I’ve got a couple of days here in LA so spend the morning relaxing and doing washing etc. About lunchtime I walk to the nearest metro station, about 15 minutes, to go sightseeing. The metro has various tickets so I get a one day travel pass for trains and buses for $7.
The metro is a direct line all the way to Santa Monica Pier, so I just get on and within about 20 minutes I am back on Ocean Boulevard. I walk down to the Pier
and as I approach there it is…
bloody marvellous.
At the kiosk I get a certificate to show I’ve completed Route 66, although I didn’t start in Chicago I did cover as much of the old routes as possible rather than the newer interstates so I think I deserved it.. Anyway I’m the only one who cares so there!
I spend some time on the pier having a good look around.
Looks like the local police are gonna catch a wave instead of a crook..
So what you wanna do? I dunno, what you wanna do? I dunno, what you wanna do?
I’m off…
Next its time to go all starry eyed… yep, Hollywood. Have always wanted to see the famous Graumans Chinese Theatre where all the old stars have their hands, feet and signatures in concrete.
As I exit the Metro station onto Hollywood Boulevard I see there are stars located in the pavement… ahhh this is the Hollywood walk of fame.. I take some photos;
And then, there it is… more than a little incongruous compared to the rest of the street, but that’s Hollywood for you.
Oh! It’s not called Graumans anymore, it’s now TCL whatever that means.
Here are some of my favorite old time hollywood stars…
and the infamous Louella Parsons…
a waspish gossip columnist of the 30’s and 40’s who had a famous duel with the other, equally poisonous, columnist Hedda Hopper who both delighted in getting and spilling the secrets of the cream of hollywood back in the day. I was surprised not to see Hedda here and quite a few other big names, e.g. Bette Davis, Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston etc etc. Maybe they were somewhere else.. or not as the case may be.
A quick visit to the small Harley Davidson Hollywood shop across the steet and then I spot these other establishments… no comment.
Its getting late again and I want to go up to Griffith Park, Daniel recommends going there in the evening to view the whole of LA and the Hollywood sign, its best in the dark apparantly so I need to get back and go up on the bike… I also need to eat!
Back on the metro and I take the wrong train… its only 2 stops before I realise so I get off to get one back to where I started. Its a very long time coming, almost 40 minutes, there must be a problem.. This means I don’t get back to Daniels until 8.30 and I’m told by his other guest that they close the road at 9pm so I’m too late…. damn! I have some leftover pizza from lunchtime so I have that and an early night…. I’m leaving tomorrow but before I make my way towards New Orleans I’m going to ride a little bit of the PCH, (Pacific Coast Highway 1), up to Malibu. I did want to ride the whole thing up to San Francisco but that’s a 3/4 day return trip so not this time…
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