Woken by the radio alarm, that a previous occupant of the
room had set, we nonetheless managed a slight lie in, before heading out onto
the streets of L.A. (be careful out there!).
The metro/transit line stop, for the airport, is about a
mile from the hotel. If you think that’s bad, then it’s over twice that from
the airport itself, though there is a shuttle bus form there. We walked. The walk took us right under the flight path of those aircraft landing and right behind the
end of the runway from which they were taking off. We watched a few leave and
arrive as we walked down.
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| Cabin Crew Prepare for Landing |
At the station, we purchased two TAP cards (like our Oyster
only a lot cheaper) and then loaded it up as a day pass, total cost $8 each. We
hadn’t been on the platform long before the train arrived, the first of 3 to
get us to destination. This was the green line, heading East. Six or so stops
and we changed to the blue line, heading North. Finally, in downtown L.A., we
took the red line east again, to Union station.
Before we had left, we had printed some self guided walking
tours. The first was for the Union Station area, the L.A. pueblo and
surrounding civic area of downtown. The station is quite interesting. Inside there are murals,
waterfalls and even a small aquarium. The waiting room is something straight
out of a black and white movie, heavy wooden and leather seating. It’s not hard
to imagine Humphrey Bogart sitting in one reading a newspaper, smoke filling
the room. The ceilings are decorated and adorned with big chandelier lighting.
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| Union Station Aquarium Resident |
Leaving the station we made our way to the pueblo. The tour
paperwork wasn’t too clear, so we missed the oldest house but walked by the
oldest church. The sun was beating down by now and there was precious little
shade. Any there was, seemed to be occupied by down and outs, sleeping
rough. Catherine was feeling the heat,
so it was slow going but at least I had worked out where we were on the map.
Several times this trip we have seen directions that say head west, etc. OK if
you know which is North, not so helpful to us limeys who are not used to the
grid street system. Don't go all boy scout on me and talk about using the sun as a guide either, I only did 2 weeks in the cubs!
We passed the court buildings, the civic hall and the L.A.
Times building, before making our way through a small park to the Disney
Theatre. The Disney Theatre is quite impressive, vast curving roof segments, of
stainless steel (I think), almost interlocking like the scales of some reptile.
With the blazing sun shining off it, it was quite blinding!
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| Walt Disney Theatre |
Along the street, we noticed the road was blocked off by the
police and we could here music thumping out. The sidewalk was open, so we
ambled down. There was some event on, maybe, we thought, a pre Emmy awards event.
Catherine asked one of the guards. Turned out to be a preview day for a new
museum, by invitation only. If only we’d
told them we were in town! ;-)
By this time, Catherine was desperate for a shade break, so
we made our way back to the metro. We took a train back to Union Station, fully
intending to do the China Town tour we had but as we sat, cooling down, a train
arrived heading towards Hollywood, our third tour, so we jumped on that,
heading for Hollywood and Vine station.
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