The Late Explorer: San Francisco

San Francisco - Sacramento

San Francisco hasn’t a railway terminus - passengers must alight at either Oakland or Emeryville and an Amtrak Bus facilitates access to SF.

On a point of information if you should travel this way: while the bus stopped at The Hyatt downtown on our arrival in SF, on departure the bus leaves from the Amtrak bus station only! The journey takes about 20 minutes off peak.

We arrived at Emeryville to connect with the train to Sacramento. We boarded at 11:23 ETA 13:09.

We traversed the very scenic Carquinez Strait, a huge inlet of the mighty Pacific.

Having quitted the coast, we passed arid areas and areas of intensive farming. We arrived on time in Sacramento, capital of California

It was quite a walk from the train to the Ticket Hall. (think a Ryanair Flight at Terminal 1) CC had to take some photos of the train and we missed a cart which brought passengers from the train to the Ticket Hall - only in the USA!!

The interior of the station is well preserved including a mural depicting the breaking ground for the construction of the first transcontinental railroad 8th January 1863.

I knew the Vagabond Inn was close to the station. I enquired of a couple who were nearby. They were from SF and when they heard the accents of course a conversation ensued.,,, we then realised we are standing by the hotel!

The receptionist informed us the the historic old town was ‘across the parking lot’ in front of the hotel. The old town is amazing - out of a movie set! The only city I could compare it with is New Orleans.

The tourist office provided an excellent video on the history of the town. The area, with the exception of SF, was ignored until 1848 when Sutter Sr was granted 1,000s of acres by the Mexican government. However, much to Sutter's annoyance gold was found on his ranch, the gold rush began. His son Sutter Jr built the city of Sacramento at the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers.

The location was not ideal as the surrounding land was very swampy and the rivers frequently overflowed their banks despite the best efforts of its citizens to continually raise the levees. The city was also gutted by fires until brick structures replaced wood and the flooding was solved by raising the city on stilts.