A bridge too far

I finished the last blog entry which was written in the hotel lobby and packed up my pc. I left it at the front desk and went across to the chemist to get some drinks and nibbles to take to the games night. When I got back I thought I'd try too call Mum and Dad. I collected my case and laptop and set up up again and decided I'd call Kathleen who was picking me up to tell her what I was wearing. When I got through she siad she was at the front of the hotel so I had a quick repack of the computer and went out to meet her. It was just before 6-30 and she asked if there was anything I had got to do because of lack of time or transport.

In the end we decided we'd actually go across the Golden Gate bridge which I had just looked at earlier. On the way we passed through the Civic centre which she said had some impressive buildings. The city offices look like a state capital building and just behind it was the Ballet Theatre with the opera house a bit further away.

Our next stop was by the site of the World fair from early 1900's or thereabouts. That's the Greek temple looking building. After that it was across the bridge to the lookout on the other side. I took a shot of the city centre which again is obscured by the fog. This is caused by the warmer air from the bay mixing with the cooler air from the ocean and not caused by pollution.

We then headed further inland through Marin county and eventually across the Richmond Bridge back towards Berkeley and Oakland. This bridge is 4 to 5km long and has the lanes for the opposite direction on top rather than alongside the ones we were on.

It was a rather large detour and after the better part of an hour I saw a sign that said were were 2 1/2 miles from where we started. I just checked with Google Earth and it seems we went 35 miles to get back to that point.


The games night was well attended with 25 or so people there. Several boards games were in progress by the time I arrived. We had some snacks and then joined in a game of 20 questions in the bedroom. There were really too many players for this to flow smoothly and a lot of the questions were rather America-centric so I had no idea who the people were, as well as being bought in 1988 so the references were some what out of date.. I tended to do better with places and things but was at the end of the scores rather than the front. Eventually someone won so we could stop. I chatted with a few people but it wasn't too long before we were heading for the airport, this time crossing the Bay bridge and arriving a bit after 10pm.

Check in was very quick with hardly any queues at the business class counter or at security. I checked into the BA lounge which is used by Cathay passengers and connected to the net. I talked to Dad for a bit and now have about an hour left before we fly off, so I guess boarding will be a bit before that.