Downtown LA
I woke up this morning refreshed – no residual jet lag.
As I walked through the lobby of the hostel one of the staff asked me if I was going on the ‘Downtown LA Tour’. I said “I hadn’t booked on it, but it sounded interesting”. I ended up taking the tour.
There were six other people on the tour. I started with a walk to a bus top where we caught the express bus into LA. I sat next to an English girl from Derby who was on an ‘around the world tour’ for 9 months. She told me that she was an events manager for the English Lawn Tennis Association and worked on the events that were the lead up to Wimbledon. She had travelled through SE Asia and after LA she was heading to Central and South America.
The bus took us of the freeway into downtown LA. The first stop on the tour was a café. Apparently people are starting to move into the downtown area. This has meant that cafes, restaurants and other service businesses are required and are opening up. There are ‘signs of life’.
Next stop was very ‘up market’ old hotel. It has been the venue for Oscar Award dinners for many years. The ‘art deco’ styled interior is very spectacular.
We then stopped off at the LA Public Library. This is also an impressive building. Interesting feature of the library is that fact that it is supported by a large number of private donors, including corporations and rich individuals. Most of the collection was destroyed in a deliberately lit fire in 1986 All of the replacement books were purchased by funds provided by the benefactors.
After a brief stop in the Westin Hotel we visited book stop in an old bank vault. The most interesting thing about this shop was how the books were organised. In one area they are grouped by the colour of their covers, rather than by subject. Apparently this is done to encourage serendipitous discovery of books by shoppers.
We had lunch in a ‘market building’. The food was excellent and relatively cheap. We then went to the ‘Bradbury Building’ which was built in 1983 and is considered to be an architectural masterpiece. It is pretty impressive.
Next stop was the Disney Performing Arts Centre. The main feature this building is the aluminum cladding. Check out the pictures.
We then went to LA Cathedral which was completed about 10 years ago. Thing that struck me about this place was that it has an underground car park. I am not sure how many cathedrals have underground car parks – there can’t be too many.
Our route then took us through China Town to LA’s oldest church that was built in 1860. This seemed relatively recent. Nearby is the original Mayor’s house which is about the same vintage.
Last stop was Union Station. This was recently been restored to its for glory.
All in all it was an interesting day.
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