San Francisco Things to Do Tips by AndreasK

Created in the 1920's as a way to deal with the extreme forty-degree slope of Russian Hill, the block of Lombard Street from Hyde to Leavenworth has long been known as 'the crookedest street in the world.' Pedestrians can avoid the curves and are able to use stairs instead.

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Much of the pleasure of Lombard Street is due to the flowers that border the eight switchbacks and the great views of the city and the Bay.

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Not far from our hotel at Union Square was Chinatown, a crowded neighborhood of temples, herb shops, restaurants, fish markets, bookstores, banks and bakeries that cater to both the Chinese and the tourists who come to visit.

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From 1850 to 1900, almost 50 000 houses in the range of styles that we now call 'Victorian' were built to accommodate the city's burgeoning population. Many of these houses were lost in the great fire that followed the 1906 earthquake, and others were torn down over the years to make way for new development. However, thousands of these homes are just waiting to be discovered.
Because the westward spread of the 1906 fire was halted at Van Ness Avenue, the neighborhoods west of that line, including Pacific Heights, the Western Addition, the Fillmore, and the Haight, offer the best opportunity for finding the surviving jewels. These six beautifully restored Victorian houses at Alamo Square show up best in the afternoon, when they are lit by the western sun.

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Sun-worshippers in Washington Square outside the church of Saints Peter and Paul - the Italian church.

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These quaint wood and steel cars are busy from early morning until after midnight helping tourists get to Fisherman's Wharf, ferrying residents to work, and giving all riders the pleasures of breathtaking views. Introduced in 1873 by Andrew Hallidie, the cable cars work via an underground cable that travels continuously at a speed of nine-and-a-half miles per hour. The car moves forward when the cable car gripman squeezes a lever that grabs on to the moving cable. At its peak just before 1900, the system had over 600 cars and over 100 miles of tracks. There are now just three lines covering twelve miles: the Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde lines, which travel from downtown to Fisherman's Wharf, and the California Street line that runs along California from the Embarcadero through Chinatown and Nob Hill to Van Ness Avenue.

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