Los Angeles

When we were awarded this trip that we are now concluding, staying in Los Angeles was not in the agenda. In theory, we should have driven straight from Las Vegas to LA airport for our flight back to Spain. However, it didn't take too much time to decide that we would take advantage of the trip and stay for a few days to explore this city, which really feels more like many different worlds close to each other.

In this post, we will describe what we've seen of the city organized by areas rather than chronologically. Texts will be short, as these places are well known enough and otherwise this post would be endless...

The Griffith Observatory

Our first move in LA was... to get out of the city : ). The observatory at the top of Mount Griffith is the perfect viewing point to grasp the magnitude of this city and get a feeling of its location between the mountains and the Pacific ocean. From this beautiful park, one can see the whole city, from downtown far away to the Hollywood hills to the right of the photograph.

A panoramic view of Los Angeles from the Griffith Observatory

Hollywood

Our next destination had to be what makes Los Angeles such a popular and rich city: the Hollywood area. Far from the large movie studios that are situated on the outskirts of the city, this area remains now a tourist hot spot with the famous Chinese Theater, the Walk of Fame, etc. All crowded with tourists from all around the world and weird people making themselves seen and heard.

The Farmers Market

Halfway between Hollywood and Beverly Hills there is a popular and down to earth eating place: the Farmers Market. Rather than what its name would imply, this is now a collection of small shops and restaurants offering very diverse variety of foods, beverages and ingredients. The place is packed with locals having a quick lunch between shopping stops, and it's difficult not to find anything to your taste. The plaza next to the market provides a nice relaxing spot considering it is located in the middle of the city.

  

Beverly Hills

And now, one of the other things that make this city unique: the Beverly Hills area, home to some of the most wealthy people in California (not the super-rich, they live further away on the hills). There really isn't much to see, apart for driving around on quiet streets surrounded by big mansions, most of them hidden behind trees and high fences, and being overtaken by much more expensive cars than ours. I don't think there are many places where driving an Infiniti doesn't feel so special : (

 

The Beverly Hills town hall

One of the popular places in Beverly Hills is Rodeo Drive, a junction of street home to shops from some of the top names in fashion: Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Versace and some others that do not form part of our daily shop list. There are also a few good restaurants and, just like in the movies, they were staffed by wannabe actors looking for the right person to discover them:

Someday, he will be a celebrity and richer than us.

At 208 Rodeo, we enjoyed a very nice meal comprised of pork belly and beef steak, in a very posh environment but for a relatively reasonable price.

Venice canals

This is a neighborhood situated on the Westside of Los Angeles. It is known for its canals, beaches and circus-like Ocean Front Walk. We really enjoyed walking trough the canals in a beautiful Sunday morning, it was very peaceful. The houses were very stylish and the waterfront patios were very well decorated, we certainly wouldn´t mind to live there, though writing this post we found out that these houses have an average price of around 2 million dollars, no wonder that we liked them that much. Also, most of the houses had their own private deck with a canoe or a boat tied up.

 The canals of Venice 

The Enterprise spaceship decorated with Lego pieces

Canoe in the Venice canals tied to a small dock

Venice Beach

Venice Beach includes the beach, the promenade that runs parallel to the beach "Ocean Front Walk", Muscle Beach, the handball courts, the paddle tennis courts, Skate Dancing plaza, the numerous beach volleyball courts, the bike trail and many businesses.

Ocean Front Walk

World smallest front yard

Some of the weird or artist people on the Venice Boardwalk

Los Angeles Pueblo

The Los Angeles Plaza Historic District, also known as El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park, is a historic district located at the oldest section of Los Angeles. This is the area where the City of Los Angeles originated. There are historical homes built over 100 years ago to recreate what it originally looked like. It's like being in "little Mexico". There are also handicrafts, Mexican restaurants, food carts (the tacos looked very tasty). In general, a good atmosphere.

Mexicans enjoying themselves

The gazebo in the center of the Plaza,
site of many festivals and celebrations,
 here representing the life of Jesus Christ

Malibu

Though it does not form part of Los Angeles, Malibu beach is a popular beach resort for people who wants to get away from the big city, specially for surfers. Malibu lies about one hour drive north, depending on the traffic, which can be pretty heavy. This is a less populated area and it feels more natural. Dolphins are supposed to be seen every now and then from Point Dume (below), but we weren't so lucky.

The long and sandy Malibu beach invites to sunbath and go for a swim in the Ocean, although water was quite chilly at this time of the year. A very nice place to wait for sundown...

La Brea tar pits

Another unexpected landmark in the city of Los Angeles is the Hancock Park, home to La Brea tar pits: a series of ponds made up of oil and tar oozing from the earth below and where fossilized animal bones sometimes are found. The oily smell is noticeable as soon as you are close to the pits, but this is definitely something to be seen.

Santa Monica

Finally, another famous location in Los Angeles: Santa Monica. Although this is officially not part of the city of LA, but a city on its own, it is difficult to notice where one city ends and the other starts. Apart from the Santa Monica beach, a long and wide beach which becomes crowded during the weekends, an interesting site is the Harbor. Here there is an amusement park open all year around, and several cafes, ice cream parlors, small shops, etc.

The weather wasn't the best when we visited the harbor. Actually, it was damp and a bit cold, so we couldn't see the beach in all its glory. However, this was an unmissable stop, since this is where Route 66 ends, as a sign reminded us. It was easy to forget the reason of this trip (at least the official reason) was driving along Route 66, but finally, after almost 3,500 miles, we managed to reach our final destination. 

After a cold and wet start in a city we really appreciated, Chicago, it was only fair to finish again wet and cold in another city we enjoyed a lot.

As the Californian band The Doors used to sing... This is the end...

We made it!