Lombard Street in San Francisco, California, is just an ordinary street for most of it's length, but one special block, just Below Hyde Street, is a superlative. It has the reputation of being the world's crookedest street, and for this reason it has become a tourist attraction. The street is paved with red bricks and beautifully landscaped, but you will find no shops or concessions there. The crookedest block, with ten turns, is a residential area of the Russian Hill neighborhood. Hundreds of people a day find their way here to take a ride or stroll on the "Crookedest Street"
Since we were staying near Fisherman's Warf, we found the best way for us to "Do" Lombard Street was to take the Hyde Street cable car and ask the conductor to let us off at the top of Lombard. The walk down the street isn't really crooked at all, since a straight sidewalk/staircase parallels the street. Reportedly the "crooks" were put there many years ago to break the force of the steep hill for horses pulling carriages up it. You can walk up Lombard Street if you have the energy, but vehicular traffic is one-way coming down. From the bottom of Lombard it is a short walk of a few blocks back to Fisherman's Warf.
This is one of those things you've just gotta do because it is there.
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