Hollywood tour

We took the Hollywood tour today on a coach with a South African driver called Andy and passengers from the USA, Canada, Australia, England, New Zealand, and even Romania.  The driver gave interesting and amusing commentary throughout the day which began at about 9.15 am.

Collected from Golden Grove, we drove along the various freeways into LA, where we stopped at Hollywood Boulevard.  Free to leave the bus for more than 90 minutes, we strolled along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, inspecting the various stars' names etched into the pavement.  We spotted many names we'd never heard of, but also Australia's Hugh Jackman, Barbara Eden of I Dream of Jeanie, Sharon Stone, several with the surname of Clark, and many more.  We also crossed to the other side of the street to see more names.  They've even got Mickey Mouse and Godzilla there.  Donald Trump's there too.  (What's he doing there?).  It costs $US30,000 for a star to have their name added to the Walk of Fame.  Clint Eastwood's name's not there.  He's got better things to spend his money on.

We also saw where stars have placed their hands and feet.  I was delighted to find John Wayne, also Bud Abbott and Lou Costello ("Hey Abbott!!!).  John Wayne didn't put his hands in the cement, but he did put his shoes in - roughly the same size as mine.  I always thought I had similar qualities to John Wayne.

Soon, we had lunch at the Farmers Markets, where we watched the last 15 minutes of the World Cup match that saw Chile defeat Spain 2-0.  We then drove into Beverley Hills where we saw Sunset Boulevard, Rodeo Drive and other places where our driver shared various star stories.  One: Vehicles of three tons and over can no longer drive into residential streets because Lucille Ball put a stop to it.  Another: A member of the Rolling Stones once climbed out of his window at the Standard Hotel and turned the hotel's sign upside down.  Management thought it a good idea, did the same to all its hotels, and that's how they remain today.  

In the afternoon, we reached Santa Monica, one end of Route 66.  Santa Monica boasts a very wide, sandy beach.  It also is famous for its pier, made more famous in Forrest Gump.  

Our South African driver mentioned household names such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.  He predicted that the name Leon Musk, a fellow-white South African responsible for the first electric cars in America, will one day be up there with the likes of Gates and Jobs.  The driver quipped that he himself and Musk were both now 'African Americans'.

At Hollywood Boulevard and again at Santa Monica, I was able to drink chai with lactose-free milk.  For me, this makes the US score huge points, unlike my own country.

Hollywood Blvd

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Tourists view the hand- and foot-prints of the rich and famous.

The shoe-prints of John Wayne

The hand-prints of Abbott and Costello whom I loved as a kid.

We had lunch at the Farmers Markets

Santa Monica is famous for its pier, the most easterly point of Route 66.

Santa Monica Beach

The pier at Santa Monica

Universal Studios

Today we visited the world famous Universal Studios.  Just inside, we had breakfast as we had had to get up early to take a 90 minute bus journey to get here.  Soon, we found the House of Horrors, a dark haunted house you walk through.  We found Frankenstein in there.  Creepy monsters jump out and scare you half to death.  I'd love to work in there as a scary monster, jumping out at people.  That would be cool.

We strolled through 'Westminster', a street with a London theme, followed by another street with a French theme, containing the Moulin Rouge.  In this street, we found the motor bike and side-car used in the movie Inglourious Basterds.  Shortly, we both took a ride on Despicable Me, an animated ride with simulator, depicting Gru and the Minions.  I liked it.

Universal Studios serves as both a theme park as well as being THE Hollywood studios, where much of Hollywood's filming takes place.  The studios are nestled within a sizable hill on split levels, with the famous Beverley Hills in the distance.  Between the Beverley Hills and Universal Studios is a huge expanse of flat land, containing many buildings and homes, as well as the Disney Studios and Warner Bros Studios.  From Universal Studios, there is quite a view.

After we met the very sexy Marilyn Monroe, we took the Studio Tour, which any visitor must do.  You board a tram and get taken through the various film sets down hill from the northern and eastern sides of the theme park.  Hollywood constructs whole streets and towns, using usually just the facades of buildings, to great effect in its filming.  We saw City Hall which helped Michael J Fox get home in Back To The Future.  A nearby street was the set of Desperate Housewives.  One of the houses was used much earlier in The Munsters.  A short distance away saw the filming of Leave It To Beaver back in...the 50s?  Just around the corner was the filming of Alfred Hitchcock's classic Psycho.  And we saw the crashed aeroplane and all its debris still littering the ground from War Of The Worlds.  We also saw how they did the parting of the Dead Sea, and afterwards Jaws himself leaped out of the water to scare us all!!

In the afternoon, we saw a show called 'Special Effects', an amusing and informative half hour on how films are done, how tricks are performed, and how sets are fabricated to achieve a desired appearance.  Once out of there, Jean took the Simpsons ride, the Mummy ride and the Transformers ride.  It being a very warm day, we went together twice on the watery Jurassic Park ride, which sailed past T-Rex and other prehistoric critters that tried to frighten us, and where we both got very wet on the final downhill slam into the water below.

We had a good laugh in here.

All sorts visit the Universal Studios.

Universal Studios has a French theme as well as English and Italian.

Jean went on the Simpsons ride.  I stayed off.

The Studio Tour is a must do.

I met Marilyn.

We saw the set of Desperate Housewives.

Crashed aircraft from War of the Worlds.

Some rides like the mummy ride and Jurassic Park are on the bottom level of Universal Studios.  The rest is up the top.  It takes about six minutes to move by escalator between the upper and lower levels.

The foothills of Beverley Hills..

More of Beverley Hills in the distance..