Postcard from San Francisco

San Francisco is a city which holds a certain fascination for many. It’s a vibrant city with several ethnic neighborhoods (I have fond memories of having Dim Sum in Chinatown on the weekends), many museums, a long history of being a LGBTQ-friendly city, plenty of sports options, famous bridges and much more.

We spent the day around Mission and Market Streets. Our day started with breakfast in the Ferry Building. The fruit crisp and cherry tart from Frog Hollow Farm were absolutely delicious. I also highly recommend buying bread from the Acme Bread Company and cheese from Cowgirl Creamery. And because high-quality chocolate is never a bad thing, treat yourself to something special at Recchiuti Chocolates. If you looking for a good lunch option, head over to Oren’s Hummus for hummus in every possible combination with vegetables and lots of delicious pita bread to dip into it. If you are less of a hummus person, check out the pita sandwiches.

Afterwards we headed over to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art where we enjoyed the exhibit “Signs and Wonders, the Photographs of John Beasley Greene”. As an archaeologist and photographer, Greene took numerous photographs to record carved hieroglyphics and other ancient Egyptian monuments. Apart from the very interesting exhibits, the museum is also a work of art. It was designed by the architects Mario Botta and Snøhetta. It is one of the largest museums in the United States and one of the largest in the world for modern and contemporary art. The rooftop garden consists of a lush green wall.

The area around the museum is known as the Financial District and the skyscrapers are impressive. Three quarters of the buildings burned down after the 1906 earthquake so the city is relatively new. In this area, older buildings are squished in between modern high-rises.

The newest addition in the area is the Salesforce Transit Center, a huge bus terminal with a bus deck which links directly to the Bay Bridge and a rooftop garden. There are even plans to include a tunnel extending the terminus of the Caltrain commuter rail line. The garden is fun to walk through and the most interesting feature is the water jet installation. The jets are designed to respond to the flow of buses on the deck below, i.e. when a bus goes by below, the jets spit up water. The building is architecturally interesting and the design along the upper deck is made aluminum perforated in the pattern of a Penrose tiling.