Hi everyone
We've just got back to our room on our last night in Los Angeles and we'll be on our way home to sunny(!) Bolton tomorrow.
We got to LA on Tuesday and checked in to the Hollywood B&B which is on Hollywood Boulevard. Although we'd read a description of the guest house when we made our booking we didn't really know what to expect. We found Hollywood Boulevard with no problem but then were sent on a detour as the road was blocked due to some film premiere event - and, inevitably, we got lost...again! We did find our way back to Hollywood Boulevard (on the other side of the theatres) and realised that this was a street with 2 identities! At one end are the theatres, cinemas, the Walk of Fame, gift shops, restaurants, lots of look-alikes hoping to earn a few dollars posing for photos and loads of tourists. At the other end (where we found our guest house) the road is very peaceful and is lined by some very lovely and unusual properties - it is mainly residential and clearly is home to some very wealthy people!
Our host, Nina, was outside our B&B as we drove up and she opened the electric gates to let us in to park. The house is, to say the least, unusual but is very, very comfortable and we've enjoyed it here very much. We have a good sized room and a private terrace overlooking the pool. Nina is clearly very arty and creative and I don't think there are many undecorated surfaces in the property! I have attached a few photos (front door, pool area, terrace, the headboard of our bed, a decorated tree in the lounge...!) but none of them do justice to the place - it is lovely!
Anyway, we've also been out and about over the last few days.
On Wednesday we went to the Getty Centre which is the most beautiful, elegant place (photo attached) filled with mega-riches including famous paintings by Van Gogh and Monet, French furniture from before the revolution and sculptures both ancient and modern. The architect responsible for the buildings has done an amazing job and no expense has been spared - we were told, by one of the 500 volunteer guides(!), that this is the wealthiest museum in the world and we can certainly believe it!
We drove to Griffith Park and made our way up to the highest point to visit the observatory. The views of the city from up there are fantastic! This is a massive city and stretches in every direction as far as the eye can see. We also had a good view of the Hollywood sign which is high on the hills above the city. There is plenty of greenery around, though - especially in the posh areas where the megastars and millionaires have their homes! The observatory is another great facility (photo attached) and we had timed our visit to start in the late afternoon which meant we'd have the opportunity to get to look through one of the huge telescopes once it had gone dark. We saw all the exhibits in the observatory and then saw a show in the planetarium (both Mart and me fell asleep briefly at different times!). Once we'd had something to eat it was time to join the queue to climb a step ladder to look through the massive telescope which was now sticking out through the observatory roof and was pointing at Jupiter - brilliant experience!
On Thursday we went to Disneyland which is around 30 miles out of LA in Anaheim. The roads here aren't too bad but the roadsigns leave a lot to be desired (we got lost again briefly on the way home)and the drivers are speed maniacs - its quite a hairy experience sometimes! Disneyland was great - busy, but we didn't have to queue for much at all. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and left after a nice meal at around 9pm.
Today we've spent a few hours down the road (well...it is about a mile-and-a-half down the road) on Hollywood Boulevard mixing with the stars (lookalikes) and looking at names and footprints on the Walk of Fame. We had an ice-cream float at an old fashioned soda fountain and took photos of the famous Chinese theatre (attached) along with thousands of other tourists.
This evening we walked down to Sunset Boulevard (which is just the next road along and runs parallel to Hollywood Blvd) and specifically to the bit of the Boulevard known as Sunset Strip and went to the House of Blues for a meal (very nice too!). We'd had a walk to Sunset Strip on our first night in LA but, not really knowing where to go, we ended up in a bar/restaurant called the Saddle Ranch. It was fairly quiet when we walked in but it soon got much busier with groups of people wanting to get on a karaoke stage and yet more gangs eager to try out the bucking bronco in the middle of the restaurant! It was packed, really noisy and good fun...but we felt tired just watching people!
We will be leaving here around 11am tomorrow. It should take around an hour to drive back to the airport and then we have to return our hire car. Our flight is around 3.30pm and we should be back in Manchester by noon on Sunday. I'm sure we'll be exhausted but we've had a great trip - hope you've enjoyed it too!
So...until our next trip, take care!
D&M
xx
