California 2025, Day 2, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica Pier

Tap LA

After a hearty breakfast at the hotel (Embassy Suites El Segundo, highly recommended), we took the Metro towards Hollywood. However, the payment system 'Tap LA' is unfortunately quite a mess. You actually just need to - whether on the subway or the bus - check out for the ride using the Tap app when boarding, and then $1.75 should be charged for every 2 hours. Supposedly, there should be a cap at $5 per day... in theory. In reality, the tapping works only about 50% of the time (which is why some bus drivers just wave you on), the deducted amounts vary between $0.50 and $2.50 per person (!), and although there should be a cap at $5, I ended up with $6 less on my card by the end of the day. All in all, unfortunately, one has to say: good idea, poorly executed. Other lessons learned: First of all: The German public transport system is definitely not perfect, but it's still worlds better than in LA. Departure times here are more like rough guidelines. Secondly: We may encounter some not-so-nice Americans, but so far, everyone has been super helpful and friendly. Thirdly: The Appenmaier family doesn't like bagels. Whether from the hotel or the supermarket, none of us are really keen on them.

Hollywood

Despite the issues with Tap LA, we arrived in Hollywood around 9:30 and walked the Walk of Fame. It's a bit of a shame that the orientation of the stars isn't consistent, so the names are regularly upside down. And since there are really a lot of stars, and you don't know all of these celebrities, it can get a bit tiring after a while. We found the Chinese Theater with the handprints and footprints of the stars more interesting (by the way, my handprints match perfectly with those of Captain America Chris Evans. Coincidence? Probably not). Other highlights: the Capital Records building and the Dolby Theatre, from which you get a good view of the Hollywood Sign. As someone who has been eagerly anticipating this expo every year since the inception of E3 (for those who are not gamers: E3 = Electronic Entertainment Expo = the formerly largest and most important video game fair in the world), my personal highlight on the way to Hollywood was already seeing the LA Convention Center ❤️.

Beverly Hills and Santa Monica Pier

After Hollywood, we headed to Beverly Hills (quite nice) and the Santa Monica Pier (also quite nice). On the way to the pier, we ended up spending a whopping $46 for 3 soft-serve ice cream cups, likely a result of the Beverly Hills elite's influence. From the pier, we then quickly headed back to the hotel (quickly means '2 hours' in this context), where we rounded off the day with a tasting of well-known American sweets after a short detour in Ralph's (supermarket chain): We found 'Reese's Peanut Butter Cups' quite tasty, Nestle's 'Butterfinger' was okay, and 'Hershey's Milk Chocolate' ('What could possibly go wrong with chocolate?', Daniel Appenmaier, 08/14, 18:45) was simply 'disgusting,' Daniel Appenmaier, 08/14, 18:46.

To be continued...

Distance traveled: 14 kilometers

Steps taken: 19,500