Hurray for Hollywood...

The Metro Rapid

Kodak Theatre footpath entry

The shopping mall which leads to the Kodak Theatre

You head up the grand staircase and there are the doors to the Kodak Theatre

Yesterday we went by bus and train to Hollywood Bvd. This is where the footpath/pavement has star shapes set into the surface with stars’ names on them...these stars stretch up and down several blocks. Kodak Theatre is also there and has the most magnificent foyer; we could just imagine the red carpet and all the celebs there last week for the Oscars.

DH taking photos on Hollywood Bvd

We walked through here from the Kodak Theatre to where we had coffee

We had a coffee and brownie at a shopping complex just near Kodak Theatre and discovered we had a 50% voucher for Madame Tassauds’ entry wrapped around our coffee cups. Now DH and I are often sceptical of such offers, but as the Chinese Theatre (our original destination) was closed off for the setting up of some extravaganza) we thought we’d see how much our voucher would save...$12.50 each...so we went in. What a great decision! Yes they did try to get us to part with more money to buy all sorts of things but we politely declined and thoroughly enjoyed all 3 levels.

The following photos show DH and I meeting some friends in Madame Tussauds



'Mrs Goodwin, you're trying to seduce me'.
Not me mate! I just need a rest!! lol



After lunch, we walked up Hollywood Bvd, for what seemed like a hundred blocks, ( me and my hyperbole!lol ) to Vine. Now the area around Hollywood/Highlands station where we had started exploring Hollywood, was quite sophisticated but as we walked to Vine, it became quite seedy and even ‘down’ at heel perhaps?


And the touts were there too, jumping out at us wanting to sell all manner of tours etc. At Vine, we caught a train to Union Station and the area was again more salubrious. There were signs around there saying  ‘No loitering , no soliciting’ so consequently, no touts! We decided to come home on a different bus....outcome was...a big adventure and many hours to actually get back to Santa Monica.

Many of the buses that stopped near Union Station wouldn’t accept our type of ticket...fair enough...so we ended up going to Century City which we knew was on the way back to Santa Monica. There is a huge Westfield (yep! An Aussie company) there, so we walked there and found a supermarket to buy some food to take back to the motel. The shop had hot food and salad bars just like Sizzlers except you used takeaway containers and...well...took the food away!

Then we had to find where to cross Santa Monica Bvd, to get to the bus-stop on the other side...quite circuitous but safe with traffic lights. Eventually a Metro Rapid came along and we hopped on and I even had ‘tapped’ my ticket...and the driver said..’ Where you goin’ ‘? And we said ‘20^th’ and apparently it was the wrong bus...but I still can’t understand how he knew???? I’m sure he didn’t ask everyone who got on the bus the same question? I guess we must look different. However a few times in recent days people have asked us for directions so we must fit in a bit! Lol Nevertheless, we got home safely. Today we’re meeting Bruce’s cousin , Adrienne, who is driving up from Huntington Beach as I type. I wonder where we’ll go with her today?