Travel www.guardianonline.co.nz
Burgers on the corner. A typical North Beach scene. Operating since 1946, the owner, Deborah Baldini, was fresh back from the mother country with a delicious array of new ornaments and art pieces. I could have bought up the whole shop. I discovered many of these North Beach treasures from joining a flavourful foodie walking tour with Local Tastes of the City Tours. www.sffoodtour.com. If you want to grab a completely different take on the Golden Gate Bridge, take the coastal trail from Land’s End lookout, which leads you around the sandstone bluffs and pounding Pacific to China Beach and the Presidio, for the most panoramic bridge perspective, facing the ocean. It’s the flipside view to the perspective the world usually fawns over and is remarkably unpeopled. You can actually get to the Land’s End lookout on the Big Bus Tour. www.bigbustours.com On the north side of the bridge,
there’s also great trails on Marin Headlands, one of the world’s biggest breeding sites for great white sharks. While I was there, there were nearly a dozen great whites, stationary under the bridge, hunting in a pack, waiting for the sea lions to take their afternoon swim out into the ocean. How primal is that! These cunning killing machines had worked out what time the sea lions venture out from Fisherman’s Wharf. As an aside, that famous San Fran fog, which dreamily drifts through the bridge or swaddles it in a thick blanket, like its own life force, even has its own Facebook page: Karl the Fog. How very San Fran. For more sightseeing tips on making the most of your time in this radiantly diverse city, head to the official website. www.sftravel. com
Cafes are part and parcel of the North Beach scene.
Monday, February 10, 2020
Ashburton Guardian 13
If you have a soft-spot for Italian ceramics you will not find a better gallery of exquisite Italian ceramics than at Biordi.
It wouldn’t be San Francisco unless you took a trip on the iconic cable cars.
Land’s End lookout.
