Santa Barbara – Long Beach: Driving the Bikes through Los Angeles: 5th - 11th November

November 18, 2007 by paulandnaomi.

As we were not willing to negotiate LA on our bikes and we had a mountain of things we wanted to do and several people to see, we decided our only option was to rent a car, which turned out to be a very wise decision indeed. After a very short and pleasant bikeride to Santa Barbara airport, we loaded up all our gear into the back of our much anticipated Suzuki SUV Chelsea tractor type thing and set off down the motorway, feeling very much like we were living life in the fast lane. The road from Santa Barbara to Santa Monica, although picturesque in parts, proved to be extremely bike unfriendly, especially as Malibu lasted for a total of 27 miles (which would have been half a day’s ride) and had little to offer the passing tourist except a road with speeding traffic and swanky ugly houses on either side of it (any views of the sea were blocked by said houses). We loved the car even more when we turned onto Topanga Canyon Boulevard, as this was a particularly nasty winding uphill road with lots of aggressive fender-bendering traffic, all of which was enough to make any driver nervous, let alone a cyclist who hadn’t sat behind the wheel of a car for nearly six months. An even windier, narrow and steep road at the top finally led us to Antony and Emily’s little mountain hut on the edge of Topanga National Park, where we enjoyed an evening of food, wine and chat and their little baby Will’s amusing antics for entertainment. Due to a lack of space, their new neighbour, Damien, very kindly offered us his warm newly carpeted floor to sleep on which we gratefully accepted.

We spent the entire following day in the car (very L.A.), exploring the various famous and infamous ‘hoods of Venice Beach with its odd people, Bel Air with its over-sized houses and Beverly Hills and Hollywood with their wannabe stars and over-priced shops. Still, our bottoms were very content at spending the day in nice cushty leather seats and in the evening we checked into the Vibe Hotel, a curious motel cum hostel which played non-stop dance music across the courtyard all evening.

After grabbing a quick but tasty bite to eat at the Thai place next door (which had an in-house Thai Elvis Presley look alike singer to get our feet tapping), we hopped into a taxi to Spaceland to see one of Paul’s favourite bands, The Thrills. As it’s not a very well-known band, we were expecting a run of the mill crowd, but on arrival, were quite surprised to find a number of overly (well, actually underly) dressed hotties hanging around outside, with legs going all the way up to their necks. Their presence was curious and atypical for a minor Indie touring band and after a longer than usual wait to get in the first support band – Rock and Roll, allegedly from France – came on stage. At first little appeared out of the ordinary, standard support band fare, until the previously mentioned hotties started pushing their way to the front and a cameraman appeared who seemed more intent on filming the audience rather than the band. It was at this point that Naomi spotted a couple of faces familiar to her from the pages of In Touch magazine (the American version of ‘Heat’) and realised it was Audrina Patridge and Lauren Conrad from MTV’s Hollywood reality show ‘The Hills’. (Don’t worry if you have heard of neither the show nor the stars, they are quite far down the Hollywood food chain). The accompanying gaggle of an entourage proceeded to push and shove their way to the front, leap on stage and in true Hollywood fashion make their presence very known as they tried to get on camera. One leggy lovely, after some particularly flamboyant dancing, was approached by an older producer type who offered her a ream of documents to sign – a contract? A release waiver? whatever! I’m on TV! - which made her dance with even greater enthusiasm. Not surprisingly, as the band finished their set and the cameraman lowered his camera, the glitzy front row crowd evaporated leaving the usual black denim clad, t-shirt wearing music fans to await the next couple of bands. The Thrills unfortunately did not make it onto the stage until three hours after they were supposed to, but we were pleased finally to see the band we had come to see, and without the off-putting line of dancing wannabes obscuring our view. A surprisingly good gig indeed!

The next day we enjoyed a film (American Gangster) at the Mann’s Chinese Theatre, which is a lovely cinema; its Chinese lanterns and oriental décor make an excellent cosy setting to watch a film. The inside is much more more of an experience than the tacky outside, where one can find lots of tourists who come to ogle the hand and foot prints of big Hollywood stars.

After investing rather copious amounts of money in a brand new Brooks saddle for Naomi’s bike at the Hollywood bikeshop (we’re still waiting to find out if this was one of our wiser decisions), and another quick squiz around a silly neighbourhood (which included Mulholland Drive, and all the big name studios which charge stupid amounts of money for tours), we headed off to find Olga’s house in the maze of Mount Washington, something which was much easier than expected. Olga, an ex-student of Naomi’s great aunt Gertrud in Germany, and her husband Roy, were excellent and generous hosts for the next two days. We had some excellent meals in and out of the house, and especially enjoyed a visit to the Griffith Observatory to see some fabulous views of LA, and learn a little bit more about astronomy. It was also lovely to catch up on the news and stories of old family friends.

Sadly, our journey had to continue the next day, although Paul was quite excited about his visit to Hollywood Park where he was dropped off to play poker for the morning. The limit hold ‘em poker tournament was unfortunately not overly successful – the morning start? poor cards? no breakfast? light bankroll? who knows? But as always an experience, and even more so in Hollywood. When Naomi came to join in the gambling at the races next door, she was expecting a glitzy horse-racing stand with lots of people in fancy hats (too much British TV?), but on entry was quite surprised to see many not very rich people at all stuffing their faces with junk food and feasting their eyes on the televisions and their programmes, desperate for that big win that would change their lives. Our little spate of gambling that afternoon did not change our lives, but Naomi had a couple of winning flutters - one a nerve jangling photo-finish – and was quite happy to walk out just that little bit wealthier than when she walked in. Unlike Paul.

After the last race, we set off for Long Beach, where we took our sleepy, neglected bikes out of the back, tearfully said goodbye to our very cosy SUV and prepared our bottoms for a few more days back in the saddle.

Posted in Two for the Road - On the Road | 1 Comment »