Time To Say Auf Wiedersehen

Hey there

Right now, I’m sitting in a laundromat in San Diego after a hot day with temperatures up to 32 degrees Celsius. Time to update you about the last part of the trip with my parents.

Santa Barbara

After having enjoyed our two nights in Morro Bay we headed towards Los Angeles. We continued to drive on the highway 1. Once again we cruised along wonderful beaches and beautiful hills. Halfway around noon we stopped at Santa Barbara and went for a stroll on the pier. A few years back my father once dined in a restaurant located on this pier, the Moby Dick. Obviously, we ordered something to eat and drink in the exact same place.

Los Angeles

It didn’t take long until we reached the border of the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. But from there it took quite some time to arrive at our apartment. Los Angeles is enormous, most of it is covered with flat buildings and the roads in between are wide. Los Angeles County is about a third of the size of Switzerland.

Finally, we arrived at our Airbnb apartment. Right after we placed our bags in the generous sized flat we headed out to walk the Walk of Fame. Shortly before sunset we arrived at the pavement covered with stars. Despite having hot weather the sunsets are quite early in the day. But I think that’s one of the reasons why we’re in the off-season.

My bed in LA

Fancy mirror

A salute to drinking

Chuch Norris counted to infinity, three times

Universal Studios

Following my/our tradition we visited the Universal Studios Hollywood, the number one attraction in Los Angeles per TripAdvisor. Like always TripAdvisor wasn’t lying, this park is worth visiting. You don’t only get a tour through a part of the Universal Studios. There are a lot of virtual rollercoasters and other things, even the ride through the studios has two 3D experiences. And these rides aren’t just something for kids with a little bit of 3D. They are designed and built to perfection. You know you are just in an expensive simulator, nevertheless, the feeling you get while riding in a car together with the cast of Fast & Furious or flying with Harry Potter in a Quidditch match feels exhilarating. We spent the whole day in the park, enjoying attractions from Waterworld, The Walking Dead, Transformers, The Simpsons, Harry Potter, etc. Awesome!

Hogsmeade

Entrance to the headmasters office

Generic buildings for filming

Streets of New York or somewhere else

Massive flood in the subway

Look out for the shark

Fast and Furious

Hogwarts

Waterworld

Don’t dead open inside =)

Hogsmeade once again

Santa Monica

Only having two full-days (not counting the travel days) we had to make a little sightseeing on our second day. Therefore, we hopped on one of these Hop on Hop off buses driving across the city. The bus ride was hot (I mean the conditions on the upper deck) and you got to see a vast number of places you know from movies and TV series. One of these places was the beach in Santa Monica with its pier and the amusement park on top of it.

After having spent only a very limited amount of time in Los Angeles I must say that the city itself is rather boring. Everything is so far spread; you can’t walk anywhere by foot. You are forced to take a car or taxi. This reduces the enjoyability a lot for a short time guest.

There are a lot of nice places to discover but not for someone with a limited time budget. You must know what you want to do, it’s hard to discover real gems by accident. And the traffic jams; what a mess! You don’t want to drive to work every day in this city.

On the other side, if you have a lot of money and can afford to live in Beverly Hills or the like I can see why you would choose to live in LA. All in all, a city only to enjoy if you have a car with a driver.

Beverly Hills Sign

Right outside Jimmy Kimmel Live

Pier where Forest Gump stopped running, turned around and began running again

Santa Monica pier

Santa Monica beach

Shopping center

Las Vegas, part two

Ghost Town

On the way to Las Vegas we came by a ghost town. Founded in the late 19th century it was abandoned in the 1950s and a few years ago rebuilt. They tried their best to make the town look like it used to be when they searched for silver. You can walk through an old silver mine and drink some beer (or cola) in a saloon.

Los Angeles

Griffith Observatory

Calico Ghost Town

Silver Mine

Fancy Glory Hole

Saloon at Ghost Town

Rental car right before getting the bumper fixed

Las Vegas

When we three started our journey over two weeks ago in Vegas we did walk by a nice resort with a pyramid. We decided to book our stay in Vegas over Groupon. My father said it would be nice to stay in this pyramid and so began my search for a good deal. I was successful in securing two rooms in the pyramid for a very good prize.

The pyramid is part of the Luxor casino resort, the ninth-largest hotel in the world. The rooms and suites cover the outside area of the pyramid and it is empty in the middle. This offers – once again – breathtaking views on the floor, nothing for someone scared of heights.

Fabio and me gambling in our price range

Pyramid from the back

Pyramid from the front

View from our floor down

View from the top floor down

Old Las Vegas

Our hosts in Salt Lake City encouraged us to visit the “old” part of Las Vegas. The first casinos of Las Vegas were built there, right where the first train station was. The odds in the casinos there are much better for betting. This might be the reason why close to nobody was outside strolling along the original strip but rather inside gambling. Once again definitely worth a visit if you are lucky enough to visit Vegas.

The Mob Museum

Only one block away from the old center of Vegas is the Mob museum. It’s located in a building that once was the highest in whole of Vegas. It features the history of the “Gangsters” from the first half of the 20^th century and what their influence on Las Vegas was. And right before you exit the museum you get to see what happened to them and why they disappeared from the front of the newspapers =)

Court room inside the Mob museum

Make America Great Again

Well, I was there when America voted for Trump. During the whole night you could see people staring up on the screens showing the election news. But clearly you aren’t in Vegas to care about the future of America, so most of the people where just gambling =)

Big screen showing the election results

People watching the big screens with the results

Bellagio

Fancy round escalators

The Venetian

Getting drunk watching the election between gambling =)

Las Vegas Sign

After two and a half weeks of fun and excitement it was time for my parents to fly home. Their flight was scheduled for 4 PM what left us with some spare time. We decided to use it and walk to the famous Sign at the beginning of the Strip in the South and take some pictures.

The rental car drop-off was the point to wish each other good travels and I split way with my parents. My parents landed safely back in Switzerland and arrived well at home.

The last two nights I had a guest in my hotel room: Fabio. He’s a friend from Switzerland who happens to do the same thing as me: Travelling across North America. Together with him we picked up our Volvo V60 Cross Country. But the adventures with him are the stuff of other posts.