• Take a picture in front of the Golden Gate bridge (from the opposite side, with SF in the background)
• Ride the Cable Cars
• Visit Chinatown and it’s novelty and heritage art stores
• Shop for food or eat in the Ferry terminal building
• Go to Alcatraz, but make sure you book your ticket well in advance. During tourist season there’s a minimum 3 day wait, and that’s the reason I’ve never been there.
• Drive down Lombard Street
• Visit a thrift store in the Castro neighbourhood (the gayer part of SF)
• Go shopping in North Beach
• Visit pier 39, but don’t feed the seals (it’s not allowed)
• Eat at Fishermans Wharf
• Go shopping at or around Union Square
• Eat at 21st amendment and try the home brewed beer
• Take ferry ride to Sausalito (a rich suburb, and very idyllic)

If you rent a car there are several other options aswell, like:

• Visit the Redwoods at Muir Woods (North of SF)
• Visit the UC Berkeley campus
• Shop at Great Mall in Union City (The biggest mall on the west coast)

Please write me a comment if you’d like more information on any of the tings listed here, I’d be happy to help. And now for some pictures!

Ferry terminal

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Caviar and champagne shop at the San Francisco Ferry Terminal

I visited this restaurant with two collegues back in July 2006 when I was in San Francisco taking a training in relation to work. I spent 6 weeks there, and during one of the weekends, me and the two other Europeans (British and Swedish) who we’re there decided to rent a car and go to Healdsburg in Sonoma Valley to visit a restaurant, Cyrus, which had been highly recommended by a sommelier we met during another restaurant visit.

Upon arrival we we’re escorted into the bar adjecent the dining room, and offered a liquid apptizer. After a while we taken to our table, discretely located in one of the restaurants quiet corners, without feeling cramped.

I have to say that the thing about this restaurant was the way the food was presented. Unlike traditional American cooking, nothing was in abundance. Needless to say, we didn’t leave feeling wanting anything and least of all to fill a void in our stomach, but the point I’m trying to make is that in some magical way they managed to make every dish a selection of smaller dishes, greatly varied in taste, yet coming together like a symphony of tastes; each dish presenting a different melody and each ingredient a different instrument.

The restaurant focused heavily on local wines. Sonoma, beeing the largest wine producing county in the US, has a great selection of wines. Some of the best wines I’ve ever tasted came from the US west coast, and some of the best wines I tasted from the US west coast I tasted during this visit. Selecting wines to match a dish composed of 3-4 smalles dishes, and an endless array of tastes was a challenge, but it was a challenge meet and defeated by Cyrus’s skillful sommelier.

In retrospect I have nothing bad to say about this restaurant. If you’re ever in Californina, this restaurant is well worth a visit. I’m told that it’s also a good alternative to the more expensive and exlusive French Laundry in Napa Valley, and it proves once and for all that Americans can cook to!

Visit the restaurant website here

To make up for not having any pictures from the restaurant, here are a few scenic shots from Sonoma in general.