Up at 0730, down for breakfast. Conscious of how much I’d been eating I just had cereal. And porridge. And some fruit. And a yogurt. And an orange juice. Well, it was included in the room price so I felt obliged.
Got the courtesy bus to the airport to then go on to the museum. There was a Chinese family on the bus, 3 adults and 2 small children that had a total of 10 bags – 8 big suitcases and 2 hand luggage, plus a stroller. Maybe they were smuggling suitcases.
Got to the airport and asked at information about how to get to the museum and they very helpfully pointed outside to the bus that was just pulling out. The next one wasn’t for another hour so nothing else to do but get a coffee and wait. Bus arrived and the airport traffic was awful, we had to stop at every terminal along with all the hotel, car park and rental car shuttles, and it took 12 minutes just to get out of the airport. The bus had a big sign on it with the destination but that didn’t stop everyone asking the driver where she was going.
At least the bus had wifi.
Eventually got onto the freeway and the traffic was pretty bad. Google maps said it would take 30 minutes, actually it took about 20.
Because I read a lot of American crime and watch a lot of US shows, I recognised some of the places – Sepulveda Boulevard, Van Nuys, Wilshire Boulevard etc. The freeway was 6 lanes of traffic, moving, but not quickly, and it was 11:30, which I doubted was rush hour. We both decided we wouldn’t come back here again, but I said that the first time I came here in 1994.
The bus arrived after a very bumpy ride – the road was terrible – and dropped us off at the University of California, so I can say I went to UCLA. I also went to Cambridge University (OK, for a day to look around).
Waited for the bus to take us to the museum, one came after 15 minutes but it turned out we were on the wrong side of the road, so had to cross over and luckily only had to wait for another 5 minutes. The weather was great – sunny and about 24c. The bus was cheap, $1.75 USD each.
The bus drove around the university, which was very nice – green lawns, white stone buildings and large, impressive houses. Obviously the rich area. I looked at Google maps and noticed we turned into Sunset Boulevard and drove alongside the Bel Air Country Club, so yeah, a rich area. I’m surprised they let me in.
There was a small train up to the museum from the car park, then we stopped at the cafe for lunch – I had a burrito, Song had noodles. By the time we’d finished it was nearly 14:00.
Went to the European gallery, paintings by Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Degas and a Van Gogh. Very nice but not a huge collection – we’d been spoilt in the past by visiting The Louvre and Musee D’Orsay where they have hundreds, if not thousands.
Walked around the garden which had some very colourful and exotic flowers, then into an exhibition by an American photographer called Robert Mapplethorpe which I liked. They had several outside areas which had amazing views over LA – the 12 lane San Diego Freeway, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Santa Monica and the sea.
Back on the bus to UCLA, we had a bit of time to kill before the bus to the airport so had a walk around a place called Westwood Village, a small shopping and restaurant strip next to the university which had a small farmer’s market going on. Very pleasant, you wouldn’t know you were in the middle of LA. Waited for the bus to the airport, there was one already there but he said he was a standby. After the scheduled bus still hadn’t come after 15 minutes I asked the driver of the standby bus why he couldn’t become the live bus and take the 13 people waiting to the airport. He said he was the standby bus and the other one would be along momentarily and walked off. He came back 10 minutes late and said the other bus would be along momentarily and I reminded him he said that 10 minutes ago. Bad Tripadvisor review coming up. The bus arrived 30 minutes late but we were in no danger of missing the flight (I hoped). Got another bus back to the hotel to pick up the bags, then back to the airport to wait for the plane for the 15.45 hour flight back home. Got through check in and security in about 10 minutes, I’ve never been through so quickly – shoes on, belt on, no trays for metal just put it in the backpack and out the other side.
So that’s the end of our 2016 epic mega Europe and North America (with a break back in Australia) trip.
I’ve had problems uploading photos to Flickr for the last week or so, but will try again when I get back.
Next year we’re thinking of doing another cruise either to the Pacific Islands or South East Asia, a sure sign that we are getting old. Or we may travel in Aus, we haven’t decided.