Exploring LA - Day One

We had a good old poke about today. After a short walk on the Venice Beach boardwalk, which isn't a boardwalk at all but a smooth paved hard cycle and skating path, and waiting for the tour bus which didn't turn up,  we took the car instead. That turned out to be a very good call as we managed to get about all over the place, and probably went to more places than the bus would have taken us anyway.

We had a quick look down here last night but couldn't see much a it was dark. But this morning, people were out in force with various wheeled things.

There was also a surprising amount of homeless people, many of who had been sitting smoking along the front last night. They were just waking up in little camps secreted amongst the various bits of beach furniture and sports equipment such as hand ball courts.

Santa Monica is just along the coast, maybe  two miles or so and its markedly posher than Venice Beach. After getting our bearings with the help of a traffic cop who approached us to move us on, we got to the centre but then drove onto Beverly Hills, intending to come back later in the day.

Los Angeles is  a city built for car travel, and as such, once you get your head around how the streets work, it is surprisingly easy to find your way around. Thus we did a tour of the bits we'd heard of such as Rodeo Drive and its posh shops, then Wilshire Boulevard, before heading up to Sunset Strip and Hollywood.

Beverly Hills Police Station is something else, looking more like a flash corporate flagship than a place  for locking up villains.

The Strip was just as we had expected, as was Hollywood Boulevard, with its hoards of tourists and people dressed up as movie characters trying to charm money out of them. It is worth a look though, given its status as the self proclaimed centre of the entertainment world. 

And where else would you find Batman waiting for the bus with Captain Jack Sparrow?

And then there's the Chinese Theatre and the handprints....

But it all gets boring after a while as its only make believe stuff. However, if you go to Hollywood, you have to see the sign, which actually has nothing at all to do with the movie business but was an advertising sign for new houses back n the day. It was originally Hollywoodland but they lopped off the last four letters. It eventually became so dilapidated that by the early 1970s, it was due for demolition but in true Hollywood style, good old Alice Cooper and Mr Playboy Hugh Heffner led a campaign to save it for posterity. They probably donated some cash too as it still stands looking down from the hills over the urban sprawl of LA.

The a Griffin Observatory is up that way too, perched high above the Californian chapparel with great views over the LA urban sprawl. The smog was ok albeit a bit hazy but the city grid system was still visible. It's so ordered and different to European cities with their jumble of buildings from various ages, and usually based on a river. LA is surprisingly low level too with a uniformity of buildings, occasionally punctuated by small groups of taller offerings dotted across the skyline.

It's a bit weird too being in a place where the 'sights' are mostly focused on popular culture and image rather than trade or survival. It's just different. But the most surprising thing for me is the size if the people - fat and enormously fat rule. Of course there are regular sized people but they are easily outnumbered by the porkers. 

By the time we got back to Santa Monica, my phone and camera had both died, so I had no means of taking pictures and had to be intent with just watching and trying to remember. There was a whole outdoor yoga thing going on down by the pier, with some amazing displays of contortion and control. Similarly right next door on the beach, an outdoor gym was in full swing with people climbing ropes and going through gym routines while people watched. Definitely no fatties doing that stuff. 

There's a pier In Santa Monica too, complete with the usual collection of pier things - candy floss stalls, a merry go found, doughnut emporia and people milling about doing nothing in particular. It's not that different from Brighton or Eastbourne except being in America, it's bigger. And it has a car park on it with huge, thirsty vehicles queuing out to sea to save their occupants the trouble of  walking the few hundred metres of board. No wonder they're having to strengthen it.