It's a glorious morning this morning as we head out of the B&B and make our way down to Pier 33 for the first tour of the day to Alcatraz.
Although famous as a prison (often called The Rock), Alcactraz actually started off life as a lighthouse station then as a military fort and military prison before it was turned into the USA's first supermax prison designed to hold the 'worst of the worst' prisoners.
On arriving on the Island we walk round the Agave path to get to the main cell block and start the audio tour. This is actually really good and goes into a lot of detail not just about some of the infamous inmates but also about what life was like for the guards and families who also lived on the island.
We spend a couple of hours on the tour and see all of the different types of cells, evidence of some riots and breaks outs, the prison yard, library etc as well as some great views to San Francisco.
After about 4 hours on the island we head back to San Francisco and grab a quick cheese toastie from an artisan cheese shop and head back to Union Street and the B&B. We then spend the rest of the afternoon having a mooch about the shops before an early dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant and an early night.
Mr M
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| The Rock from the boat |
On arriving on the Island we walk round the Agave path to get to the main cell block and start the audio tour. This is actually really good and goes into a lot of detail not just about some of the infamous inmates but also about what life was like for the guards and families who also lived on the island.
We spend a couple of hours on the tour and see all of the different types of cells, evidence of some riots and breaks outs, the prison yard, library etc as well as some great views to San Francisco.
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| A 'deluxe' cell |
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| The prison yard |
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| Some of the more interesting inmates |
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| A view of freedom |
After about 4 hours on the island we head back to San Francisco and grab a quick cheese toastie from an artisan cheese shop and head back to Union Street and the B&B. We then spend the rest of the afternoon having a mooch about the shops before an early dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant and an early night.
Mr M
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