Los Angeles, the City of Angels appeared on our itinary by chance as we couldn´t fly directly from Rarotonga to South America, Quito (Equador.) But, as we were passing by, why not look around...
Left & Right: Waterworld becomes real at universal!
Day two, we ventured further afield into Central Hollywood (ed. using the metro,) to stride the Hollywood Walk of Fame and consume our first real American breakfast! Huge doesn´t do the portions justice and however tasty it was we simply couldn´t finish it in time for our Starline Tours City bus tour. Ironically, on a good olde English, red, open air double decker bus, we passed names like Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive, and numerous others, as we ground our way around this huge city and gained insight into the lives of various movie stars, aka. demigods! If you are the sort of person who reads ¨Hello,¨ ¨ÖK,¨ or works as a member of the paparazzi you´d love such a tour... we simply tolerated it as another box to be ticked.
Initial concerns over US immigration ( in light of the extent of travel to date) was unfounded as the good women and men of Homeland security were both friendly & polite once we´d passed both the finger print and iris scan tests!! Quite how they would have behaved should we have failed doesn´t bear thinking about.... so we won´t! Safely delivered to our hotel of choice- the Sportsmans Lodge -by limo (!!!?!) we made the most of its North Hollywood locality and arranged a visit to Universal Studios the following morning.
Left: Miranda enjoy´s the pre-arranged taxi!
As you´d expect this theme park come working film studios were big, bright and loud! However the rides, 4D cinematic shows & behind the scenes tours provided a real entertaining change from the quiet solitude of Raro. Although, Miranda was less impressed by being singled out for an onstage performance!! In all, good value for money and that ´s not even mentioning the hilarious people watching we enjoyed free of charge, courtesy of the Americans, their, love of fast food and over confidence!
Left & Centre: Classic tourist shot! Right: Could be one of my old golf´s?
Left: Magnum PI´s motor. Centre: Toddie´s latest catch. Right: Shrek
Left: Toddie & Miranda stop off in Springville. Right: Meeting the locals!
Left & Right: Waterworld becomes real at universal!
Day two, we ventured further afield into Central Hollywood (ed. using the metro,) to stride the Hollywood Walk of Fame and consume our first real American breakfast! Huge doesn´t do the portions justice and however tasty it was we simply couldn´t finish it in time for our Starline Tours City bus tour. Ironically, on a good olde English, red, open air double decker bus, we passed names like Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive, and numerous others, as we ground our way around this huge city and gained insight into the lives of various movie stars, aka. demigods! If you are the sort of person who reads ¨Hello,¨ ¨ÖK,¨ or works as a member of the paparazzi you´d love such a tour... we simply tolerated it as another box to be ticked.
Left: All American breackfast......huge! Right: Walk of the starts.
3 plus hours later and fully ´gossed up´ we disembarked at Santa Monica Pier to walk along the waters edge towards Venice beach @ Baywatch beach! Unfortunately we didnt make it that far and so simply returned to our hotel - though that in itself took a further 4 hours - such is the shear size of LA and the traffic that clogs its every inch of asphalt! (ed.The hotels pool was a refreshing welcome!)
Left: Santa Monica pier. Right: Forest gump!
With a realistic view of what´s actually possible in LA without a car and limited time before our next departing flight, Miranda and I opted to return to Universal City on the 3rd day for a further fix of commercialism. Feasting on shrimp in multiple forms at Bubba Gumps and sugary cinnamon buns at Cinnabon we mentally did the calorie arithmetic & deducted another few days off our lives, before settling into the IMAX cinema to watch the new animated Charles Dickens version of ´A Christmas Carol´. (ed. as we will never get to use the Bournemouth IMAX!!)
Above: You may look stupid, but the effects are excellent!
Left: Miranda finds an ideal T-Shirt! Right:
LA over, we returned to the Airport to await our 1 am flight to Quito (Equador) via Panama..............................................
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