The Western End of Route 66

Jellyfish tank at the Santa Monica Aquarium

I picked up a cold in LA - probably due to jet-lag, and so decided to take it easy today as I was planning on going to Disney on Monday. At this point I regretted not using my LA City Pass the day before as most of the easy-going stuff I felt like doing was closed or had restricted hours on Sundays, or you had to book in advance.

Santa Monica Beach & Pier - view from Palisades Park

So I decided to go to the beach!

Santa Monica is really beautiful, albeit a bit touristy. There's a very famous pier called the Santa Monica pier which is the last point on the Route 66 trail.

By Santa Monica beach there is also Palisades park - just a stretch of grassy tree area as far as I could tell - and the Santa Monica Aquarium. Apparently there is also the original Muscle Beach here too but I didn't see that (or have any interest to).

The Santa Monica Pier as the sun was starting to drop in  the sky...

Entry to the Aquarium was included on the LA City Pass - it's only $5 (or Free for kids under 12) but I'm not sure I would have bothered if it wasn't included. It's run by "Heal The Bay" - a not-for-profit environmental group who also run bay clean-ups and educational workshops. The Aquarium is great if you're interested in rocks, bones, shells, and fish eggs - not so much if you want to sit and watch fishies and other sea creatures swimming about as there's not really very many to look at. They do have interactive activities like touching seaweed or doing shell rubbings though so probably worth it if you're being accompanied by small people.

Ferris Wheel at Santa Monica Pier

Historic Route 66: The End of the Trail
A little ironic that this is where I started my journey...
One day I intend to drive along the whole thing.

On the pier there is a fun fair - rides all day are also included in the City Pass; again, not a massive save, and something I wouldn't have paid to do separately, but I had a nice time going on the Ferris Wheel and some spinning cups etc.

There are also lots of shops - beach ones selling buckets and spades, touristy ones selling postcards and souvenirs, and then a few stalls with people selling handmade jewellery or driftwood carvings. Plus all the typical fun-fair food stands with hot dogs, churros and candy-floss. Towards land, there are also some restaurants like Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Just like everywhere in LA (and probably any major tourist destination or city), there are loads of buskers.

Santa Monica is Beautiful

Overall, I'd recommend visiting. Even if you're like me and completely adverse to all things sand, the views are spectacular!

"You can still see it from there"

- Quote from Jenny, the Warner Bros Tour Guide about the WB Water Tower...

After I left Warner Bros Studios, I waited nearly 45 minutes for an every 10 minutes bus... I wasn't very impressed given that it was around midday and even in the shade it was very hot!

"Krustyland" - The Simpsons Ride

I finally arrived at Universal Studios at around 1:30-2pm. The buses take you to the main road and then you get a little train car up the (very steep) hill to Universal.

A house used in Desperate Housewives

Probably one of the cooler staff
outfits at Universal Studios
#Shrek

With a 3+ Day LA City Pass, Universal is included, which is excellent as tickets are around $95 (nearly £70) separately! I got in the queue (which had no shade) and was stood there for nearly 30 minutes before reaching the front - thankfully it wasn't that long, as not many people seem to go in at lunchtime, but the people in the ticket booths were rather slow... When I finally got to the front of the queue, they then told me that because I had the City Pass, I actually needed to be in the "Special Tickets" queue. I was so cross that they didn't have a sign saying that somewhere?! So off I went to the "Special Tickets" queue, only to have to wait for another 20 minutes with the other 3 people in the queue because there was only one booth open, and the woman at the front was asking some really complicated questions that took forever!

We can just blow up a few
planes for a movie, right?

I think I finally made it in there sometime around 3pm, so I was pretty annoyed as that left me with much less time to do things. I asked the Info desk what the best order to do things in was, and was advised to start with the Studio Tour, as that closes first.

More queuing followed - although that queue had shade for some parts of it, and the water sprayer things on the ceiling which helped, but the shade made it stuffy and there were a lot of hot, bothered, stroppy children both in front and behind me...

Before...

...After

Mum thought I'd love the Studio Tour more than anything - probably because she did back in the 80's - but most of it wasn't that great. They drive you around some of the Film/TV sets, and then you see some of their special effects 'studios'. Some of them were great, like one where they flooded a town in about 30 seconds, and one where they threw a load of train carriages around an underground station and made the roof collapse, but there were lots of really cheesy bits that were just a bit ridiculous and overly American... For example, a lake with a dummy diver in there, the tour guide shouts "This is our diver friend, Steve. Hey Steve", next a Shark appears in the lake behind the diver suit, and the tour guide starts screaming "Ahh, Steve look out behind you" as the shark gets closer and appears to pull the dummy below the water... "Noooo, Steve! Steeeeveee!!", she screams....

10:04pm, 12th November 1955
(Back to the Future)

They had some special "new" 3D bits too - the King Kong and Fast & Furious rides. These are pretty clever as they drive into a garage and display 3D screens on the walls around you, and the floor moves too so you feel like you're being bashed about by a T-Rex and falling off rope bridges and being caught by the King of the Jungle...

After that, I checked out the Shrek ride, as it had a short-ish wait time (around 15 minutes). That was a 3D film in one of those cinemas where the chairs shake and they spray you with water and air etc. It was a spooky, halloween kind of ride which I wasn't so into, but it was quite clever.

At this point, it was probably coming up to 5:30pm. I wanted to see the Waterworld Show at 6:30pm, but wanted to go on some more rides in the meantime. The Jurassic World ride (and a Mummy ride) is on the lower level of Universal, which takes around 10 minutes to get to as it's basically at the bottom of the very steep hill again (although on another side) and so you have to spend ages going up and down escalators to get between the two areas of the theme park.

They are building 

"The Wizarding World
of Harry Potter" 

but it's not open until
April 2016 *sob*

At the top of the very long escalator bit, I asked some Universal staff if I'd have enough time to get down there, go on the Jurassic ride and get back over to the Waterworld show in an hour. "Urrm, maybe not but just wait right here a mo", says one of the (very LA) Universal staff. A minute later, he came back with a Fast-track Queue Jump ticket for one ride. I sprinted down the several sets of escalators/stairs, and shoved my stuff in a locker (it's a wet ride), only to find out that Jurassic has a "Single Riders Line" which, very conveniently, was practically empty.

This was a fun ride. You go on a little boat trip along a river with the Jurassic Park music playing and dinosaurs moving about. Then, you go into a garage sort of thing, and have the T-Rex roar above you, right as you hurtle down a very steep waterfall and splash in the bottom.

I had loaaads of time left, plus my Fast-track ticket, so went for the Simpson's ride too. I waited in a queue for rather a long time (wasn't happy as I was told "it'll be less than 2 minutes"). This one is not suitable for anyone with pretty much any medical conditions whatsoever as it's a "Very Violent" ride - which they weren't joking about. This one you get lined up for ages in a Simpson's themed room before getting directed into your separate rooms with up to 5 other people in your queue. Then you hop into a little car which later on raises up on a pole and very forcefully pushed forwards, backwards, and from side of side while you watch a 3D video of a Simpson's rollercoaster ride with Sideshow Bob...

Waterworld Show

After that ordeal, I ran over to the Waterworld Show which from memory was due to start at 6:30pm (I had about 5 minutes to get across the whole park to get over there), thinking I was going to miss it. I thought it was a bit of a miracle there was any seats left - the only ones available were the non-wet-zone seats (no complaints from me). This was one of those generic shows involving giant spray hoses, jet skis and pyromaniacs supposedly along the theme of the Waterworld film (which I have yet to watch - IMDb only gives it a 6.1/10... I may never get around to it).

Waterworld Pyrotechnics...

Huge American
Hot Dog!

Overall, I'd recommend Universal Studios, but I'm not sure I'd go there more than once (that's a lie, I'll go there again for Harry Potter World, but that's all!). It's just rather overpriced, and it was just so soo hot in August!!

The WB Water Tower

The bus stop was at
the back of the
Jimmy Kimmel
Studio

Yet again, today started with a crazy bus ride.

I got the number 2 from outside the hotel along Sunset Boulevard and then walked to the next stop for the next change. Along comes the bus, just a moment or two later, but as I walked up to the doors, the lady bus driver locked the doors, picked up her bag, and went and sat at the back of the bus... and there she stayed for around 15 minutes.

I wouldn't have minded quite so much, but LA bus stops rarely have seats next to them, or shade. So you tend to be left standing at the side of the road in baking heat until the next bus decides to turn up - or let you on...

The TV Studio side of Warner Bros Studios

When I finally got on the bus, I asked the driver which bus stop I needed to get off at for the "Warner Bros Studio Tour". She looked at me like I was insane. "Urr, when it says 'Warner Bros...?!".

This may sound obvious, but Warner Bros Studios is not a small place, and I knew the bus went all the way around it. So when the bus said "Get off here for 'Warner Bros Studios'", I asked her again if this was the right stop for the Studio Tour. "Uh huh", She said.

Buggs Bunny and Daffy Duck welcoming you to the Tour

But no. I had got off about 5 stops early by the TV Studios for the live shows (like Ellen. And with another bus not due to appear for at least 30 minutes, I decided to just walk it instead.

About 15 sweaty minutes later and I finally made it to the Warner Bros Studio Tour. I then got mistaken for being part of the LA City College Tour group and given the 'Blue Group Tour' (which I wouldn't have minded but I didn't really want to go around with the rowdy 18 year olds).

Queue Starts Here

Pre-Tour Intro & Film

I'd booked onto the 11am Tour (the first one that was available). First you get given a letter (A, B, C, etc.) and all wait in a line for them to take you through into a cinema room. 

Once in the cinema, a rather energetic gent came to give us a short talk about Warner Bros, and then put on a film showing the best bits of some of the WB creations. I won't lie, I got a bit emosh over Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Don't judge.

Central Perk!

Once that was finished, a door opened out came a few incredibly exuberant American tour guides. They were each also holding a letter (corresponding to ones that we were given earlier) and then everyone filed out one group at a time into the tour bus parking area where we all got introduced to our over-excited guide, called Jenny. We all then introduced ourselves to the other 10-ish people in our group. I think the others were just 5 x couples but I can't remember.

The Fire-Escape for the famous
Spider-man upside-down kiss

Jenny then shouted out tv shows to see which ones we liked as they tailor the tour to you. I think everyone was into "The Big Bang Theory" and "Friends", and there were a few I'd not heard of. I was the only one that watched "Pretty Little Liars".

We then started off the tour. It's a bit like a mini-city. They have
streets worth of house and shop fronts, with roads and pavements etc. The only things missing were door handles and lights - apparently they add them pre-filming as it helps to age the set to the right era. All the walls were made out of moulded plastic and most buildings are just one-storey - no 'upstairs' in there. Apparently if they have a scene where they need someone hanging out of a top floor window, they just set up some scaffolding inside and get the actor to climb up and stand on it.

Me & the WB Water-Tower

We went past the fire escape steps that hosted the famous upside-down Spider-man kiss for the first Spider-man movie (the one with Kirsten Dunst in it). The fake rain they use in movies has a little bit of flour or white paint in it to make it easier to be seen on camera, and they make extra big droplets too. When they turned Tobey Maguire (Spider-man) upside-down for this kiss, he kept choking because the water was going up his nose so they plugged his nostrils with cotton wool! That's why she only pulls his mask up past his mouth - else you'd be able to see his stuffed nose. They also had to use warm water, because Kirsten was wearing basically nothing and kept getting too cold.

Number 4, Privet Drive
Little Whinging, Surrey

We also saw the WB famous water tower. Jenny joked about how a rabbit lived in there but only came out on special occasions... Apparently they've got it where it is because it's visible from Universal Studios, so it's a nice little reminder of the competition for them. Haha!

The Harry Potter Museum: Nimbus 2000 

Next was the Batman and Harry Potter Museum - which is on-site. We had 15 mins to wander around and see the memorabilia so, naturally, I skipped Batman and went straight up the stairs to the Harry Potter section.

Dobby the House Elf

They had the Privet Drive sign, loads of the costumes (mostly from the later films), the Marauders Map, statues of Dobby, Goblins and a petrified Hermione (from Book 2), all of the sweets, wizard games and much more. I loved it.

The Sorting Hat

They also had the Sorting Hat and stool which you could have a go sitting on and being sorted - and it actually moved and talked like the real one in the films too (it probs was the real one!) I got sorted into Hufflepuff (still not sure how I feel about it but Becky recently showed me "19 Reasons Everyone Should Want To Be A Hufflepuff" which makes me feel better about my house). I wanted a picture of my sorting experience, but sadly there wasn't anyone around to do this for me.

The Letters! #NoPostOnSundays

Jenny told us that we had to look out for the golden snitch. Apparently it was hidden somewhere but I ran out of time so I didn't find it :(

Another street... This one has been used in lots of things,
including 'The Notebook'

We also went past all the work shops - they make loads of props and things on-site. All the moulded plastic walls etc. are made there. Jenny said it's much cheaper and easier for them to just build something to use for filming on site than to hire out somewhere and travel. There is a huge warehouse full of props which people can hire on the WB Studio website. They also have a fully working gas/petrol station on-site, and they use every bit of the whole site for filming - even the car park.

7

Lorries from other studios collecting props
(The two in the middle were from Disney!)

Next was a big studio where Jenny showed us how their tv-sitcoms work. We weren't allowed to take any photos in there - I'm assuming because of 'trade secrets' or something. They have these tiny sets with open fronts and a seating area for audiences who can watch while the episodes are filmed live. This does mean that audiences are often watching the same scenes over and over again, and that a 20 minute episode can take around 4-8 hours to film.

Bat-Mobile

They also play the adverts as they would be shown at the right places and check for any advertising conflicts - for example, if there was a scene where a character just got food poisoning from eating a pizza, it wouldn't look so good if they then put on an advert for Pizza Express...

The Batman Light

The studio audience have microphones over their heads too, which picks up their laughs. If you have an annoying or great laugh, they can turn your microphone down, or up respectively. The whole idea of having a live studio audience came from Lucille Ball (from "I Love Lucy") who was used to having a live audience and found it off-putting to act with no laughter as she couldn't judge what was working or not.

After this, we went to a big warehouse known as "The Bat Cave" where they had all the Bat-Mobiles. I'm not that into Batman so wasn't too bothered but it was interesting to see how some things worked. Apparently most of the cars were real and driveable.

We spotted Raj Koothrappali from the Big Bang Theory!
He's in the car!

Last was the Warner Bros Tour Museum, known as Stage 48 (which is part of the tour and I don't think you can visit separately). There we said goodbye to Jenny. Inside they have all sorts of memorabilia from various WB films and tv shows, and then there's an interactive bit where you can get your photo taken on the sofa in Central Perk, riding a Quidditch broom, or floating in the space suit from Gravity.

Actor's Trailers

I got through that section pretty quickly as most of the interactive bits are probably better to do if you're with people, and moved on to the WB gift shop. I was fascinated by the Harry Potter wands and one of the girls in the shop told me all about the reasons behind the designs of each different wand.

Every 'Friends' script

And that was it! All in all, it took about 1.5 hours. Definitely worth doing. I think it costs $62, but it was included in the LA Go Card!

Harry Potter Wands

"Ride on the Quidditch Broom"
- You can then take home a video of you riding it

The Harry Potter Wands of
Dumbledore's Army members

Touring Hollywood

Hollywood Day (Part 2)

Hollywood Movie Stars Homes Tour - by LA City Tours

Hollywood Bowl
Music Concert Amphitheatre, not Bowling Alley

With still plenty of time left to use the LA Go Card for the day, I headed over to LA City Tours to see if there was any spaces left on the 'Hollywood Movie Stars Homes Tour'. I wanted to make sure I would be back in time for a different guided tour at 5:10pm, which I was more into than seeing the outside of Celeb homes, but the tour operator said we should be back between 4:40 and 4:55, so I decided to risk it. It was worth $47, so I assumed that it wouldn't be too awful...

View of the Hollywood Sign

We got given little gold stickers and then all got piled into a tour bus (with air con, hooray!), and as the only single passenger, got to sit at the front of the bus. This meant not only a side window view, but a front and door window view too!

Hollywood Overlook Selfie

First thing's first though, a little bit of no-shame-America. Mr Tour Driver/Guide introduced himself in a cheesy way. I believe he was from Boston, but told us all about how he'd been living in LA for several years, bla bla. Get on with the tour. But no. Next it was time for all 20 odd passengers to introduce themselves, where they're from and a bit about their trip. Seriously. Get on with it.

Some celebrity house. Maybe.

Finaaally, the driver/guide sat down and did some driving. We went on a lovely tour along Hollywood Boulevard, heading East, and then headed into the mountains. Within 20-30 minutes we stopped at a great little place on the side of the mountain where we could all see the Hollywood sign and take a selfie. However, all the other tours stop there too so it was basically as crowded as Hollywood Boulevard itself...

It didn't really get much better than that. Especially as another couple apparently felt carsick and so I had to swap seats with them - they were sat at the back. Goodbye fab view, hello left-side window view with very limited right-side window view...

Michael Jackson's 'Death House' *
(*The Gate of...)

We drove around in the mountains, went along Mulholland Drive (apparently one of the most dangerous streets in LA due to the crazy rich kids driving along the very windy mountain-side roads at 160mph. At night. While drunk.)

Beverley Hills Trolley

As I expected, the tour was largely "Look at that white house over there in the distance by that tree. Barbara Streisand lives there" and "Who's this person running with a dog near these houses? Is it a celebrity?" and "We're not allowed to stop by these gates coming up because I'll be chased by the security guards and sued by Britney Spears, but Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, and Mariah Carey all have homes on the other side of the gate".

Beverley Hills

Broccoli Trees
(Yes. These were part
of the official tour)

To be honest, it just seems a bit strange and stalker-like. If I was a celeb I'd definitely live in a gated community, and probably buy a random different house that I never went to and write "Cate lives here" on the garage door...

Once we'd driven past se
veral famous (and not so famous) people's houses, we headed back to Hollywood via Beverley Hills and Sunset. It was quite a good tour really as I doubt I would have seen Beverley Hills otherwise.

At least the Filipinos enjoyed it...

We got back at 5pm and of course, they expect tips. All dollar bills look the same though, so if you don't fancy giving a whole $5, just roll up some $1 and throw them in. They'll never know.

I had to run off pretty quickly to catch my next tour at 5:10 (especially as I needed a toilet break first!) I arrived, pretty exhausted after a full day, so was looking forward to another sit down on a tour bus, but twas not to be, for this was...

The Behind-the-Scenes Hollywood Movie (walking) Tour - by Redline

This one sounded great so I'd booked it the night before. However, as one so often does, I didn't read the whole text on the webpage, and consequently missed the part in the very last paragraph about this even being a walking tour. I can't say I was that pleased to find that out at the last second.

The guide for this was lovely. I can't remember any of the guides names at all but he was great. There was about 8-10 of us for this tour and the guide had a folder with pics in it to look at. We all got given a little headset which (thankfully) we could turn up and down depending on the noisiness of the traffic and crowds we were standing in.

Lovely Egyptian Hieroglyphics
Apparently these were copied from someone's tomb.
I don't remember whose, but probs King Tut

Mr Guide started by telling us all about Sid Grauman, an American showman who apparently created cinema and 'movie stars' as we know them. He told us some interesting facts about how back in the early 1900's, theatre was for rich people, and 'cinema' was for the poor - basically what Grauman did was to make the world of film both profitable and accessible to all.

Beautiful ornate ceiling in Grauman's Egyptian Theatre

So then off we went over to the Grauman's Hollywood Egyptian Theatre. This is a great theatre as it has a fab courtyard with Egyptian hieroglyphics on the wall and statues etc. Mr Guide had keys and so we were allowed to go in and have a wander. They are famous for having 'film events' where they'll show a film and have a film-related person come and talk to the audience about it - it's supposed to be rather good.

I think these elephants
were originally by
Grauman's Egyptian...

Stairs inside the Dolby Mall
Apparently the shape represents
an Oscar ballgown, with the rest of
the walkway (behind) representing
the train.

We then headed out onto the street, and up towards Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Mr Guide told us loads of fun facts about the Walk of Fame and the different stars we were walking past, occasionally stopping to show us a picture in his folder. The tour is supposed to go inside the Chinese Theatre, like with the Egyptian theatre, and usually Mr Guide tells the tourers all about the different cement hand prints and signatures, but alas, Zac Efron made this not so. So we skipped it. #Not Happy.

Plaques. 

We went over to the Dolby Theatre next (which I toured that morning) and Mr Guide told us all about the shopping mall that it's in. They have columns on either side with plaques showing the film that won an Oscar in each year. Very interesting. And that was the end. My feet were pleased.

So at $25, this one was pretty good. All in all, I'd already got $132 worth out of my $190 Go Card and I still had 2 days left to use... Bargain!


Hard Rock Cafe

Dying from exhaustion was starting to get to me so I popped into the Hard Rock Cafe, Hollywood. It was only about 6pm so the place was pretty empty, but I think this was probably the strangest restaurant experience I've ever had as after being seated, my waitress came along, sat down and told me her life story...

Guiness World
Record Museum
- Floating stone ball...

"A Hurricane"
If only I'd been able to drink it all

I ordered the small version of the Classic burger, and a Hurricane cocktail (No idea. It was fruity). It started filling up just as I got my food. Waitress girl, I think her name was Miranda. Let's call her that. Miranda came along, sat down with me (WHILE I WAS EATING) and told me that if I was feeling a bit full that I could put a napkin over my plate and have a wander around - "when there's a napkin laid over the plate", she said, "the guys know not to clear the plate".

It wasn't a wander I wanted so much as the loo, so I popped the napkin over my plate, as advised, and dashed off to the ladies. 5 minutes later, after a scenic route back to my table, I discovered that they had not only taken away my plate (complete with half eaten food), but also my drink, hat and guide books/maps. I was not impressed.

The Disney Shop
(And Fake Minnie)

Miranda was talking to someone looking upset/anxious? Perhaps they thought I'd left without paying, but as soon as she saw me she came running over to apologise profusely, blaming it all on the other wait staff, naturally. She didn't ask me if I wanted anything else to eat, you know, because I hadn't actually finished my meal, or if she could replace my drink which I'd barely sipped, but instead ran off to get the manager to approve a 50% reduction on my food. Just the food. No apology for my $15 drink (it came with a 'free' hard rock cafe glass) that I'd not had a chance to drink...

Mickey Mouse outside Disney
Far too crowded to get a selfie.
Sad face.

I couldn't be bothered to argue as I was very tired by this point so just paid and left (after collecting my hat and guidebook at the main desk and my free mason jar glass from the gift shop)...

"We Are Your Friends"

So I'm sure I've mentioned that I hate Zac Efron for causing the closure of the Chinese Cinema for the one day I'll probably ever be in Hollywood. He did this because it was the film premiere of "We Are Your Friends". I have no idea what it's about as I've not seen it, but I know it's got Zac Efron in it. And some girl. That's basically all I know.

"We Are Your Friends" Premiere at the Chinese Theatre

I also knew all about how film premieres worked due to my wealth of information from tour guides. So when I stepped out of the Hard Rock Cafe into a hoard of manic, screaming teenage girls, I knew why.

Zac Efron.

Zac Efron is in there somewhere...

I crossed over the road so I could get a better look at what was going on (a lot of flashing lights, that's what). I asked one of the screaming teenagers if he'd arrived yet. "We've been here since 5:30pm", she said. "He's not arrived yet but he has to be here in the next 40 minutes as the premiere starts at 8pm".

Nev Schulman Selfie
#WhoAreYou

Naturally the rule is that if you wait for someone for nearly 2 hours, they won't arrive until you leave. So when the girl turned to her mother a couple of minutes later and said she didn't care anymore, let's go get food, Zac Efron got in his car from a hotel somewhere nearby and started the drive over.

Zac arrived in a shiny looking black jeep about 10 minutes after the girl left. I don't know why I hadn't left to be honest. Probably because I couldn't, being stuck in the crowds of crazy adolescents. I can't say I got a good view. He walked across the road 100ft along from where I was, signed some autographs, took a few selfies and then walked back over.

I did get one celeb selfie though. Some guy I don't even know called Nev Schulman. Then I went back to the hotel.