USA West Coast Roadtrip - Day 11

For today's day, I only made a rough plan. I have some muesli for breakfast, Andreas gets his breakfast at a Japanese center in the Grand Central Market. We take the small cable car together and then walk to the metro station, as we want to see Hollywood. At the ticket machine, we meet two Austrians who, like us, do not understand the ticket system. You have to buy a plastic card for 2 dollars at the machine and then load it. Each ride on the metro costs 1.75 dollars, even if you change lines in between.

We get on the right metro train and get off again at Hollywood Boulevard. There we also find the numerous stars of famous (and infamous) VIPs embedded in the ground.

The big Hollywood sign is also visible in the distance.

We stroll along the boulevard, where there are numerous souvenir shops, but not much interesting to discover otherwise.

Therefore, we book a Waymo to drive to Santa Monica. It is a small town right on the Pacific coast, seamlessly bordering LA.

Upon arrival, we walk to the pier. On the pier, there is an old small amusement park with rides. We are brave and get tickets for the roller coaster and the small Ferris wheel with open gondolas. While the Ferris wheel ride was rather leisurely, the roller coaster ride pushed us to our physical limits: the ups and downs, steep curves, and high speed create a mix of fear and fun.

Then we briefly go to the center of Santa Monica, passing through a park where squirrels are hopping around and even very directly and insistently begging for food.

With a piece of cake and a bottle of orange juice, we try to rest a bit, but the little squirrels do not give up.

Afterwards, we walk to the beach. Andreas has to help with a photo shoot before he sits down in the sand to look at the sea; in the meantime, I read a book.

At the beach, I can observe, in addition to the obligatory seagulls, a curlew (maybe a rain curlew?) and a couple of ornamental terns (?) .

We are approached by 3 people who turn out to be two Bavarians and an Australian - they ask Andreas to take a group picture at the pier of Santa Monica.

Around 7:00 in the evening, we set off again and take the metro back to the center and get our dinner at the Grand Central Market. We have it at our accommodation while the washing machine is running.

Since you need quarter dollars for the washing machine and dryer, I go out again to exchange money in a small shop nearby. When paying, the cashier pulls out an electric shock stick and says that it is needed in LA, especially in downtown. I am glad that we are leaving the city tomorrow. However, we were never attacked or confronted - there were no dangerous situations.

Eventually, the laundry is dry and folded, and it is time to sleep since we need to catch our flight to Phoenix the next day.