Last week we made a short visit to Los Angeles where we cycled, hiked, explored, and saw a show.
We got around entirely by public transport. For such a car-centric city, Los Angeles has a fairly decent system of buses and trains. Many points of interest can be reached by public transport.
At LAX we took a shuttle to Aviation/LAX metro station. The Green Line then the Blue Line took us to downtown LA.
Our hotel was right across the street from the 7th Street/Metro Center station. We checked in on the 70th floor, dumped our bags in our room, then enjoyed a beer in the rooftop bar on the 73rd floor. The photo at the top of this post shows the view.
Back on the 70th floor we looked down at this view.
Cars were crawling along the Harbor Freeway, and dishes of sushi were winding their way on a conveyor through a restaurant on the floor below.
We walked down a spiral staircase to the 69th floor for dinner.
Cycling Santa Monica Beach
Santa Monica was a straight shot on the Blue Line from our hotel. We broke the journey at Culver City so we could visit a distributor to choose some fabric swatches for our new home. We’d prearranged this meeting and had brought other swatches to coordinate.
Having done our work for the day, we got back on a train to complete the journey to Santa Monica.
We rented bicycles then cycled the full length of a beach path both to the south and north of downtown Santa Monica.
Hiking Runyon Canyon
We took the Red Line to Hollywood/Highland Station.
From there, we walked a few blocks to Runyon Canyon Park.
We chose a path that was unpaved and involved some clambering over rocks. Along the way we got views of downtown LA floating in the haze, and the Hollywood Sign.
Hiking Griffith Park
We rode the Red Line back to Vermont/Sunset Station where we caught a shuttle bus to the Griffith Observatory.
We chose a trail that would take us to the summit of Mount Hollywood.
Exploring Downtown
On our last morning we took a metro train 3 stops from our hotel to Union Station. We walked back for a shower, a cup of tea, and checkout. Along the way, we explored several notable buildings.
Light pole banners announced the LA Opera production of Satyagraha.
The point of our journey to LA was to see this wonderful production. A previous post, Insistence on Truth, explains what Satyagraha means to me.
Back to LAX
It took just 90 minutes to get from our hotel to airside at LAX. The journey should speed up slightly when the Green Line is extended to LAX (currently under construction). We used Tap stored value cards to pay a total of less than $15 each for our nine LA transit trips.
