of cyclists waiting for the ferry ride back to downtown San Francisco. The ferry service was not running very frequently, so we opted to stay in line and didn't get to see much of the town. It looked like a pleasant place, with a more laidback and relaxed atmosphere than downtown SF. Perhaps next time we're in SF, we will hang out in Sausalito longer, enjoy a meal in one of the restaurants, and perhaps even cycle back to SF.

The ferry route took us close to Alcatraz (click for a larger image):

The city skyline as the ferry approached San Francisco:

Docked at the Ferry Building:

Inside the Ferry Building Marketplace, in search for dinner:

It was successful day!