USA West Coast Roadtrip - Day 10

Today is Sunday. The weather in LA is less warm than expected, it is not different from Seattle, even though we are over 1,000 miles apart. We haven't needed our shorts so far.

Andreas wants to be at the concert arena by 11:00 AM to buy some Hatsune Miku merchandise. Then he plans to watch a soccer game, and in the evening the second Hatsune Miku concert in LA will take place.

Therefore, I head out alone around 10:00 AM and first walk along Broadway. Like in New York's Broadway, many former theaters are located here in beautiful Art Deco buildings. Government buildings are more likely to be built in the neoclassical style. Many old hotels from the turn of the century can also be found here.

On Broadway, there is also an old marketplace, the Grand Central Market from the year XXX. Today, countless street food stands are housed here, where you can try dishes from many countries. I plan to come back in the evening. Right at the market is a small cable car from 1901, which still operates today, named Angels Flight. I ride the short distance up the hill and then walk back down the stairs to catch the bus that will take me to LACMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts. I ask the bus driver how to pay, but she is very annoyed and gestures for me to just sit down. The ride takes 45 minutes.

Upon arriving at LACMA, I find that the Tar Pits Museum is also located there, a museum about the extinct animals of the last Ice Age; I will visit this right after.

Admission to LACMA costs 30 dollars for the permanent exhibition. In one building, very modern art is displayed, including a giant model highway that is also functional. Furthermore, paintings from many German, Austrian, and French artists such as Dix, Schiele, Klimt, etc., are exhibited.

In a second building, the Impressionists are displayed: Monet, Manet, but also older works of art, e.g., by Dürer or Cranach.

Before I head to the next museum, I sit in the sun for a few minutes.

The Tar Pits showcase Ice Age animals: mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, American lions, giant bears, giant sloths, shadow wolves, etc. These were found in the area of LA in so-called Tar Pits, which are oil-containing holes in the ground where they are extremely well preserved. A Tar Pit can also be found in front of the museum - there, methane still bubbles from the oil.

The museum also shows a 30-minute 3-D film about Ice Age animals and why they went extinct. Unfortunately, the film costs an additional 8 dollars, on top of the 18 dollar admission. In the museum shop, I get a magnet.

At 5:00 PM on Sunday, the museums close. I decide to walk the route back to Downtown LA, which is 6.5 miles, or nearly 10 kilometers. I pass through various residential areas, starting with a wealthy area with extremely well-kept houses monitored by security cameras, then some streets predominantly populated by Koreans. Later, just before Downtown with the tall mirrored skyscrapers, there are still a few streets with many homeless and small tent communities on the sidewalks. The high-rise district starts very abruptly.

I first walk to the Grand Central Market and get Sticky Rice with Mango, my favorite dish from Singapore. I eat it right away, get 2 Fantas for Andreas, and walk back along Broadway to the hotel.