After we had recovered from the exhausting last day's leg, we used the first of our three days in San Franciso for a first sightseeing tour: We rode a cable car and visited the associated museum.

When we returned to the motel, we were shocked to find that the tandem was no longer parked in front of the room! Since also the room door could no longer be opened, we went directly to the reception. There we learned that our dirty tandem had been parked on the carpet in the room for space and safety reasons.

In the evening we rode the tandem for the last time on this trip in the U.S.A.. At a bicycle dealer nearby we picked up three bicycle boxes to pack the tandem in. To our great astonishment, the mechanic at the store already "knew" us. He had passed us by car a few days before :-)

On the way to the bike store we had a real moment of terror on a railroad crossing: In the middle of the pushing crossing of the tracks the warning lights started to flash, the bell to ring and the barriers lowered directly without any time delay. Startled, we looked to the left and right and could already see the train coming! So we hurriedly left the level crossing just below the closing barrier! The timing seems to be a bit tighter here than in Switzerland.

We spent most of the second day in the city packing our tandem and buying some remaining stuffing.

On our last day in San Francisco we had to get up early to catch the first boat to Alcatraz. Despite 45min reserve time we almost missed this due to subway delays.

The visit to Alcatraz was then very impressive. Especially the audio tour through the cell block was great!

In the afternoon, we visited the famous Pier 39 and tried hard to send home still moderately airworthy items like our stove and the service kit for the disc brake by mail.

Now that Sigrid and Kevin had also arrived in town, we could use the evening to go out for dinner together. With heavy hearts we said goodbye to them.

On the way back to the motel we used Lyft. This is a "cab service" like Uber. In San Francisco, it's a real alternative to public transportation because Lyft is faster, cheaper, and much easier. (On our way into the city, for example, we had to buy tickets individually from two bus providers and the subway, supplemented by exciting payment restrictions.)

On the morning of the return flight, we got up very early. Despite several assurances from the front desk, we weren't sure if the transport of our three cardboard boxes in the free shuttle would really work out. To our great astonishment, it worked flawlessly despite extremely tight space conditions!
Arrived at the airport, we were further amazed: The check-in of our sports luggage was handwritten on a pad with several carbon copies. However, within only 15min everything was done without problems. We have never been able to check in our luggage so quickly and easily. Normally we calculate about an hour for this.

Since everything had worked out so flawlessly, we spent the hours until the flight sorting photos and writing articles for the blog.