One day too late in Los Angeles (23.-24.2.09)

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California greeted us with sun and occasional rain. We got our rental car and navigated along the road grid of Los Angeles. Actually driving in the US is pretty convenient. You just have to remember the roads you want to follow. Each junction has a clearly visible sign with the name of the crossing street and Highways and Freeways are labeled according to number and direction. This means for example you just follow Pacific Drive until you hit Santa Monica Boulevard, turn east and continue until Rodeo Drive - understood?

We checked into a small hostel at Venice beach and went off to discover the highlights of Los Angeles. We crisscrossed in our red Chevy Cobalt the street grids until we hit the famous Rodeo drive with all its expensive shops. The streets of Beverly Hills looked more like a picture book with stunning houses and absolutely perfect tendered gardens lined along many parallel streets. Sometimes sign would direct you to guys who sold “Star maps” telling you the hide outs of the famous Hollywood crowd. We felt more the whole place looked as a huge competition who has the biggest and nicest and not what else property. I wonder how it was to live here. We drank a coffee at Rodeo drive and watched the people - nothing special - and continued our discovery to Hollywood.
We walked the “walk of fame” until we hit the famous Graumann theatre where the Oscar ceremony is held. The whole street was blocked and scaffolds being dismantled. We realized that last night the Oscars have been awarded and we were just one day late for it. The evening we chilled out in the nice pedestrian zone in Santa Monica and bought a gas stove and pan set in a nearby camping equipment store.

Our plan was to follow the Highway 1 along the Pacific coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco and we headed of North the next morning. The weather was sunny, the last clouds gone and we drove with an American freedom-street-feeling along the coastline. We passed Malibu and the suburb areas of Los Angeles which stopped already after 30 minutes driving. Santa Barbara was our first stop. We enjoyed a seafood lunch at one of the restaurants and wandered along the main street. The town was a former mission and the influence is pretty obvious. We felt more in a Spanish town with nicely white painted buildings and courtyards in Spanish countryside style. One major landmark is the Presidio - the former town hall and current site of the court. It is possible to stroll along the corridors wit busy lawyers and attorneys. The garden was just beautiful with blooming magnolias and the tower offers brilliant views over Santa Barbara. The building was very carefully planned and built and each corner has interesting details as arches, alcoves, balconies, red roofs, sculptures, windows and wall paintings. Time went fast and when we headed back to the car the day was already gone. We did some shopping and prepared for our first night in a tent on a beach camping ground 20 miles north of the town.

Practicalities:
Rental cars are much cheaper if booked outside the US via Internet; special attention has to be paid to 2nd driver and if the car is not returned at the same place; usually California has not 2nd driver fee; one way fees can easily be 200-500 USD, they can be avoided by booking through specialized tour operators who negotiated deals with the main car rental companies as increased collision damage waiver and no one way charge between California, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado. Price is then for a compact car around 25 Euro a day including all taxes.

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