Los Angeles citywalk - Southwest USA 2018 - 2
Friday, 2018-04-27 - Los Angeles citywalk
I'm more or less awake since 3 am and up shortly before 6 am. If I had to drive a longer distance, I would have been on the road earlier, but as I stay in Los Angeles, I'm leaving at 7.
This morning is totally clouded, the sun should come out only by noon. Not the best for taking pictures during the citywalk. Traffic is ok, already quite some traffic on the freeway, but no bigger traffic jams. I park at the Grand Central Square Parking. This is the cheapest option I found if you want to park just for an hour or two.
As most places are still closed, I skip the Central Library that should have a nice interior, and go directly to the MOCA, but it's not really interesting from the outside. The Broad and the neighboring Walt Disney Concert Hall would be great, but with the dull weather, I have to focus on the details. The roof garden of the Concert Hall is nice, especially these trees with the pinecones and red petals (I don't think they are pines) are great. Also, the fountain Gehry placed there in Honor of Lillian Disney is worth a short visit.
From here I continue to the city hall. You can visit the rotunda and go to the top to take a look around. They scan your bags and register your ID, but everything is pretty relaxed. From the top, I take a look at El Pueblo de Los Angeles that was on my list as well but after seeing what it looks like I decide to skip it and go back to the car.
Next on the list for today is the Petersen Automotive Museum which is located in a fancy new building in the western part of Los Angeles.
With 16 Dollar entrance fee plus another 15 Dollar for parking, it's not cheap. But it's worth every single cent. I've been to quite some car museums, but this is most probably the best I've been. It's not only that they have lots of interesting cars but they are also presented in a way that you have enough space to walk around them and take pictures from various angles. The range of cars goes from dedicated Porsche and Ferrari exhibitions, via movie cars to fully functional cars for kids. On the first floor, they have a special exhibition of cars in art. It starts with paintings of cars and ends with cars that have a special painting and more.
In the end, the resolution to take fewer pictures to make the sorting and editing easier is obsolete already on the second day.
Back home I have to realize that the lighting is pretty harsh. You would have to spend hours to get rid of all the unwanted reflections. Still, the museum is a clear recommendation.
Originally, I wanted to continue with the Getty Museum, but after being in the Petersen Museum for nearly 3 hours I'm not in the mood for that. So, I change to plan B and take a tour along Mulholland Drive. It's pretty crowded for the first few miles, but getting better after a while.
In the meantime, it's sunny and the views are kind of nice. But Los Angeles is mostly a flat, widespread city - not really photogenic. That means that I also delete the sunset visit to Griffith Observatory from my to-do list and return to the hotel.
