Our first trip into San Francisco

I have made a discovery on the Internet. There is a group of volunteers who take free guided walks round San Francisco. There is quite a choice, they run at different times of the day during the week.
Although we know very Little of SF we looked at the list and chose 'The Hitchcock Trail'. This started on Nob Hill and ended in Union Square, so it looked like it would show us some interesting sites.
SF has a reputation as being difficult to find parking. It is well justified. We left with plenty of time to spare, so that we could find parking. On a Sunday the parking is free, so once you have a spot - you keep it.
We drove to the rendezvous point, Huntington Square, and then drove round in ever increasing circles looking for a parking spot, we eventually found one about 4 blocks away, fortunately close to a diner, where we could get a good T&C (tea for Sally , coffee for me). Then on to the Tour.
Alfred Hitchcock was English, from London, he directed films in England until about 1937, when he came to California. He very much liked SF and set up home about 60 miles to the South, visiting SF frequently. He also made films in SF. The film most closely linked to SF is Vertigo, a film starring James Stewart and Kim Novak. It is a dark film which ends badly for all, however it uses many of SF's landmarks and institutions and many say that the film is about SF itself.

We started right on the top of Nob Hill, at Huntington Sq, tucked in between the Grace Cathedral and the Pacific Union Club, from there we moved along Sacramento St to the intersection with Mason St, where we could see the Brocklebank Apartments, The Fairmont Hotel, the location where Scotty gets out of his De Soto and you can see the Grace Cathedral in the background. Beyond the Fairmont is the Mark Hopkins Hotel, with it's roof top bar 'The Top
of the Mark'. From there we walked down Mason and back along California, past the front of the Pacific Union Club, and the Grace Cathedral, where incidentally the 'Writ Handing' scene in Bullit takes place. All the while the excellent guide was explaining about Hitchcock's relationship with SF and how this is shown in the film. We continued the tour, walking down the very steep Taylor St and we looked at the bookshop, the flower shop, the original site of the beauty salon and the hauteur couture dress shop which were used, or had sets modelled on them in the film. This was a quite fascinating exploration of this area of SF and the film Vertigo. We ended up in the Union Square which featured in the opening shots of The Birds. This was a great way to spend a couple of hours exploring SF.