Friday 30 May - Los Angeles, California! And a trip to Pasadena “Old Town”

We expect to arrive in Los Angeles train station at 5.30 am. I've set the alarm for 4.45 am, to give us a chance to gather our belongings – but when it goes off, we realise the train has stopped and is already at the station! There's no hurry though, as this is the end of the line.

We make for the taxi rank, but the driver tells us that our hotel is only 5 minutes walk away – you can see it from the station. He obviously doesn't want to take us for such a small fare. So we trundle along the few “blocks” to the Metro Plaza Hotel – but I don't feel happy walking along here at night; it doesn't feel that safe.  However, we are soon at our hotel, having walked passed several homeless people, asleep on the pavements.

Reg has booked us a room for last night, so that we can get straight back to bed when we arrive – otherwise we wouldn't have been able to check in until later in the day. The room is on the 4^th floor, and is comfortable, and spacious, with a large bathroom. The kingsized bed is clean, but the carpets are grubby, and the washbasin cracked. We can cope with this for the 3 nights we are here. It's hot, and we can't get the air-conditioning to work (the hotel receptionist tells us in the morning that there's a switch behind the curtain!). However, we gratefully sink into bed, getting up in time for breakfast, which finishes at 9.30 am.

I've never really thought about the name Los Angeles, but of course it's Spanish, and there is huge Spanish influence in this area – history, street and place names, eating places, and, most importantly,  people.  The overall term used for people of Spanish, Portugese, or Mexican origin is "Hispanic".  Many of the signs here, and notices on the Metro, are in English and Spanish.  There's a note stuck on the laundry room door of this hotel – and it's in Spanish.

We decide to visit Pasadena “old town”, just a Metro ride away, where the main street, the Colorado Boulevard, is a modern “High Street” with shops, restaurants and cafés. However, the front facades of many of these buildings date back to the 1920's. Reg spots a Clarks shoe shop, which also has Doc Martin boots in the window; there are no prices on any of the shoes, so we think they must be very expensive. A small, elderly, Spanish man, wearing a white jacket and hat and with 5 pens clipped to his top pocket, is smiling at me. I say hello, and smile back.

“You good people. I love you,” says the man.

“Thank you,” I reply, smilingly, and we walk on.

We stop for a latté and green tea, and like the restaurant so much, we decide we will eat there later. First we want to visit the Norton Simon Museum. This was originally established as the Pasadena Art Museum in 1969, and exhibited modern paintings. However, it began to get into financial difficulties in the 1970's. At this time, an extremely wealthy industrialist, Norton Simon, who was also one of the most prolific art collectors in the world, was looking for somewhere to house his growing collection. In the mid 1970's he came to an agreement with the Pasadena Art Museum, that he would take over it's debts, infuse money into the museum and modernise the building, if he could have 70% of the space for his collection, and rename the gallery the Norton Simon Museum. According to Wikipedia, there was initially a lot of local opposition to his plans. One of the curators in the museum told us a little about Norton Simon himself.

“His father wanted him to be a lawyer,” she told us. “However, after a short time studying law, Norton Simon decided it wasn't for him. He started to take over failing business projects and make them prosperous. That's how he made his money.”

Reg and I find this Museum/gallery to be a fascinating treasure trove, with beautiful gardens. We spend 3 hours there and don't manage to even touch on the Asian Collection. What we do see though are numerous sculptures (and paintings) by Edgar Degas, sculptures by Rodin, and wonderful original paintings by famous artists – including Raphael, Rubens, Rembrandt, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Van Gough, Cezanne, Picasso and Matisse. All these works are from the Norton Simon private collection. How did one private collector manage to amass such a volume of famous paintings? (How did he afford it?!!)

After a lovely meal at the restaurant we had found earlier, we return on the Metro to our hotel, feeling that we have had a really good day. We're so tired that we're in bed by 9.00 pm! Tomorrow it's Hollywood!