A slightly overcast morning greets us in San Francisco after a surprisingly good night's sleep. I say surprisingly good, because having gone to bed very early to recuperate from the flight, we were woken up at 9.30pm by the exuberant cacophany that turned out to be a family checking in to the room next door. I will try and keep my various prejudices under control, but how on earth do these people manage to have quite so many children under the age of reason. Yes the rooms are very large - probably around 30ft long, but do you have to let your hideous infant offspring run up and down shrieking like banshees?

Full marks to the hotel, however, as they responded immediately to my 'request' that we be moved to another room. Within 10 minutes we were climbing into a fresh bed in another room. Sleep ensued punctuated by the more usual disturbances common in cities - police sirens, motor bikes who confuse empty city streets with racetracks, the dawn street cleaners and unique to this hotel the sound of the cable cars from 6.00am. Hey ho off to breakfast; we'll be hunting for waffles this morning.

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