Alex Haig's Photo Blog

A few hours in Toulouse

After a meeting, a colleague and I found ourselves with a few hours in Toulouse to kill before a flight. As part of a strike the taxis were not going into the city so we took an equally long journey in a taxi to a train station where we caught a light rail train to the city centre.

We found ourselves outside the Capitole building where and hung around for a bit. We didn't realise at first, we'd had been in the square outside the Capitole building the night before when we had been looking for a bar (in the end we found a nice American style place called Pub La Notte in Rue Pargaminieres). There seemed to be marching processions in each street for people on strike for one thing or another. We saw the teachers strike, the taxi strike, some protest for or against AirBus and possibly students on strike too, although it’s hard to tell with students. We took a wander down to and long the river Garonne, where we stopped for a drink. Then we walked back up to the city and caught a bus to the airport.

California - Day 8

Highway One and Santa Cruz

On Sunday, our last day of holiday, we decided to go out of San Francisco again and head in the direction of Santa Cruz. I got up early and went to the car rental place. As it was only for one day I went upmarket and got a convertible Ford Mustang and fortunately, as it was a 24 hour rental, I could drive it to the airport in the morning and drop it off there. I picked up the others and we sped off. As cheesy as it sounds, it was awesome to be driving down the coastal Highway One with sun glasses on, the top down and the San Francisco rock station, The Bone, on playing loudly on the radio.

When we got to Santa Cruz we took a walk up the pier and along the front, and enjoyed the sunshine. Eventually we decided we couldn’t have a trip to the beach without going in the sea and, despite not having towels, we went in. On the way back we went via Sunnyvale and Mountain View, just to get a glimpse of Silicone Valley and the Google Campus (Googleplex). Then back to Mart’s for a nice evening in to finish off a great holiday. Thanks for having us Martin!

California - Day 7

Coastal Walking

On Saturday morning, as she was feeling under the weather Kelly decided she would to take it easy back at Mart's, whilst Mart and I went off for a walk around the North West side of the peninsula. We went from the Golden Gate Bridge, along the coast by Fort Point, across China Beach, up to some houses at Sea Cliff, around Lands End and around Lincoln Park. The weather was a little foggy, but not so bad I couldn't get some good photos. Along side beaches, the occasional interesting set of houses, cliffs, forest and ocean, we also saw a pair of Dolphins swimming along the coastline. We ended the walk at the Sutro Baths (some long time disused public baths) and had a great meal at road side diner called Louis'. Then we walked to the west side of Golden Gate Park, took a bus up to the Embarcadero and a boat across to Sausalito where Mart introduced me to an amazing icecream parlour.

California - Day 6

Palace of Fine Arts, Haight St and the Strybing Arboretum

Friday started a little like the day before. Kelly and I took public transport up Market Street and then up to the marina. We wandered along the coast towards the Golden Gate Bridge and ended up at the Palace of Fine Arts. We considered going into the Exploratorium, but decided we'd missed more important things at Golden Gate Park so we went off hunting for a bus. We stopped in Haight for a while to look around the hippy shops. I found a shop that was wall to wall with rock band t-shirts, but surprisingly couldn't find anything I liked, so time for another bus. When we got to the park we strolled around for a while. I happened to see a humming bird, which we chased around the park until I could get a photo of it perched and being still. The we walked past the entrance for the Japanese Tea Garden and decided to go in.

The Japanese Tea Garden

The garden was picturesque, peaceful, yet busy. It was a great place to see and to photograph, but it didn't take long for us to have seen everything. Certainly worth the entrance fee. Next on our list was The Conservatory of Flowers, which was only a short walk across the Park.

The Conservatory of Flowers

Everything in (and around) the conservatory is worth photographing and I managed to take hundreds of photos there. There was so much there, in fact, that we spent most of the afternoon there trying to capture everything. At one point I leaned over a pond of water for one shot and I managed to get my t-shirt and jeans very wet. At least the shot came out OK. Due to the soaking we had to stop at Mart's before we could head off to meet him at a bar near his work for a few drinks in the evening.

California - Day 5 - Evening

Alcatraz

We met Mart with just enough time to get on the boat. We found a starboard place to stand on the side outside as the boat road out for a clockwise spin around the rock before docking there. Upon disembarkation everyone leaving the boat was issued with an audio guide and told that they must be back in time for the one and only boat back that day. We were led inside and the three of us started our guides playing.

We were led from room to room being told the stories of the prison of Alcatraz as we went. We saw where prisoners had overcome guards and grenade blast marks from the siege that followed. We saw the central path down the main cell block called Broadway by the prisoners and we saw D Block where the solitary cells could be seen. We saw the cells where prisoners had painstakingly chiselled out the air vents and made manikins as part of the escape attempt which was dramatised in the Clint Eastward film, Escape From Alcatraz. And we saw the buildings surrounding the prison that formed the small village where the prison staff lived.

The view on the island from outside the prison was quite something and we got out there just as the sun was setting. The skyline went from deep blue through purple and yellow to orange, creating spectacular silhouettes. We had quite a while to look around, but eventually it was time to regroup and head back to San Francisco.

California - Day 5 - Daytime

Fisherman’s Wharf and Pacific Heights

We started Thursday by having a look around the shops in Market Street, in particular a friend of mine said that Old Navy was a good place to stop at so we did. Kelly who had bought some kind of tourist bus pass took advantage of a voucher for a boat tour around the bay and I decided to go for a walk around Pacific Heights. I walked past St Paul and St Peters, Washington Square and the fireman Monument (another Coit legacy) and then up Russian Hill. I had seen some of Tales From The City before, so I had to have a wonder down Macondray Lane. I didn’t see an incredible resemblance to anything I remembered from the show apart from the wooden steps at the end, but the views were amazing and it was interesting to see such steep streets.

Haight Street and The Academy of Sciences

After meeting back in Fisherman’s Wharf we did a bit of bus hopping and ended up in the middle of Golden Gate Park and went into The California Academy of Sciences. This place was excellently done. I don’t think we saw all of it, but we saw the aquarium, the indoor rainforest and the living roof. The aquarium was as good as the one in Pier 39 and bigger, but they had more lighting outside of the tanks and photography didn’t really work. The indoor rainforest is a glass sphere which contains a hot, humid climate with butterflies, birds, and fish. At the lowest level there is a glass tunnel that takes you under the water which you previously saw from above. It was altogether very impressive. Time to head back on the tram to Church and to grab a quick (and I must add mind blowing) burrito before heading off to meet Mart at Pier 33 and catch a boat out to The Rock.

California - Day 4

On Wednesday morning Mart went back to work. Kelly and I decided to start the day doing something a local would find unbearable and we headed off to what Mart calls Tourist Land, more commonly known as Pier 39 in Fisherman's Wharf. It is in some ways an awfully naff tourist trap, but somehow also a must see. If not because it's a tourist duty to at least make an appearance at several tacky gift shops, then for two other reasons. Firstly, there are the sea lions, which you'll find lolling around on rafts anchored by the pier. We stayed for quite a while watching them flopping in and out of the water, lazily fighting over the best spots and relentlessly barking for no apparent reason. I can't imaging that anyone has been there without them or someone they're with having a go at impersonating the sea lion sound. Once we had torn ourselves away we wondered into The Aquarium of the Bay. Inside we found a fairly small, but incredible display of wildlife from the bay. The jellyfish were brilliant to photograph and the glass tunnel through the main tank was excellent. After the tunnel we got to Kelly's favourite part, where we were encouraged to gently stroke rays and touch starfish in their open, shallow tanks.

After the aquarium, we walked through Fisherman’s wharf to North Beach and up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. This art deco tower was built with the wealth left to San Francisco after the death of the eccentric Lillie Hitchcock Coit, a woman of high society, but strangely for the time also a bit of a tom boy and obsessed with firefighting. Having spent many days on our feet we were not looking forward to the stairs up the tower so we were not disappointed when we discovered the only way up was in an old, crowded lift. The tower is in a fantastic position and from the top you get a 360 degree panoramic view that includes the bay, Alcatraz, The Golden Gate Bridge, The Bay Bridge, Downtown and most of the rest of the city.

We walked down Telegraph Hill for a walk around North Beach and then China Town. Kelly found a Dim Sum shop recommended in her Rough Guide and I went in for some lunch. The menu written on a blackboard was not in English, so I just asked for something for lunch. A few blocks down the road I decided I couldn’t tell if what I had purchased was meant to be eaten as it was or cooked. Sadly, after only a few bites I wimped out and we went to find something more conventional. To satisfy Kelly’s book shop lust we stopped at a City Lights, a independent book shop and official historic landmark. After some more wondering we found ourselves Down Town again and, after a stop at a Jamba Juice, we headed into the Wells Fargo Museum, a moderately cited exhibit of Californian history. We left at closing time and headed off to meet Mart.

California - Day 3

Yosemite Valley

On the previous day we discovered that our hired Chrysler PT Cruiser would vibrate strangely when the brakes were applied, so in the morning I was reluctant to take it up or, perhaps more importantly, down any mountains. However, once we found out how long the bus would be, we decided to bravely head off to Yosemite Valley by car.

When we got there we found it was difficult to find a spot where the scenery was less than stunning in every direction. We walked around the valley where you can see the high, grey walls carved out of the mountains over 250,000 years ago.

Kelly fancied seeing more of the valley, whilst Mart and I decided to take on one of the steeper trails up to a bridge in view of Nevada Fall. As it turned out the trail wasn’t very long, but this meant we had time at the bridge to clamber over boulders and take more photographs.

After we regrouped down in the valley, we hopped an open top tour bus for a two hour guide of the valley floor. The tour was really well done. We got to learn a lot about the place and to see much more of it. After this it was time to brave the Chrysler again. We took route 120, which we thought would be a straight forward route back to San Francisco. I don't quite know what happened, but this turned out to be more than a couple of hours of meandering mountain roads and hairpin bends, which made for quite scary night time driving in a car with questionable brakes. Nevertheless we got back fine, albeit exhausted, and very ready for the rest of the week in San Francisco.

California - Day 2

Mariposa Grove

It took longer than planed to get the hire car and to drive to Mariposa, but driving across California was fun. We stuck around in Mariposa for a bit and, after checking into our rooms at the River Rock Inn, we headed off to Mariposa Grove to see some Redwoods.

Mariposa

When we go back to Mariposa we had missed dinner at the hotel, so we went to a family pizza place down the road. Then we went back to the hotel for some amazing live rock music outdoors in the warm evening and several beers with slices of orange in (which were surprisingly excellent). Then Mart and I went off to take some photos of the town at midnight. We found a floodlit Jesus statue in a graveyard, which made for an atmospheric photo.

California - Day 1

Kelly had been staying with Mart for a couple of days when I arrived on Saturday night. On my arrival we met at the airport, took a taxi back to Mart's place, had a drink and made ambitious sight seeing plans for the next day.

Mission and Castro

We were out the door pretty early for three non-morning people and headed straight to a near by coffee shop. Then it was time to start getting used to the Muni Transport System, so we hopped on a tram going in the direction of the Mission district. Mart took us on a tour of this largely spanish-mexican district where we saw murals apparently inspired by the traditional Mexican paintings which expressed the feelings and stories of the district's historical inhabitants. Then we went to Mission San Francisco de Asís, a beautiful mission founded in 1776 and now the oldest remaining building in San Francisco. The building and the graveyard are amazing sights, and you get to see old photographs and learn something about the city's history. After lunch we in a fantastic gourmet burger restaurant, we walked through the Castro before catching a bus in the direction of Twin Peaks.

Twin Peaks

The bus drove up several very winding, steep streets. We got off at the point that Mart worked out was the closest we could get and we started our ascent. It turned out we weren't that far from the top and there were stunning 360 views of the peninsula and the bay. We could see right up Market St to Downtown San Francisco and could just about make out where Mart's place was. The panoramic view below was taken standing on one peak, you can see it's twin in the photo. Taking the shot wasn't easy, as the wind made it difficult to stand up or even to keep my glasses on my face. After that we walked down Twin Peaks and caught a bus to get up close to what we'd just seen from a far, Downtown.

Downtown

Downtown felt distinctly more touristy than the Mission. I have had a black and white photo of California St on my wall since I was about 15, so I was really pleased to make my own version, capturing from the ends of the cable car rails upwards. There were many other recognisable landmarks, such as the ferry building and the Transamerica Pyramid. I was staggered by the size of the Bay Bridge and I looked forward to driving over it the next day. We ended the evening by going to Tres Agaves, a mexican restaurant, in Downtown.