Sunday 4^th November

Today we booked a trip to see of much of Los Angeles as possible through Starlight Tours.  The bus was driven by a female, Jeanette who was just crazy.  She “hootered and hollered” at traffic (in a funny way), whistled and generally entertained us for an entire day.

  

We visited Venice Beach where people work out in outdoor gyms, while basketball and other sports are played in the fresh air and sunshine.  From here we were taken a short distance to Santa Monica Pier .
We arrived just as a small ceremony was taking place to honour two more American soldiers killed in Afghanistan.  There is a replica graveyard of the Arlington Cemeter on the beach. It was a sobering beginning to see this tourist attraction. There is has a fun park attached to the pier, however the lovely gelatos had our names on them and we couldn’t do two things at once, so the ferris wheel left without me.

We then drove through Bel Air to see many homes of the stars, including Miley Cyrus, Ben Stillar and so many others – I was crushed by both information overload and the opulence of the homes.

We ventured onto Rodeo drive for a cruise up and down and a short stop so I just drooled in the Louis Vuitton shop – no need for anything more.

From here onto the Farmers Market which was basically an outdoor food mall. To select a small portion of anything was impossible, so a healthy option was the next best thing.

We viewed the Hollywood sign and then were driven to Hollywood Boulevard where we saw more significant buildings and the stars on the street, along with so many different movie characters posing when tipped, but turning away if a photo was taken before a tip given(but I was quick!!)

This was another long day, however we are happy to have been driven around and we believe we saw all that this city can offer a tourist who is time poor.