We arrived at our final destination on the Coach Starlight (Amtrak Train), Los Angeles, California. Here was a city that neither of us were too sure what to expect. L.A. is after all home to the movie industry, and many of the most famous and wealthy people in the world, yet outside of its expensive main streets the City of Angels has a reputation for being a dangerous and unpleasant place to be.
We had no care for these kinds of musings when we arrived as it was close to 10pm and we'd been on the move from San Francisco since about 6.30am, the judgement of Los Angeles would have to wait until the morning. Morning came and with it a change of hotel to our main base for the next three and a half days, the neighbourhood is not the cleanest nor the most comforting after dark but it is well lit and a busy thoroughfare with the subway station right outside the door, and frequent patrols made by the LAPD keep the area respectable.
With little idea of what we were actually going to do here we opted to take a guided tour of the city's main attractions,Downtown L.A., Hollywood Blvd, the Hollywood sign and Beverly Hills (movie stars homes!). As we made our way downtown we were introduced to many of the more well known sights, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which made an appearance in the film Get Smart, starring Steve Carell (mum and dad you have seen it)...
We were also shown the Bank of America tower, the tallest building in L.A. We did get a photograph but it was not to official blog standards so it was destroyed...never to be looked upon again. Our guide pointed out the building on our right, noting that singer and occasional actress Britney Spears was often seen coming and going from here.... it was the Los Angeles County Court House (again bad photos).
We finally made a stop where we were able to gaze in wonder at one of the most recognisable signs in the world... the Hollywood sign...
Originally put up in the 1920's to advertise the Hollywoodland housing development, which was being built in the Hollywood hills long before the film industry moved in. In the 1930's the city took it over (well nearly all of it the L, A, N and D were torn down leaving the sign we see today) and it became synonymous with the fame that Hollywood was becoming known for.As we drove onto Hollywood Blvd that fame was blossoming around us. At Grauman's (formerly Mann's) Chinese Theatre, home of world movie premier's since Cecil B DeMille's King of Knigs in 1927, they were rolling out the red carpet for the premiere of the latest action movie; The Expendables starring, Bruce Willis, Jet Li, Sylvester Stallone and Arnie 'Da Governor' himself, we can only assume it it some kind of tribute to the magic of performance enhancing drugs.
We moved off then into Beverly Hills where many of the celebrities of today and yesterday make their homes... that is to say one of their homes...
Max Factor....anyone who has bought their products will have help contribute to the upkeep and purchase anything to the house, flowers and each tiny blade of grass!!!
The Infamous Osbournes house (or ex house now!!!) This is where Sharon and Ozzy had the documentary the Osbourns filmed....in one episode Mongo saw Ozzy threw a Ham over that very wall!!! It now belongs to Christina Aguilera....Dad she is a singer!!!!
Then to a famous Mansion house, Greystone, films filmed here include National Treasure 2 and Ghostbusters.
Then to Dr Phil's house.....made famous on Oprah he now has even more money then any other GP!!!! Enough to comfortably live in Beverly Hills and has is own TV show, not to shabby....nice Oprah what happened to helping the needy!!!
Throughout Beverly Hills beautifully palm tree lined streets...
Mansions appeared and disappeared, and looked moderate in size until we rounded a corner and became gigantic!!!
The Infamous Osbournes house (or ex house now!!!) This is where Sharon and Ozzy had the documentary the Osbourns filmed....in one episode Mongo saw Ozzy threw a Ham over that very wall!!! It now belongs to Christina Aguilera....Dad she is a singer!!!!
Then to a famous Mansion house, Greystone, films filmed here include National Treasure 2 and Ghostbusters.
Then to Dr Phil's house.....made famous on Oprah he now has even more money then any other GP!!!! Enough to comfortably live in Beverly Hills and has is own TV show, not to shabby....nice Oprah what happened to helping the needy!!!
Throughout Beverly Hills beautifully palm tree lined streets...
Mansions appeared and disappeared, and looked moderate in size until we rounded a corner and became gigantic!!!
Then to a Brit, the one and only Mr and Mrs D. Beckham, yes...this is their driveway, we drove up here, we were greeted with open arms once we presented the Union and St George flags!!!!
On the hill the 3 bay windows is the drawing room, it was here we had some tea with Posh and Becks!! If only!! They have to have a camera above there garbage bin and post box as people kept nicking them! To be that famous eh??!!
Anyway onward to Jeniffer Lopez and Mark Antony's house (they are married) we though we were going to see J-Lo but it was just her dog; there are always the cute one anyway!!
But the Mediterranean style mansion was pretty impressive!!!
Next to Michael Jackson's last residence before his passing last year, a property of Sean Connery was being rented out to him at the time of his death last year. The gates below are those we saw the Ambulance carrying the deceased Jako backing out during the event.
Then it was off to the most plush shopping street of all, Rodeo Drive so often the shopping street of the Famous and the Infamous and those who have money to burn; Chris and I of course felt right at home we are always seen in the most recent trends :-)
Tiffany of course, I own the latest catalogue already having visited 4 of the stores personally!!
The hotel below hosts many of the actors when the Oscars etc are on at the start of the year, with all the awards with weeks of each other that stars take up residency..many flock to the Beverly Hills hotel, but this is the secret gem...obviously not that secret as all the tour guides know about it!!!
Our tour came to an end and we had a good idea how to spend our next 3 days, so we were dropped at the Farmers Market, greeted by the Spirit of Los Angeles....
...the farmers market was a much more down to earth shopping experience...
The grove is a outdoor shopping mall adjacent to the farmers market, they are almost one, but it was home to the West Coast Cathedral of St Abercrombie and St Fitch!
Having burnt only a small hole in our pockets, we were somewhat peckish, we floated around the restaurant looking for a steak or another chunk of meat we could stuff our face with (no jokes please!!) and we decided to have a look at the Cheesecake Factory menu, they have seemed to be hugely popular every where we have been so far. We can see why and extensive food menu as well as Cheesecake menu we were interested in, a brief wait for a table was followed by a brief wait in front of every cheese cake you could possibly imagine....the Chocolate brownie Cheesecake looked AMAZING....but would be about a weeks worth of calories!! Anyone who has been to USA will know a serving here is not the same as the UK!!!
though sun, sand and surf could wait for the moment when there was an altogether more important job to be done...
On our arrival onto the beach we found it pleasantly empty; empty enough to be nicely quiet, but not so empty that we had to worry about being raped or mugged by a passer by. We took this opportunity to claim the Western Californian coastline for Her Majesty... oh my god no flag! However do not despair, we British are a resourceful bunch, how do you think we managed to rule the entire world for more than 200 years... Please note that the whole world does not include Russia, China, or South America... these areas were not discovered until the mid 1960's and when they were discovered they were found to be a little cold and a bit too far away from anywhere for anybody to really give a crap as to what was going on there. Anyway as I said we are a resourceful bunch, we were able to improvise with the flag we carry with us everywhere in case of just such an emergency... the ceremony could continue...
God Save the Queen... (P.S Historical notes provided by Dr Chris P. Shang Highduk of the Jesus Institute of National Given Order or J.I.N.G.O)
We decided to try and take some modeling photographs for when we are made honourary members of the A&F club for sevices to their stores worldwide. we got the idea after watching some girl in a swimsuit (we both were watching, Hannah, and purely for the purposes of humour) obviously she was tring for a jumpstart at a modelling carreer, it was incredible she really went for it running the fingers through the hair to let the wind catch it (which just blew it straight into her face), then of to get some 'kneeling in the water' shots ohh funny, because as we found out later the water is freaking freezing.
On the hill the 3 bay windows is the drawing room, it was here we had some tea with Posh and Becks!! If only!! They have to have a camera above there garbage bin and post box as people kept nicking them! To be that famous eh??!!
Anyway onward to Jeniffer Lopez and Mark Antony's house (they are married) we though we were going to see J-Lo but it was just her dog; there are always the cute one anyway!!
But the Mediterranean style mansion was pretty impressive!!!
Next to Michael Jackson's last residence before his passing last year, a property of Sean Connery was being rented out to him at the time of his death last year. The gates below are those we saw the Ambulance carrying the deceased Jako backing out during the event.
Then it was off to the most plush shopping street of all, Rodeo Drive so often the shopping street of the Famous and the Infamous and those who have money to burn; Chris and I of course felt right at home we are always seen in the most recent trends :-)
Tiffany of course, I own the latest catalogue already having visited 4 of the stores personally!!
The hotel below hosts many of the actors when the Oscars etc are on at the start of the year, with all the awards with weeks of each other that stars take up residency..many flock to the Beverly Hills hotel, but this is the secret gem...obviously not that secret as all the tour guides know about it!!!
Our tour came to an end and we had a good idea how to spend our next 3 days, so we were dropped at the Farmers Market, greeted by the Spirit of Los Angeles....
...the farmers market was a much more down to earth shopping experience...
The grove is a outdoor shopping mall adjacent to the farmers market, they are almost one, but it was home to the West Coast Cathedral of St Abercrombie and St Fitch!
They also had a bakery for dogs, it consisted of cakes, chocolates and everything humans eat they have a doggie version; all of this for our little pooches or best friends as they are more fondly know to those who don't use them as a fashion statement!!
Having burnt only a small hole in our pockets, we were somewhat peckish, we floated around the restaurant looking for a steak or another chunk of meat we could stuff our face with (no jokes please!!) and we decided to have a look at the Cheesecake Factory menu, they have seemed to be hugely popular every where we have been so far. We can see why and extensive food menu as well as Cheesecake menu we were interested in, a brief wait for a table was followed by a brief wait in front of every cheese cake you could possibly imagine....the Chocolate brownie Cheesecake looked AMAZING....but would be about a weeks worth of calories!! Anyone who has been to USA will know a serving here is not the same as the UK!!!
From here we took the bus to Hollywood Boulevard except we got off a little early about a mile early actually meant we were walking down the residential area....oops. A taxi driver started curb crawling a bit ahead of us we weren't going to give him the satisfaction, he pulled up and we walked straight passed....nice try mister but were have legs for a reason....not to pay you a fiver to take us 1/2 a mile (as it was by this point!)
What the little walk enabled us to see was the start of the walk of fame it was identifiable by the below statue and the change of side walk from concrete slabs to granite!!!
After a walk to Hollywood and Highland metro station we took the metro back to Vermont and Santa Monica to our hotel and the land of nod!!!
The next morning we made our way down to Santa Monica Beach, expecting (as the guide book told us) to find it heaving with tourists...
though sun, sand and surf could wait for the moment when there was an altogether more important job to be done...
On our arrival onto the beach we found it pleasantly empty; empty enough to be nicely quiet, but not so empty that we had to worry about being raped or mugged by a passer by. We took this opportunity to claim the Western Californian coastline for Her Majesty... oh my god no flag! However do not despair, we British are a resourceful bunch, how do you think we managed to rule the entire world for more than 200 years... Please note that the whole world does not include Russia, China, or South America... these areas were not discovered until the mid 1960's and when they were discovered they were found to be a little cold and a bit too far away from anywhere for anybody to really give a crap as to what was going on there. Anyway as I said we are a resourceful bunch, we were able to improvise with the flag we carry with us everywhere in case of just such an emergency... the ceremony could continue...
God Save the Queen... (P.S Historical notes provided by Dr Chris P. Shang Highduk of the Jesus Institute of National Given Order or J.I.N.G.O)
We decided to try and take some modeling photographs for when we are made honourary members of the A&F club for sevices to their stores worldwide. we got the idea after watching some girl in a swimsuit (we both were watching, Hannah, and purely for the purposes of humour) obviously she was tring for a jumpstart at a modelling carreer, it was incredible she really went for it running the fingers through the hair to let the wind catch it (which just blew it straight into her face), then of to get some 'kneeling in the water' shots ohh funny, because as we found out later the water is freaking freezing.
Don't we look SEXY!! They are all so natural to, we just look like this everyday from morning until night!!! The girl on the beach was hillarious bet she was just jealous of us!!!!
Then to the ocean, unbelivable to think that out there is the largest ocean in the world just one giant body of water...
We went walking in the ocean some more nice picitures of us, what beautiful children you produced Ma and Pa.....
Looky some footprints in the sand our impression on the earth if only for a moment
We took the opportunity to get a picture of the two of us with the ocean behind us, Chris has become quite the one handed photographer!
As we said earlier, this is the crowded beach.......
So crowded isn't it!!! I mean we just couldn't move!!
Then to the ocean, unbelivable to think that out there is the largest ocean in the world just one giant body of water...
We went walking in the ocean some more nice picitures of us, what beautiful children you produced Ma and Pa.....
Looky some footprints in the sand our impression on the earth if only for a moment
We took the opportunity to get a picture of the two of us with the ocean behind us, Chris has become quite the one handed photographer!
As we said earlier, this is the crowded beach.......
So crowded isn't it!!! I mean we just couldn't move!!
From the beach we headed for the Pier, it is just after the start of the pedestrian area that Route 66 comes to an end. Over 2400 miles of this historic highway all terminates right at this point wow and only 4 weeks ago we were in Chicago, Illinois on the outskirts of which route 66 begins... wow!!
On our depature from the pier, we headed for the 3rd Street Promenade, another open air shopping mall, which included another A&F, you will be glad to know that the money remained in the bank, only $8 dollars for our Starbucks left it! 
Further along this road we discovered a British flag displayed outside of a shop, what could this be?? Well OMG it truely was a sight for sore eyes
The Great British store, run by 3 British Ladies it had everything a British individual could desire; Robinsons, Bassets, Fruitella, Chewits, Walkers crisps and Shortbread.....I could go on; we indulged our little british appitite in Cherry Drops (Crazy) and Fruitella (Mongo) and Mongo added the Orange and Mango Squash she had so desparatly wanted....apperently the Americans and Canadians don't do squash!! 
And it welcomed Her Majestys subjects.... immediatly after we passed this sign it ran away, obviously keen not to give the information to the Amaerican joggers behind us... Citizens of the Empire only!!
At the top of the park, that's right the top!, we reached the Griffith Observatory, a centre, key to the terrestrial exploration of space due to the clear atmosphere high up in the Hollywood
On our depature from the pier, we headed for the 3rd Street Promenade, another open air shopping mall, which included another A&F, you will be glad to know that the money remained in the bank, only $8 dollars for our Starbucks left it!
On our way to the bus stop on Santa Monica, we came across the Old Spice advert, we had yet to see a paper one. We were introduced to these by Emma in Canada, they are so funny. Check out the link's below to get the picture (when it opens, pause the video and let it load first)
here is the paper add, you should understand it now!!!
Further along this road we discovered a British flag displayed outside of a shop, what could this be?? Well OMG it truely was a sight for sore eyes
The Great British store, run by 3 British Ladies it had everything a British individual could desire; Robinsons, Bassets, Fruitella, Chewits, Walkers crisps and Shortbread.....I could go on; we indulged our little british appitite in Cherry Drops (Crazy) and Fruitella (Mongo) and Mongo added the Orange and Mango Squash she had so desparatly wanted....apperently the Americans and Canadians don't do squash!!
Having taken our 1 1/2 hour bus journey back to the hotel, we headed from Griffith park, given to the city of Los Angeles by a Welsh man Corlonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith....well his
parents had a sense of humour didn't they!!! And the name isn't Welsh at all is it??!!
And it welcomed Her Majestys subjects.... immediatly after we passed this sign it ran away, obviously keen not to give the information to the Amaerican joggers behind us... Citizens of the Empire only!!
At the top of the park, that's right the top!, we reached the Griffith Observatory, a centre, key to the terrestrial exploration of space due to the clear atmosphere high up in the Hollywood
Hills...
The site gives wonderful views of the cosmos but also of the entireity of the world below us, the Hollywood Hills...
all the way to Downtown Los Angeles, that tiny collection of skyscrapers just left of the centre of the picture.
The giant telescopes (this is what they look like ma!) were working, even as we were there, constantly watching the sky...
As the sun began to set Chris once again became quite the little artist looking for that perfect picture...
but bearing in mind that we had to walk through the whole park to get to our next destination we chose to leave the obsevatory before the sun completely set, to avoid nasty things happening to us...
A long walk later, though not as long as those we'd already done today we took a short subway ride to Universal Studios and Universal City, the shopping centre attached to the theme park... What this picture does not show is that we had to walk uphill for 15 mins before getting to this point...
But wow the top was so worth the walk, it reminded us of being back in Las Vegas, less hookers and gun stores, more Jurassic Park and Shrek...
The famous Universal Globe...
Immortalised in this rotating statue graced the entrance...
An internationally known symbol that introduces many of the greatest movies of all time.
Film and Television...
There was just time for some dinner and the chance to purchse a patch. only one destination in mind, Hard Rock Cafe, Hollywood...
The long walk back down the hill seemed less than the uphill climb, maybe because we'd eaten, maybe because we knew that we were going to our bed or maybe because the steady gradient of the downward slope interacting with the natural laws of gravity dragging us towards the centre of the earth, therfore requiring us to expend less energy in our leg muscles...who can say.
The site gives wonderful views of the cosmos but also of the entireity of the world below us, the Hollywood Hills...
all the way to Downtown Los Angeles, that tiny collection of skyscrapers just left of the centre of the picture.
The giant telescopes (this is what they look like ma!) were working, even as we were there, constantly watching the sky...
As the sun began to set Chris once again became quite the little artist looking for that perfect picture...
but bearing in mind that we had to walk through the whole park to get to our next destination we chose to leave the obsevatory before the sun completely set, to avoid nasty things happening to us...
A long walk later, though not as long as those we'd already done today we took a short subway ride to Universal Studios and Universal City, the shopping centre attached to the theme park... What this picture does not show is that we had to walk uphill for 15 mins before getting to this point...
But wow the top was so worth the walk, it reminded us of being back in Las Vegas, less hookers and gun stores, more Jurassic Park and Shrek...
The famous Universal Globe...
Immortalised in this rotating statue graced the entrance...
An internationally known symbol that introduces many of the greatest movies of all time.
Film and Television...
There was just time for some dinner and the chance to purchse a patch. only one destination in mind, Hard Rock Cafe, Hollywood...
The long walk back down the hill seemed less than the uphill climb, maybe because we'd eaten, maybe because we knew that we were going to our bed or maybe because the steady gradient of the downward slope interacting with the natural laws of gravity dragging us towards the centre of the earth, therfore requiring us to expend less energy in our leg muscles...who can say.
We arrived back at the hotel close to midnight in the knowledge that tomorrow we could avoid buying a metro ticket as we could reach everywhere we needed to go on foot... Those are the words that make Chris wish his ambulance was nearby...
The adventures of Mongo and the Boy written and experienced by
Chris 'One step forward, two steps back, one step forward, complain for five minutes, recieve punch to the face and agree that continuing on would be the best option' Davies
and
Kate 'Ten steps forward, ten steps forward, consult map, twenty steps back, deliver blow to irritating bastards face, twelve steps forward' Davies.
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