We had a nice almost restful day in Los Angeles. Due to a lack of sleep the previous night we slept and dozed until mid-morning. Then we took the bus to Santa Monica. It took about fortyfive minutes. Los Angeles is certainly the city of cars rather than angels. Roads are wide with even minor roads seeming to be four to six lanes wide. The bus trip was cheap $2 return. There is no way you could run a car for that amount of money. The City of Santa Monica seemed to have quite a network, yet the cars on the road were significant. Like the other cities SUVs seemed to outnumber any other car except in Santa Monica where it was mixture of expensive cars some American but predominantly European.
Part of the mall |
After some lunch and a half decent coffee we went down to the Santa Monica Pier. The pier was interesting enough for having lots of different businesses on it. However, the breadth of the beaches were what took my breath away. A natural phenomenon caused by a man made harbour. The car parks are also massive.
Santa Monica pier |
The ride took us past Muscle Beach where there were a number of people flexing their muscles and using the equipment. Very interesting.
Apartments on the beach |
It was just on 5pm when we caught the bus back to the hotel. It turned out to be a very long journey timewise, Taking something like an hour and a half when it had taken us only half an hour to get there. The rush hour traffic was something to behold. I suspect Auckland is a prime example of the speed that happens. A bus lane would have been very useful. What really amazed me is not only the volume of traffic but the size of the cars. In the rich communities they seemed to be proportionately smaller. One SUV or van that really made me chuckle was one called a Suburban. It is huge and often there was only one person driving it. The other is this large car called a Town Car. I fear that Auckland is going to be another LA with the emphasis by the government on roads. It seems we build more to relived congestion only to create more as more cars decide to use the roads. We don't seem to have learned from the US.
Muscle Beach |
Getting through immigration and security was quite quick which surprised us as we had expected to take a long time so had given ourselves plenty of time to get there. Unfortunately Bev did not get her upgrade to Premium Economy so we again sat in separate parts of the aircraft. I really do think the airlines need to think about the lack of comfort and space that is now provided. I guess the demand is still there for cheap seats. Personally I would prefer to pay a bit more for space in the same way that we did with JetBlue. At the moment there is only Premium Economy which seems to have gotten away from the idea of a bit pricier to expensive and more like the old business class seats. If one had the money then the lie flat seats for night flights are ideal.
I had a fascinating conversation with this New Zealander who had invented this fabric that could measure pressure. It is a New Zealand firm but he is based in the UK.
We arrived back in Auckland to a beautiful clear morning that turned out to be nice and sunny although quite chilly. Wellington was also gorgeous with light winds and a clear sky.
The trip was far too short but it was very enjoyable. I am now wanting to do some more travel.
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