California, Day 4

On Tuesday, I went for a tour of San Francisco's art museums. I started with the four-block walk to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I got there at 11am, just as it opened, and I had to queue for 15 minutes to get in.

The museum houses an impressive collection in a spectacular building: spanning five floors, the building was completed in 1995 and remains one of the most eye-catching buildings in the city. Inside, there are a number of permanent exhibitions as well as a variety of rotating temporary exhibitions; as a result, the fourth floor (i.e., the third floor) was closed for renovation.

The first exhibit I came upon was also the most interesting: it exhibited the work of Dieter Rams, a designer for the electrical company Braun, whose ruthless desire for simplicity and good design have led, directly or indirectly, to some of the most iconic designs of our time: everything from calculators to hairdryers were subjected to unrelenting simplification, and his work has influenced many designers, not least Jonathan Ive at Apple who designed the iMac and the iPhone.

There was an exhibit of portraits and self-portraits: perhaps the most eye-catching exhibit was a pair of sculptures by Janine Antoni, both busts of her head, one in chocolate and one in soap. Another exhibit of photographs, Face of Our Time featured a series of photos by Richard Misrach of houses in New Orleans devastated and looted after Hurricane Katrina. Finally, the Rooftop Garden featured a number of large-scale sculptures.

The museum as a whole was very nice, and exhibits some of the best art west of Chicago; an enjoyable hour and a half, after which I popped into Subway, grabbed some lunch, and walked to Union Square to eat in the shade.

After lunch, I took two buses to head to Lincoln Park, in the north-west of the city. I first took the #38L along Geary Street (which becomes Geary Boulevard further out) from Union Sq to 33rd Avenue, which took nearly half an hour. There, I changed to the #18, from 33rd and Geary up to the Legion of Honor.

The Legion of Honor, a beautiful stone building with mock Greek columns, was given to San Francisco by Alma de Brettville Spreckels on Armistice Day, 1924, to honour the Californians who died in World War I. It is now home to San Francisco's finest collection of art from the renaissance right through to the early 20th century.

Its biggest and most impressive collection is that of the bronze sculptures of Auguste Rodin, with one, The Thinker, standing in the courtyard at the entrance to the museum. Others include The Three Shades and The Severed Head of St John the Baptist; all are exquisite, and the collection befits its impressive surroundings.

The rest of the permanent collection houses an impressive collection of old paintings, including El Greco's St John the Baptist, and Monet's Grand Canal, Venice. One of my favourites, though, was the slightly more obscure painting called Holy Week in Seville by Jose Jimenez y Aranda, depicting a pastor preaching to the assembled crowds outside the cathedral.

There were two temporary exhibitions on: one was of Dutch and Flemish Masters, which was interesting but not especially memorable. The second, though, was of The Mourners, tomb sculptures from the Court of Burgundy in Dijon. The cathedral in Dijon is currently undergoing renovation, permitting these 37 porcelain figurines depicting monks mourning in various manners to be removed for a special exhibition. Rarely is it possible to see them so close up and so intimately; the Mourners are a fascinating study of the continuing human battle with grief.

After nearly two hours in the museum, I headed into the surrounding Lincoln Park. From the museum, it is a short walk to the coastal path; after one or two false starts, I found myself onto the coastal path and headed west round the headland of Point Lobos.

The point of Lands End affords some of the best views of the Golden Gate Bridge: for the first (and only) time, I saw the bridge completely unadorned by fog. A little further west, at Point Lobos, is the westernmost point of San Francisco, with views stretching out over the Pacific Ocean.

On round the coast a little, past the one-time tourist resort of Cliff House, is Ocean Beach: a mile-long stretch of beach on the Pacific coast, busy with beachgoers, sunbathers, surfers, and many others. On this unseasonably warm Tuesday, all the locals were out enjoying some September sunshine.

After an hour and a half meandering round the coast, about 6pm I caught the Muni Metro N line from near the beach, at Judah and 47th, to Civic Center. The Muni Metro is what we would probably call a tram, though in this case it was more like two trams coupled together. Fortunately I was travelling against the peak flow, since the trams in the other direction were full and standing; as it was I was seated comfortably the whole way back to the apartment.

While in the city centre the trams runs underground, like a subway, and the doors have level access to platforms in dedicated underground station. On the surface, though, it runs more like a bus, with the major stops having dedicated wheelchair access ramps, but most being just like bus stops (and sometimes used by buses too); the flat access to the platforms recedes to form a set of steps down to ground level to get on and off the tram.

After getting back to the apartment, we headed for dinner with one of Charlie's friends from Cambridge, Sam, to Bossa Nova, a Brazilian place on 8th Street near the intersection with Mission. We ate tapas-style, all sharing a bunch of really interesting plates of food. I retired quite early, ready for my last full day in San Francisco.