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 really just need to - whether in the subway or on the bus - check out with the help of the Tap App when boarding, and then you should actually be charged $1.75 once for each 2-hour period, and there should be a cap at $5 per day... ideally. In reality, tapping only works in at most 50% of cases (which is why some bus drivers just wave you on), the deducted amounts vary between individuals (!) from $0.50 to $2.50, 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, it has to be said: good idea, poorly executed. More learnings: First: The German public transport system is definitely not perfect, but still worlds better than that in LA. Departure times here are more like very rough guidelines. Second: We will surely encounter some not-so-nice Americans, but so far everyone has been super helpful and friendly. Third: The Appenmaier family does not like bagels. Whether from the hotel or the supermarket, none of us is really keen on them.

Hollywood

Despite the difficulties with Tap LA, we arrived in Hollywood around 9:30 and walked the Walk of Fame there. It’s a bit unfortunate that the orientation of the stars is inconsistent, so the names are regularly upside down. And since there are indeed a ridiculous number of stars, and you definitely don't know all of these celebrities, it can get somewhat tiring after a while. We found the Chinese Theater with the hand and footprints of the stars much more interesting (by the way, my handprints fit perfectly with those of Captain America Chris Evans. Coincidence? Probably not). Other highlights included the Capitol Records building and the Dolby Theatre, from which you can get a good view of the Hollywood Sign. As someone who has looked forward to this expo every year since the beginning of E3 (for all non-gamers: E3 = Electronic Entertainment Expo = the previously largest and most important video game fair in the world), my personal highlight was already spotted on the way to Hollywood: the LA Convention Center ❤️.

Beverly Hills and Santa Monica Pier

After Hollywood, we continued to Beverly Hills (quite nice) and then to Santa Monica Pier (also quite nice). On the way to the pier, we apparently, as a result of the Beverly Hills elite's influence, spent a whole $46 for 3 soft serve cups. From the pier, we then quickly headed back to the hotel (quickly means '2 hours' in this case), where after a brief detour to Ralph's (supermarket chain), we ended the day with a tasting of well-known American sweets: We found 'Reese's Peanut Butter Cups' quite tasty, Nestlé's 'Butterfinger' was okay, and 'Hershey's Milk Chocolate' ('What can go wrong with chocolate?', Daniel Appenmaier, 14.08, 18:45) was just 'disgusting', Daniel Appenmaier, 14.08, 18:46.

To be continued...

Distance traveled: 14 kilometers

Steps taken: 19,500