<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/embarcaderooct18.jpg"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-5306" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/embarcaderooct18-200x150.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="150" /></a>On my last day in California and with the prospect of a 9 hour flight home I decided to walk from 14th Street to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarcadero_(San_Francisco)" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ferry Buildings on Embarcadero</a>. Google said it was a 55 minute walk and so it proved to be. A 6 mile round trip was good for me.

Walking down <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_Street_(San_Francisco)" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Market Street</a> past the main offices of Twitter and Uber one realises that California is a very rich state (if it was a country it would have the 6th largest GDP) however the poverty on the <a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/farmers-market.jpeg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-5307" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/farmers-market-200x133.jpeg" alt="" width="200" height="133" /></a>streets is heartbreaking. We in the UK have so much to be grateful for - our social safety net may not be perfect but it is better than what I witnessed. People in wheelchairs forced to live on the streets and the less than fragrant waft of urine caressing one's nostrils when passing shop doorways. The citizens of SF seemed to be inured of their surroundings.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/on-chesil-beach.jpg"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-5308" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/on-chesil-beach-150x200.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="200" /></a>San Francisco airport check-in and security was a breeze. I was into the gate area within 20 minutes so just a 2 hour wait for the flight. I did manage about 4 hours sleep on the plane but it cannot be counted as restful with so much going on around. I watched <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1667321/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">On Chesil Beach</a> and would recommend it if you have Amazon Prime, Netflix or similar - such a sad, sad ending.

I landed 45 minutes ahead of schedule having experienced excellent service from Virgin Atlantic - a significant contrast to my last long-haul flight with BA (definitely not recommended). The drive home from Heathrow on a Friday afternoon wasn't great and possibly took me an hour longer than it would have done at any other time but I arrived back at around 7pm. Total travel time door to door - 19 hours. Thankfully Nick and Val had invited me for dinner so I didn't have to cook and afterwards I crashed in front of the TV until bedtime then slept through until morning. Jet lag? What jet lag I say now but I can recall that the day after a transatlantic flight I feel good and then it hits me twenty-four hours later. It has been worth it...

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