Welcome to the Rock!

The first place I visited was a place not everyone wanted to see in the late 50s and early 60s... Alcatraz, also known as The Rock. Well, an amazing place everyone should visit while over in San Francisco. Interesting enough you should book your tickets well in advanced... the only tours available at the box office on Saturday morning were for Monday afternoon!

But Alcatraz was of course not always a tourist attraction, again attracting lots of Germans as well. It was a high security state prison, and the Rangers still insist on the label break-out resistant. Even though in its short time of operation 39 attempts were done. Most famous one made it into a film with Clint Eastwood. But because they never found the three escapees it doesn't count as a successful escape. I was confused by that... does that mean Hollywood is lying to us?! What's about Independence Day then?! Or Godzilla for that matter?! A lie as well?? ;-)


And this one of the many cells there. Just enough space for one person. If you think about being locked in there for 23 hours a day... not surprising that its most famous prisoner Al Capone left this place mentally instable. In 1963 they closed this prison finally down because of cost reasons. Nowadays its attracting far more then 5,000 tourists a day!