Tourism through L.A.

The Hollywood sign on a very overcast day

I took a couple of sightseeing tours with Starline Tours. I highly recommend them if you’re ever in L.A.

Warner Brother Studios

I did a full day tour at Warner Brothers Studios which was really a lot of fun! You went around the studio lots in little cars with a guide and you would learn which famous movies and stars where shot where and when. It was amazing to see such life like sets - and I must say, from someone who has some background in films, I truly enjoyed this and I learnt a lot! My favourite parts were the museums of film memorabilia (we weren’t allowed to take photos) including a whole Harry Potter level, and the film sets of Friends and The Big Bang Theory. Way too cool.

On the couch in the Friends set!

Harry Potter memorabilia

Matrix car

On tour bus: The famous Spider Man 'upside down kiss'

I also made a couple of cool Belgium friends, who I later bumped into at Santa Monica on my grand L.A. tour coincidentally!

That leads into my second tour: The grand tour of L.A. City and Downtown, Hollywood (Hollywood Boulevard, etc), Beverly Hills and the stars homes, Santa Monica and Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach. That was really fun! The only downside was doing it alone. I felt a bit isolated on this tour. Everyone was in couples or groups of friends who weren’t very inclusive and found me a little strange that I was on my own. I got looks from people as if I must have been dumped on my honeymoon and went on the trip alone... Or told by the tour guide: “I’m sorry, since you’re a single, you’re going to have to sit here”, pointing to the only empty seat next to an old lady who looked like she was on her very last tour. But I made the most of it and had a great time exploring the world my own way at my own pace, which has its advantages too.

A sculptor, on Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica Beach

Venice Beach was probably my favourite place in L.A. and I was only there about an hour - but that was more then enough to soak up the vibe and experience the place. Being the 4th of July - it was a hot spot for sights to be seen in every direction. You really didn’t have to move and the entertainment came to you!

Venice Beach buskers

The busy streets of Venice Beach

And muscles galore on Muscle Beach...

Here’s just a few word pictures to tantalise you:

• Huge diversity and talent of the street performers,
• R&B bands trying to get you to listen to their music on headphones,
• The stalls full of amazing colourful tourism crap,
• Muscle Beach with the most amazing displays of muscles flexing you’ll ever see, with a whole workout gym and a HUGE muscle comp that was getting a lot of attention
• Squash courts, basketball courts, biking tracks on the beach
• And everything else you expect to be there - including beautiful bodies, strapped with Lycra on roller-blades....
• But funniest of all: tons of people calling outside of shop-fronts “The Doctor’s in! Come get your prescriptions here!”. I found out that 'back in the day' there used to be local doctors on Venice Beach that would prescribe weed for medicinal uses and this has been legal here for some years, but only on Venice Beach. So now it has become a bit of an institution and a tourism attraction where you can go have a “check up”.