womanonabicycle .....: San Francisco

So... Today I kicked a girl, then tried to run her over.

Thursday: bike tour across the Golden Gate Bridge.

It was great and educational.

We saw a number of great birds too, blue heron, black crowned heron and flocks of pelicans, which I was very excited about.

We cycled around the edge of the bay, past the marina and up to the bridge. On the way we past the Palace of Arts.

Posin' at the Palace.

A Big Tree.

Then we cycled on. The day was clear and balmy. Apparently its quite changeable and can be very foggy.

A highlight of the pre-bridge part of the tour were seeIng Coit Tower. Funded by Lillie Hitchcock Coit in memory of the fire fighters of the city.

From Wiki: "Firebelle Lil" Coit was considered eccentric, smoking cigars and wearing trousers, long before it was socially acceptable for women to do so. She was an avid gambler and often dressed like a man in order to gamble in the male-only establishments.

Another kick ass broad who contributed to the development of the city.

The bridge is called the Golden Gate as a nod to all those gold seekers and was built in the 1930s. It's colour (which is named International Orange) is because of the rust primer which was applied to the metal. They liked the colour, so didn't paint over it - though the army wanted it to be black and yellow.

i like the fact that Welsh and French both share the same word for bridge: pont.

Puente for the Spanish.

Ponte for Corsicans and Italians.

Alahaka if you're Hawaiian.

Zubia if you're Basque.

Hashi for the Japanese.

Most for the Bosnian.

Splendidly, if you come from Somalia, its Buundada.

And if you're Danish, it's Bro.

The alahaka is interesting to cross. A bit blummin windy, but we had amazing views of Alcatraz, the San Franciscan sky line and expensive Sauslito.

On the puente.

It think it's better to cycle the hashi. Walking feels like it would be long and punishing and driving seems too short. So..yes..cycle the bro.

After we crossed the zubia, we stopped at a view point. Where we saw the skyline of the city and quite a lot of litter in a blackberry bush.

This is where THE INCIDENT happened. I did not kick her on the buundada, but waited til the other side, whilst getting off the bike in a wobbly fashion. I ninja-d her shoulder whilst narrowly missing her face.

Mitigating factors:

1. The bike ride was a total of 20 miles (TWENTY) and we were near the end. I was knackered - also I didn't realise it was so far, I probably would have thought twice..

2. She was on a bike behind me. I couldn't see her.

3. I have small legs. How on earth was she so close? Who knows.

I then let the poor girl go ahead of me. Where she promptly fell off her bike on a steep hill and I 'nudged' her food with my tyre. Awful.

And while I was at the front of the pack attacking a Belgian, NN2 was at the back. Moaning about 'Downton Abbey' (his nickname for a woman with a posh, southern accent), who kept stopping 'every two minutes' during the descent.

Oh, it was all jolly good fun.

We then arrived in pretty Sauslito. I grabbed an ice cream but we had to leave by ferry ASAP as it was imperative that we visit the Converse shop. Imperative, I tell you.

We walked back to the other side of town (more bloody exercise), where NN2 got some kickin' footwear which he is very pleased with.