San
Francisco Bay
San Francisco is a cosmopolitan city, well-known by its
street cars and the Golden Gate Bridge. The Bay area has
very prestigious museums, restaurants, commercial centres
and historical sites. For those who prefer the outdoors
distractions, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area
and the Santa Cruz beaches are an excellent destiny.
San Francisco is located in a peninsula of 120 square
kilometres, and it has one of the best close-harbors of
the world, and four islands: Alcatraz, Angel, Yerba Buena
and Treasure. The history of the city is a mixture of
the Spanish colonialism and American romanticism. The
city is constructed on a series of hills, so that from
many streets there’s a precious view of the bay.
One of the San Francisco main attractions is its centennial
street cars network, with 17 kms of extension, that circulate
to 15 km/h. and whose history can be seen in the San Francisco
Cable Car Museum. Another interesting museum is the Cartoon
Art Museum. It also can be visited the Golden Gate Bridge
and the Golden Gate Park, with lakes and gardens that
serves as stage for concerts, besides to lodge the California
Academy of Sciences, the Museum of Natural History, the
Morrison Planetarium and the Steinhart Aquarium. Other
points which it is worth the trouble to approach are the
Fisherman Pier; Alcatraz, a former high security prison
turned today into a national park; Chinatown, the pagoda
Japan Centre, Ocean Beach and Seal Rocks.
The cultural supply of San Francisco is very rich, and
it’s staged, among other places, in the Centre for
the Arts (in Yerba Buena Gardens) with multicultural festivals
of dance, theatre, music, film and artistic installations;
the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the American
Conservatory Theatre. The visitors who prefer a backwater
of peace and tranquillity will find it in Russian Hill,
that conserves the name in memory to the Russian sailors
who were buried there, and that is the place where sometimes
found refuge the writers Jack London and Mark Twain.
To the north of the bay is Vallejo, the first capital
of California, also a centre of interest for the enthusiastic
of history, sportsmen and the nature lovers. To the east
of the bay is Berkeley, cultural seat of the famous university
of Berkeley, and attractions like the UC Berkeley Art
Museum, the Pacific Film Archive and Zellerbach Hall.
It has a great supply of independent bookstores, coffees
and nightlife centres for students and tourists. Travelling
towards the south is Oakland, where many activities of
the Bay area are concentrated and have kilometres of sea
with a panoramic scene that turn it a charming city. More
to the south is San Jose, famous for its wonderful weather
throughout the year and by some unique tourist attractions,
among them the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, the Winchester
Mystery House and the innovation museum The Tech.
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