On Monday, August 25, we left Sequoia National Park after a refreshing swim in the hotel pool and headed for LA. We arrived there at about 5PM and immediately set off for Venice Beach. This beach is known for its many weirdos and quirks hanging around. One of them gave me the opportunity to feel what it’s like to have 2 pythons hanging around your neck—live pythons, that is:
Why “Venice Beach”? Because back in the days, someone got the idea of creating an American Venice here, complete with canals and all:
In the evening, we went to Santa Monica. This town is pretty cozy and an ideal place for some shopping, strolling around and easy dining. Which is exactly what we did…
On Tuesday, we first spent a couple of hours on the beach in Malibu. Where San Franciscans would hang around in the park on a lazy Sunday afternoon, the Angelinos flock to their beaches en masse. Understandable, as the city itself is a vast and amorphous grid of freeways without much charm. It is even strongly discouraged to loiter in downtown after dark, as it is not safe. Therefore, downtown was not on our to-do list…
Instead, we headed for the Getty Museum in the afternoon. This beautiful museum is a little over 10 years old. It presents a well-balanced collection of paintings, sculptures, photography and other arts in an amazing setting. The buildings itself are neat pieces of modern architecture:
surrounded by lively and colorful gardens:
The Getty Museum has a pretty impressive art collection. Evi had a ball imitating some of the more peculiar pieces…
After visiting the museum, we set off for Beverly Hills. A short ride through posh neighborhoods such as Bel Air proved a little disappointing: you can only guess what the impressive villas of the World’s most famous movie stars look like, as they are all quite keen on their privacy and shelter their properties well from any nosey tourists.
On Wednesday, we witnessed a horrible scene smack in the middle of LA:
No, seriously, this is the decor of the film “War of the Worlds,” which can still be seen in Universal Studios Hollywood, the so-called “LA’s Entertainment Capital.” Seeing the studios where some major Hollywood productions were/are being shot was impressive, but far more importantly: Evi and I got to meet Shrek in person!!!
Even Filip could not resist having a picture taken with one of Woody Woodpecker’s friends, though I had to insist a little…
It was already getting dark when we left Universal Studios. Anyhow, we couldn’t return to the hotel for dinner before making this last quick picture…
On Thursday morning I dropped Filip off at the airport for his return to Belgium. Evi and I set off for our last three days, returning from LA to San Francisco. As usual by now, you will get that part with a little delay…
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