
I have visited the Golden Gate bridge a few times before. One time, we rode the open top city tour bus which took us around the golden gate. And then in another time, we drove a car and crossed the bridge to see the city from the other shore. Though the bridge was astonishing every time, it was also getting too-usual.

I wanted to experience a whole different view. So, I decided to walk along the San Francisco bay to reach the bridge instead of taking a bus/car ride. And to my surprise, there's a well maintained walking trail that goes from Pier 39 to Golden Gate bridge. On a fine Sunday morning, I started at Fisherman's wharf and walked towards the golden gate, on this route:

![walking route from Pier 39 to Golden gate bridge][1].

[1]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/pier39-golden-gate-route.png "pier39-golden-gate-route"

[![Ghirardelli at pier 39][3]][3]

[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/008.jpg

Just after crossing the heavily crowded market area, I reached **Ghirardelli**. If you like chocolates, then you don't wanna miss this place. I have seen few of my friends who specifically came to SFO to buy chocolates from this place.

But anyway, I'm not a big fan of chocolate, so I continued my walk along the marina bay.

On the right hand side, opposite to the Hyde street pier, there were group of very old sailing ships stationed in the sea. These ships are used for transportation, commerce and war during the old times of San Francisco. For a small ticket fee, people go inside the ships and see the inner architecture of the ship. But, too bad they are not letting you to sail the ship anymore!

[![old ship stationed in pier 39][4]][4]

[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/009.jpg

Anyway, if you are lucky, sometimes you get to see the street artists staging plays near the ship area. The theme of the play is mostly about how it is used to be in the olden days.

After crossing the **Hyde street pier** and walking past the **Maritime museum**, the journey became tougher. Because there's a small hill/forest area that I have to cross in order to continue on the trail. At first I thought I lost my way. Because the place looked like a privately owned area. But then I saw people walking in the direction. So, I followed them.

That is one golden rule I follow if I lost in a unknown location - [follow the flow of people][4]. Works every time unless you are the only one in that place. In that case, you are totally lost and good luck getting back. ![:)][5]

[4]: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15125287 "6 ways to never lost in a city again"
[5]: https://veerasundar.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

Jokes aside, I continued to walk and after crossing the steep road, the Golden Gate bridge came into my view along with the distance that I still had to cover. You can also see the **Fort Mason center **in the front.

[![][7]][7]

[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/fort-mason.jpg

Now I had few two different possible directions to choose: either go down the hill via Fort mason center or continue walking through the recreation area. I chose the later path as the road was easy to walk.

[![sfo skyline][8]][8]And it was a really good view to see the San Francisco skylines from the park. There was a statue of a man in the park whom I couldn't identify from the distance. Also, there's a weirdest tree in the park which I would name it as the *retarded tree!*. Seriously, the tree looked like a melted and frozen plastic material without using any molds. ![:)][5] [![Retarded tree!][9]][9]

[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/0231.jpg
[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/027.jpg

Anyway, I continued to walk towards the Golden Gate. After sometime, I reached the **San Francisco Exploratorium**. From the outside, the building looked like an ancient Greek palace. Being an techie, I was tempted to go inside the building. But, I didn't have much time to spend there, as my goal was to reach Golden Gate as early as possible. But to explore the Exploratorium, one need at least a one full day. May be another time..

[![San Francisco Exploratorium][10]][10]

[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/040.jpg

After the exploratorium, the walking trail went very close to the beach. I could see people jogging, walking, riding all the way in the pathway.  Looking back from there, I could see the bay bridge in the distance.

[![golden gate walking trail][11]][11]

[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/053.jpg

From there, the Golden Gate was just a few minutes walk away (well, the 'Ëœ*few'* stands for 30, though). I continued to walk on and it was real good view of the bridge which I'd never seen in my previous visits.

As I (and the others) were nearing the bridge,

[![Walking towards the golden gate bridge][12]][12]

[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/065.jpg

And, finally I got the **photo of the day **which totally worth the **One and half hour walk.**

[![The golden gate bridge][13]][13]

[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2012/09/071.jpg


Walking from Pier 39 to Golden Gate bridge - photos


It's my first trip to United States (or to any foreign country for that matter) and I was kinda excited to be here. Having spent the first three weekends in my hotel room and haven't got a chance to take out my Nikon, I was eagerly waiting for an outing.

So, we planned a trip to San Francisco, which is close to San Jose and can be reachable by public commute. Including myself, there were five guys in the group. Our main aim was to go to Golden gate bridge (and of course, to take lots and lots of photos!).

On a sunny Saturday morning, as decided to start at 7:30, we started at 9. I didn't have any jacket with me and I was getting severe warnings from folks who had already visited SFO that I'm going to freeze to an ice. At first I didn't believe any of those warnings (typical software engineer who ignores all the warnings!) mainly because the sun was out and shining like a'¦ sun (duh!) in San Jose and I hoped even SFO would be having same climate.

We went to the Karina rail station and boarded the Mountain View train. From there our plan was to catch the Cal train to SFO. It took almost an hour to reach Mountain view and we had around 20 minutes of waiting time before the Cal train comes. It was 10 in the morning but still it felt like the mid day. Who cares to wear jacket in this heat?

![mountain view][1]
Mountain view station

At 10.20, the Cal train reached mountain view. We got into it and went to the upper deck of it. Train wasn't crowded at all. All this time, I was just wondering again and again at how well the public commute system works well. There was automated ticket vending machines, clean platforms, trains reaching the station at correct time, patient driver who waits till the last passenger get in/out of the train, prompt station name announcements and the list goes on..

[1]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2011/10/mountain-view.jpg "mountain-view"

While you were reading the above paragraph, our Cal train reached San Francisco. When we stepped out of the Cal train in SFO, it was 11:30 am. We walked out of the train station and directly opposite to the station there were several buses waiting. We got into one after making sure that the bus goes to Pier 39.

Unfortunately, the bus we took was not taking the direct route to Pier 39. It was going around almost all the places in SFO and we got a cheap city tour for 2 bucks. On the way, we saw a group of old men, riding the bicycles in the middle of the road - naked! And, I said to myself 'WELCOME to AMERICA!'.

After an hour or so, we finally reached our spot - Pier 39. It's the host of several tourist attractions, including an aquarium, ferry ride, wax museum and sea food hotels.

![pier 39][2]
Entering Pier 39

After reaching Pier 39, I was slightly started to feel the chill, but still I was hopeful that I wouldn't need a jacket. We decided to go in a ferry that takes us below the Golden gate bridge and around the Alcatraz island (remember [The Rock][3]) for $25. We bought the tickets and had to wait for thirty minutes before the ferry starts. And my Nikon didn't fail to capture the surroundings in the mean time.

[2]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2011/10/pier39-entrance.jpg "pier39-entrance"
[3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rock_(film) "The Rock"

![][4]
boats at Pier 39

And then started the ferry ride. The moment we left the shore, the climate immediately turned from mild cold to 'Ëœdamn, it's cold!'. For the first time, I felt I should have carried a jacket.

[4]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2011/10/boats-pier39.jpg "boats-pier39"

Anyway, the ferry ride was so awesome. When we reached the bottom of Golden Gate bridge, everyone on the ferry were shivering like a dunkards but never missed to photograph the gigantic structure in front of them.

[![][6]][6]
Golden gate surrounded by the fog

In the ferry they were narrating the history of San Francisco and the mystery of the Alcatraz prison. I hardly get to listen to that, thanks to the fog and the noise out there. Anyway, we returned back to shore after an hour of ferry ride.

[]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2011/10/golden-gate.jpg

![][6]
Foggie skylines of San Francisco

Our next plan was to take the city tour in a double decker bus. This tour would take us around the streets of San Francisco till the Golden Gate bridge and will return to Pier 39.

[6]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2011/10/fogfie-skyline.jpg "Foggie skylines of San Francisco"

Taking a bus ride in San Francisco is exciting mainly because of roads of SFO. Wanna know why? Just look below and you'll understand.

![][7]
roads in San Francisco

Finally we reached the Golden gate bridge (again) and accomplished our mission by posing for a group photo (thanks to the foreigner who took this one!)

[7]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2011/10/bumby-roads.jpg "bumby-roads"

![][8]
Mission accomplished

[8]: https://veerasundar.com/img/2011/10/group-gate.jpg "group-gate"


#sfo (2)