Los Angeles-The Tour

Today (well yesterday actually) saw us do a tour of Los Angeles City and what an eye opener it was. Very different to what we expected. Most of it was fairly drab (except Rodeo Drive) and some parts pretty scarey. Los Angeles definately has a very different feel and look to New York. There are pockets of Highrises and they aren't as close together or high as NY. Our tour saw us drive over the HUGE interchange used in many movies including Speed. It is an amazing sight photos dod not do it justice. We went on to Hollywood and Mann's Chinese Theatre. The theatre itself was a horshoe shaped courtyard in front of a theatre ornately decorated with Chinese statues, pictures and carvings. The courtyard floor was made of large brick tiles (just under 1m sq) that had hand and foot prints and messages from stars. We only had a short time here and there were hundreds in the courtyard. You can see some of the ones we spotted. Also in this area the footpaths are lined with the stars 'stars'. There were area were also preformers playacting their character for tips. Some were worth it some not. Catwomen and Charlie Chaplin were great Marilyn was not looking so great although she did find a safety pin to keep her dress up at least. Thank goodness. Others outright rude when I took a photo with out permission. It was not expected to see spiderman just above your head hanging onto the scafolding!

One route and in the genereal area was Kodak Theatre (home of Oscars), saw again Hollywood sign, many movie locations some being Forest Gump & Independence Day. We saw the areas also where the Stars live and the shop, Rodeo Drive and Sunset Strip. We even saw where Julia Roberts' character was rejected from in Pretty Women. This area was nice enough but not as lush as we expected.

We stopped for lunch a The Farmers Market. There were heaps of places to choose from. We dicided to have Johnnie Rockets a traditional old style hamburger it was quick and tasty. We than had a look around the markets there was fruit & veges, bags, sunglasses etc in the market area and other retail shops around the outside. The girl had a look in American Girl which is a doll shop where you can buy clothes and accessories for you and your doll to match...at a price!

Our tour headed to Santa Monica and Venice Beach, but on the way we saw Beverly Hills (home of the rich and famous). We stopped in Santa Monica, nice but comparable to "Surfers Paradise" or some of the beaches on the Sunshine Coast but not a patch on some of our untouched "North QLD" beaches. Santa Monica has a famous wharf (used in the movies) with a "Fair-ground and side-shows on it. Sadly we were at Santa Monica for 45 minutes, so hardly time to make a fair judgement of the place.

The next place we found to be very seedy in nature, Venice Beach. The buildings were designed to look like the grand buildings of Venice Italy. They missed by a "country mile". The buildings looked tired, and the population was... alternative or trying to have "attitude". The side-walk stalls everywhere with street-performers harking for tips. A lot of big guys walking large dogs and endowed "ladies" strutting their stuff! All manner of in between, hair-styles, clothing, lifestyles, and even a small dog with a mohawk. Needless to say Venice Beach is not on our return list of places, and yes grandparents and all concerned we watched the girls extra closely. This was the only spot in the whole trip that we really felt uncomfortable.

After Venice Beach we headed back to Anaheim. We all certainly dozed off in the bus and I suspect many others did as well. The bus driver's comentary was very good and he certainly new his LA history as well trivia.

After we got back we headed back down to Down Town Disney for tea. We went to the Rainforest Cafe and had a lovely meal.