Los Angeles and the Tour of Hollywood #day 2

Benny the waiter at the Westin Hotel in Long Beach tells me, 'The in-out burger down at Santa Monica is a must.'

Never stay in Long Beach if you're just wanting to visit Hollywood. The Metro is a one way ticket to hell and the Uber is no less than an hour of traffic, 100 bucks one way.

We take the L.A Bus Tour from Santa Monica Place. People might know Santa Monica Pier as the place Forrest Gump runs to and turns around. Others will recognize that it's also the end of Route 66. A plaque in the ground marks the end of the highway. The other end is Lake Michigan.

From there we head to Venice Beach, aka Muscle Beach where the serenity of the sea air is drowned entirely by the smell of weed. There is a building that boasts a public art of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The other side is Jim Morrison. 'Jim lived on the roof of that building for a while and wrote songs up there,' the driver said. "I used to love coming here, but the hippies and homeless have taken over. It's gotten better, but only just."

We take the 405 towards Beverly Hills, the busiest road in the US. The 405 is stitched together in sections in case of a major earthquake, (L.A is not directly on the Fault Line but is still considered a risk) they can take a section of the freeway out instead of replacing the entire freeway.

With over 4 million people living in the city of L.A, it makes Los Angeles the most populated county in the U.S. We drive past Millionaire Mile where the rich and famous pack up and retire from their big home. The average unit apartment is a million dollars. Serena Williams bought her apartment here for 1 million and flipped it for 5 million a few years later.

We passed the Beverly Hills Golf course where the membership is 200k just for the application and only a third of the members play golf. After, the road swings round the Beverly Hilton where Whitney Houston died.

We hop off on Rodeo Drive. Louis Vuitton is the only shop not losing money on Rodeo Drive, all other outlets are running at a loss. But for most brands, it's a badge of honour to be there, and they cannot not be on Rodeo Drive.

In L.A oil is the biggest source of revenue as they have a total of 4 wells. Next is the shipping freight industry, tourism and show-business. Which one could argue are one and the same thing.

Despite what people might think there is no road nor hiking trail that takes you up to the Hollywood Sign. At night police patrol the area and are on the lookout for vandals. However, one person did manage to change Hollywood to Hollyweed in 2017 when California decriminalised the use of Marijuana. The culprit eventually turned himself in as he wanted to be known for his 'art'.

Over the years the sign has needed much maintenance and a bunch of celebs even got together to purchase the letters ($28k a letter) so they could help maintain the sign that was falling into disrepair. Lee Majors bought one of the L's, the OO was bought by Alice Cooper and of course the H was bought by Hugh Heffner.

Photo by Venti Views on Unsplash