RTW Day 13 - Los Angeles

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A day to explore Los Angeles. A good start, we discover blueberry flavour Philadelphia. After breakfast, we take the metro downtown. We have to stand, as the seats have homeless people sleeping on them. The level of homelessness is shocking; every bench, every piece of grass, every staircase has a rough sleeper on it. I google LA homelessness, the total is a staggering 58,000. And this in a town where so many incredibly wealthy people live.

We walk through Grand Park to visit the wonderfully bonkers architecture of Frank Gehry - the Disney Concert Hall, all silver and weird shapes and angles. And the ultra modern Our Lady of The Angels Cathedral build when its predecessor was destroyed by an earthquake in the 90s. Through Little Japan, which appears to have a photo of George Takei on every lamppost, and Chinatown.

Then we take a bus up the hill to Griffith Park to visit the observatory and take an obligatory selfie with the Hollywood Sign. The observatory is fascinating, even if a lot of it goes right over my head, and the range of exhibits is broad from high tech to a piece of the moon to a representation of the Big Bang in jewellery. The Big Picture, mapping our place in the universe, is mind blowing stuff.

After a record $4 for a bottle of coke, we head back down by bus. In a weird first, the driver pulls up, announces he needs the bathroom and leaves the passengers on the bus with the engine running. I try to convince the old man to steal the bus in a bid to obtain his 15 minutes of fame. We get off at the wrong stop and have to walk through Little Armenia and Thai Town to reach the hotel.

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