California 2025, Day 16+17, Venice Beach and Return Flight

Venice Beach

Since our return flight to Munich was at 17:30, we spent the morning visiting another one of the many beaches in LA: Venice Beach. Although we didn’t meet Arnold at Muscle Beach and Tony Hawk didn't show up at the skate park, we managed to pick up some souvenirs, making the trip worthwhile.

Return Flight

The return flight was - being a night flight - significantly more exhausting from my perspective than the outbound flight. The food was worse too (for breakfast, we received an inedible avocado omelet). However, I got to enjoy a classic film (Sneakers from 1992) again (the movie is set in San Francisco, and it's pretty cool to say, 'I’ve been to the place where this scene takes place'). I also watched a rather nice thriller (Drop - Deadly Date) up until the finale and a consistently awesome thriller with Jack Quaid (Companion). I can highly recommend this film to anyone who enjoys thrillers with a dash of science fiction and isn't deterred by a bit of gore.

Additionally, we were confronted with an overbooked flight for the first time and were close to giving up our seats for compensation of €800 per person. However, the issue of luggage felt too risky, and I’m also unsure if Lufthansa would have even entertained the offer. Once back in Germany, we were a bit surprised by how green, calm, and tidy everything is here. On the way back to beautiful Unterankenreute, we stopped at a bakery and treated ourselves to what we missed most in America: good coffee and decent bread.

Final Facts

Steps taken: over 160,000 (10,000 per day)

Kilometers walked: over 130 (8 per day)

Kilometers traveled: over 3,100 (194 per day)