Stanford Stories VI – San Francisco Weekend

It is now almost 6 weeks that I have been living and working in the Bay Area. And this weekend, I finally made it to San Francisco. On Saturday, I took my bike on the Caltrain to do a lovely small cycling tour across San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. Everybody I met so far that has been in San Francisco told me that it’s a great place with many things to explore. And what should I say – I guess all those persons were right.

I cycled along Embarcardero, all the famous Piers, Fisherman’s Wharf, and to Fort Pier – the south end of the Golden Gate where I was rewarded with a great view on the famous orange suspension bridge. After a short photo stop, I continued and crossed the iconic landmark by bike, which is great fun thanks to a separate bike lane on the bridge. On the other side, there is a small road that climbs up the local hills along three more breathtaking vista points. The top one is ca. 250 m above sea level and right after reaching the top, a tiny bit of the famous San Francisco fog began to rolled in. Fortunately, there was enough time to take another photo before the bridge started to disappear in the clouds.

Sunday brought two premieres. To start, it was the first rainy day since I am here. And second, I saw my first NFL (American football) game. I managed to get a ticket for the game of the San Francisco 49ers against the Seattle Seahawks. Those of you who know me a bit better know that I have been a big fan of the 49ers since more than 10 years already. Accordingly, seeing a game of 49ers in Levi’s stadium was a very special moment for me. Fun fact, Levi’s stadium is actually in Santa Clara, which is closer to San Jose than to San Francisco. The game was a lot of fun to watch, the 49ers won 27 – 7 and the rain was fortunately not too bad (it’s an open stadium without a roof). Next to the gigantic stadium, the thing that impressed me the most was how the fans of both teams respected each other. There is a pretty big rivalry between both teams, but in contrast to European football (soccer), Seahawks fans were sitting all over the stadium between 49ers fans enjoying the game without causing any problems.