Hollywood Boulevard

After a few hours there, I dived into the usual tourist highlights of LA, most of which are found on Hollywood Boulevard.

To start, it is home to the Chinese Theatre. I remember this building from childhood as the place which the Pink Panther pulled up outside of at the end of each cartoon episode.

Outside the Chinese place are the hand and footprints of various stars. The smallness of John Waynes feet were surpassed only by those of Shirley Temple. On the pavement outside the theatre and all along the Boulevard is the Hollywood walk of fame. Those pink stars that we can all picture in our minds line the Boulevard on both sides of the street.

The strange thing from my point of view was how few of the names I recognised. Partially this is because many of the names are of behind the scenes movie-makers as well as of actors. It is also because many of the names are from years gone by. I wonder if anyone can name the person who won the Best Actress Oscar in 1934 for example?

Also on Hollywood Boulevard is the Kodak Theatre, home to the Oscars ceremony.

Unfortunately I missed the last ‘behind the scenes tour’ by five minutes. This was after ten minutes spent in a futile search for the box office, which is hidden on the ground floor behind some stairs (the signs all pointed upstairs). ARGH!

I wrapped the afternoon by catching a bus into West Hollywood for a wander around the ‘WeHo’ Village. It basically had a lot of gay drinking coffee and buggering around on laptops in open fronted cafes. This makes it comment worthy and different from all other Metropolitan centres of gaynesss because... Oh wait. It doesn't!

I am finding the broken toe doesn’t hurt too much, but the way I’m walking to compensate for the fact I can’t put weight on all of my toes is really making my calf muscle sore… So I headed back to the hotel for a well earned massage.