Walking San Francisco - a new park and lots to see

Woke up with the Golden Gate Bridge in view. After breakfast delivered to the room, we left to catch the Presidio bus to downtown, but,,, it was only running on the hour, other than the schedule said. A friendly bus driver told us to come with him, instead, on tour through the Presidio and to Baker Beach - terrific views! - and we were back in time to catch the free downtown bus which finally stopped at SoMa's Transbay Transit Center. 

 

There we wanted to see the new Salesforce Park, situated on the rooftop 70 feet above the new Transit Center's Grand Hall (Pics above).

The park runs the entire length of the Transit Center and is home to 600 trees and 16,000 plants arranged in 13 different botanical feature areas. There are playgrounds, an amphitheater, a bus-operated fountain, a gondola and many other interesting features - great addition and "green lung" in an otherwise densely developed area. 

The new park is towered over by Salesforce Tower (right), 2018, designed by César Pelli - with 326 m/1070 ft. the tallest building in SF. Salesforce is (just if you don't know, like me) a cloud-based software company. Framing the park as well is 181 Fremont Tower (left), another eyecatching, this time, residential building.

On from SoMa - with the SFMOMA and Yerba Buena Gardens (photo above) – through the currently badly stricken Tenderloin District to the Civic Center and the Public Library, on to Union Square, Chinatown, North Beach/Broadway, and, back down to the waterfront with the Ferry Building. In  the early evening, we took the bus back to the Presidio. Around 10 mi. walked today, a nice sunny day, with temps around 60 deg F. 

Market Street streetcar and cablecar

Chinatown

On our very first guidebook cover was the mural above
 

Pyramid & Flatiron Bldg. - North Beach

Broadway

Ferry Building and view towards Coit Tower from the waterfront

 How nice to have a quiet, peaceful hotel way apart from the hectic, in the green, and with  great views! On the other hand, the city appeared pretty empty to us, not only tourists are missing, but fewer people and traffic as well (home office?). Many storefronts shut down, restaurants closed - in each of the neighborhoods we explored. COVID's consequences!