Traveling Tramps: "Driving L.A.'s 'hoods"

Fill up the tank (1 gallon/3.8 l for about $ 5) and go for a drive through L.A. 'hoods (=neighborhoods) – perhaps that should be L.A.'s new tourism motto! For sure, L.A. is a hard-to-explore city. Though, not really environmentally responsible, the only advice to give would be: Be courageous, activate your nerves of steel to stand up to the L.A. traffic, be a good parallel parker and hit the roads of this huge conglomeration of towns and neighborhoods.

This is the only way to experience this crazy city, which is so different from all big American cities we know. San Francisco, NYC and Chicago are comparibly easy to explore by foot or public transport,,, well,,, only similar one, which comes to mind is Houston. Anyway, L.A. is different, exciting and repulsive at the same time. We drove about 50 mi today just to explore different parts of the metro area and to see different sights. Plus, we walked 7 mi alone in downtown after check-in in our hotel there.

This morning it was cool again, only about 50 deg F/10 deg C, but skies were dark blue and it warmed up during the day. First stop after leaving Eagle Rock, was the Hollywood Forever Cemetery (photos above) located just behind the Universal Studios. Strange thing was: no parking lot in front, but we just drove around in the cemetery and tried to locate some famous gravesites.

Since we were in Hollywood yesterday, we drove through, first on Sunset Blvd., then Melrose Ave., to West Hollywood, a fancy, modern neighborhood with new condos, the Pacific Design Center (blue building on the photo), unique stores and cafés. West Hollywood is a City of its own since 1984 and shares boundaries with the cities of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles. A popular destination is Design District’s shops, galleries, and restaurants, our favorite always was the Urth Café, and, that's where we had lunch - salmon toast (below) and coffee.

Different again – top-notch shopping, top-notch cars, top-notch fashion: Beverley Hills - another independent city in the L.A. metro area - with famous, hyper-expensive Rodeo Drive. We were fortunate again and found parking along the street - since parking in designated lots is really expensive! Therefore, we indulged ourselves not so much in shopping 😂, but in Sprinkles cupcakes. Sprinkles was sort of one main "inventor" of cupcakes. Now a piece goes for $ 5, it can only to be ordered through iPad and payed by credit card in the shop or falls out of a machine outside.

On to South L.A., passing Leimert Park, an African-American neighborhood, which to us isn't really a hot recommendation for tourists. The park was designed by the Omsted Brothers (Central Park NYC) and is surrounded by historic buildings.

Exposition Park is a collection of world-class museums, sport facilities and entertainment venues: the California Science Center, the California African American Museum or the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Rose Garden. We skipped the museums this time, but (after having had a hard time to find parking), we walked over to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum - the former Olympic Stadium (above) - and the Los Angeles Football Club Stadium (above, on top). The futuristic building of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is under construction there right now, and, expected to open in 2025.

Downtown L.A. - a heap of dazzling highrises - but, at least, a neighborhood to explore by foot and public transportation! We checked into our fancy Hoxton Hotel in the Downtown Fashion District late afternoon (photo left), pretty hip and fancy! View from our room is not too bad neither:

The neighborhood showed to be a true discovery: Especially the Santee Alley here is a colorful Mexican street market (photos below) - we had missed it during all our previous visits, crazy! Also, there are historic theaters and beautiful art-déco buildings (far below).