It’s out, finally. Visual Travel Tours, a California company that produces audio/visual travel programs, has released my tour of the Ferry Building and the Embarcadero.
I worked on this — a new type of writing and photography for me — for some time early this summer, spending several days walking the Embarcadero and getting to know the Ferry Building inside and out. I then wrote a script, uploaded dozens of photographs and Visual Travel Tours’ audio/visual specialists put together a very cool program, complete with professional narration.
What is it, exactly?
It’s basically a walking tour of the Ferry Building and the Embarcadero that you buy online, download and can take with you, using your cell phone, Ipod or other mobile device to follow along, learn some history and pick up tips on enjoying the area to its fullest. The tour is also available in CD format or to simply download to your computer.
Think about those audio tours at museums. It’s like that. You can start and stop the program when you like.
The tour starts in front of the Ferry Building, takes you upstairs where the arrivals and departures of the old ferryboats used to be, through the new food hall and Saturday farmers’ market and then north and south of the landmark building, giving history of the Embarcadero and visiting the Muni Railway Museum, the waterfront promenades and some historic sites, such as Rincon Post Office.
Today, I was back there to check out the Thursday market, which has become another culinary attraction with some terrific food booths, including Pizza Politana (which cooks up crackling pizzas in a wood-burning oven, photo at right), Korean food specialist Namu and Tacolicious from the people behind wonderful Laiola in the Marina district. In the other stalls, tomatoes and dahlias were at their most brilliant (upper photos).
For more about my walking tour check out the youtube video. Or to purchase, go to the VTT site. Enjoy!
Laura Del Rosso started blogging when her book, Great Escapes: Northern California, was published. She writes about her most recent wanderings, day trips and weekend getaways, including San Francisco’s vibrant neighborhoods, Gold Rush-era towns, mountain and coastal areas and vineyard-covered valleys.
