Sunday, November 21, 2010

Los Angeles

date = 2010-11-15
distance = 81.1

The day began with a ride through the long city of Malibu. We were
surprised to hear one of Karen's favorite sounds, a rooster crowing,
coming from one of the palatial estates overlooking the highway.

In Santa Monica the fabulous bike route which winds its way along most
of LA's beaches began. We stopped for Gelato at Venice beach and then
turned inland.

At this point we were deviating from our guide book. And we were
entering LA where the car is still king of the road. I had downloaded a
bike map of the area and plotted out a general path to take but there
were many gaps between bike paths and designated bike routes.

I had also hoped to get a paper version of the map which would be easier
to read as we rode. But everyone at the bike shops and tourist info
centres seemed dumbfounded by the idea that anyone would want to ride a
bike anywhere but the beach.

The first part of our trip went well. We followed an adequate but
somewhat variable bike lane along Venice Boulevard and then took side
streets through Hollywood. We stopped briefly to look at the tourist
trap of Hollywood Boulevard. The next section was the one I was most
concerned about which involved getting over the Hollywood hills. The
hill itself proved to be less difficult than others we have done. And
the streets along the 101 freeway turned out to be a good route until we
arrived at the fast, busy and shoulder-less street leading into Burbank.

That night we stayed at Sommer and Rich's place in Burbank. They served
us one of the best meals of our entire trip and then took us up to
Griffith Observatory for a 360 degree view of the city. After that it
was to a cool little establishment in Burbank that serves a wide variety
of California microbrews (the whole micro-brew thing seems like a theme
for this trip). And then a comfortable night's sleep in a real home for
the first time in 40 days.
IMGP5788 (Modified).JPG

No comments:

Post a Comment