drew22PerthAustralia
Mar 2019
The Painted Ladies Tour in a 1973 VW Combi was amazing and eye catching not only to those of us on the tour but outsiders as well. This was especially apparent on the drive down the famous Lombard Street, the steepest and twistiest residential street in the USA, and certainly one the most expensive with its multi-million dollar homes! But everybody was admiring our ‘lady’ as her headlight (eye)lashes entranced them.
Back to the beginning, arriving late due to traffic issues in Chinatown, The Painted Lady had waited, only a few minutes, but after apologies to Dave the tour guide/driver, and the other passengers our tour began. Now the tour guide in LA was called Dave as well, is this a generic tour guide title? Anyway we headed past Union Square and Dave gave us some establishing history about San Francisco.
We drove into Chinatown through the gates of Good Fortune and past all sorts of businesses offering many tourist goods, then Dave took a left drove one block and then another left and we saw the real Chinatown, traders selling ducks, chickens, veggies, and an abundance of other foodstuffs with throngs of Chinese residents buying. Apparently the Chinatown area is densely populated with 100 thousand residents living within a few city blocks. We drove down the famous Lombard Street as mentioned previously, Dave giving us the choice of staying in he VW or walking down, both options with a stop for photos.
Dave continued the tour with stops at City Hall in the government centre, told us about the Lady Mayor elected in 2016, took us to see some amazing artistic ‘graffiti’ on walls with one example completely covering a house. Next was a stop at highest point in the city, Twin Peaks, where Dave offered us refreshment and snacks, then on to the five identical houses each decorated with different colours affectionately known as ‘the painted ladies’. The tour continued to a photo stop at the Palace of Fine Arts, then past the Presidio to a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Along the way we got great commentary and anecdotes from Dave, who was friendly attentive and a perfect host on our over 3 hour trip. The stops for photo’s were sufficiently long. Thoroughly recommended. Note my recollection of the order of sights may not be in the right order.