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Published: September 13th 2007
The title will make more sense after we retrace our steps across the States by rail. Hopefully this will be more interesting and relaxing than being force fed through airports with little time to spare between flights and then sitting knee to neck on crowded planes - time will tell.
Los Angeles for 3 days- what can we say about somewhere that is usually a transit stop between flights! Lesson 1 was how to get around the place because we weren’t actually in LA but at Burbank near the airport.
Given the geographic isolation of Burbank, what do you think two Aussies would decide to do…that’s right...book tickets to two evening concerts with no idea where the venues were, because they sounded great! Add to that, all the guidebooks to LA tell you to drive, and not attempt public transport, because that’s what the locals do.
The first trip was to a Crowded House Concert at the Greek Theatre on Col’s real birthday. The second was to a jazz concert celebrating Nancy Wilson’s 70th birthday year (that seemed to be appropriate) held at the Hollywood Bowl with Natalie Cole on the bill. Both concerts were fabulous but the
Disney from across the street
We had a sense of deja vue at this point and thought we were back in Spain!getting to and from were adventures we will remember for a long time.
The Greek Theatre for all it’s fame seemed to be unknown to everyone we asked along the way, until we finally found a bus that went near it and then grabbed a cab the last bit up the hill. It was built in 1929 and after numerous renovations still has the original columns on the stage. Crowded House (looking older) played to an enthusiastic audience of diehard fans. Neil Finn told them the last time he played the Greek was with INXS.
Day 2 after negotiating the subway to Hollywood, finding and getting a shuttle to the Bowl was another adventure. The Bowl is the largest natural amphitheatre in the US and holds 18 000 people. Our seats were up three lots of escalators and then more climbing to our row. We were nowhere need the top section where folks were sitting on the grass. People cart eski’s, grog, food and cushions up. They were doing bag searches but we weren’t sure what they were looking for as we saw glasses, bottles, cutlery etc etc - maybe guns or bombs! It was amazing to watch
Columns in the Disney
These tree like forms hold air-con and sound sytems the hills, the sky grow darker and the Hollywood sign illuminate above us, whilst listening to great jazz. Natalie Cole was brilliant. At nearly midnight, getting back to the motel was another story. We managed the shuttle, then the train but at the station in North Hollywood the taxi ramp was empty and everyone’s warning about traveling alone in LA came back to us as we stood on a street corner near some dubious looking loiterers. It was looking like a long walk home at one stage but fortunately a taxi came by.
The big hit of our one day trip into LA was a visit to the Disney Music Centre and Concert hall designed by Frank Gehry. It resembles the Balboa Guggenheim (sans Poppy) but was built of steel not titanium and so has a darker, smoother look to it. There is a fantastic free audio tour of the building that takes a couple of hours and is well worth doing if you ever get the chance. Whilst there wasn’t a huge flowered dog outside there was a large fountain Gehry designed to honour Lillian Disney and her love of delft porcelain and roses.
DC felt very
The rose fountain
Gehry asked Delft for some cheap broken pottery for the mosaic because the Disneys had lots of it but the company in Holland insisted on only the best - so they smashed up expensive stuff to stick on the concrete petals! familiar when we landed at Reagan airport and Phil picked us up and drove us to the Cleveland Park apartment that would be our home for nearly 3 weeks. The apartment is a lovely gracious 1929 complex of 7 buildings set amidst beautiful gardens with trees that tower over our 5th floor apartment. They made us wonder how the gardens at Breakfast Point will look in 80 years!
DC has been HOT - more like mid summer than September until recently when it cooled down. Consequently we did a lot of air conditioned museums in the heat - the Spy Museum(a bit of fun), the Freer and the Sackler ( Whistler and Asian Art), the National Portrait Gallery (great history review), the Hirshhorn ( Col’s favourite sculpture garden) and the Textile (unfortunately this one was mostly empty as they set up for a new exhibition). Cooler weather mean we can enjoy outdoor concerts in the parks and just walking in Rock Creek Park. One afternoon we went out to Alexandria to the Torpedo Factory in the Old Town and then to a musical called ‘Three Sistahs’ based on the Chekhov play. The singing was amazing from the three black
Living room
Where we collapse after each museum day! diva’s who could each cover blues, rock, soul and light opera.
Weekends we have been exploring with Phil in DC, Maryland and then a big drive out to Annapolis, St Michaels (for our traditional crab lunch on the wharf), down to Virginia Beach where we swam in the Atlantic and went to the Naval Air Show. Sunday it was back to DC via historic Williamsburg and Richmond. We live very close to lot of foreign embassies. The unfinished Chinese embassy is only two block away. It has been designed by I M Pei and is beign built by imported Chinese labourers ( what could they be afraid of?) but amazingly it is next door to an unmarked building that has to do with security!
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Robyn and Graham
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Civil War
Loving your blogs. Especially envy your time in Washington as we have just finished rewatching the Civil War documentary. Just such an interesting historic place to be. Love Robyn and Graham