Driving down Highway 1 on the Pacific coast was incredible! Curvy roads, ups and downs, a fascinating landscape. We peaked sea elephants wrestling on the beach and making funny noises, took in the scenery at many vista points and made a quick stop in Santa Barbara.
The architectural highlight of the day was the Getty Villa in Malibu, a marble villa that the world’s richest man in the 1950s had himself built as an exact reproduction of a Roman Villa that was destroyed during the eruption of mount Vesuvius. Mr. Getty actually never got to live in the villa on a rock overlooking the Pacific, but it now houses his collection of Antique sculptures and furniture. It was really beautiful. A couple of Hollywood stars live probably next door in Malibu.
Now about our dwellings in the LA area; Venice Beach, to be precise. It was no Roman villa, but we slept in a room that was certainly no less original—the Robot Room, which locals Joe and Lisa rent out as an AirBnB in their home. Joe works in animation (he has an IMDb entry!) and the Robot Room was like a space devoted to robots, animation film and comics. He shared his fascinating insider knowledge about Hollywood and the area with us.
Venice, in fact, started out as the playground for a visionary with money (or a millionaire with visions) as well. As you can already guess by the name, it was in the early 20th century envisioned as a reproduction of Italy’s lagoon city, including a replica of San Marco, the arcades of the Palazzo Ducale, bridges and gondolas!
If you asked Simone prior to the trip to California what she was looking forward to in particular, you’d get one answer straight away: Rollerskating on the Venice Beach Boardwalk with disco music on headphones! Well, unfortunately, she didn’t get to do it (booo!) due to “strong” winds, so nobody would rent out rollerskates. But after a few moments of gnashing teeth, bikes were also deemed acceptable. We biked to the Santa Monica Pier, where we witnessed a beautiful sunset.
Instead of spending much time on the touristy Hollywood Boulevard, we took the scenic Mulholland Drive and enjoyed the views from Hollywood Bowl Overlook and Griffith Observatory. Downtown LA with its modern architecture is certainly also worth a visit.
