An American Trail: LA, Day Five, Lots.....

Day five, Disney Concert Hall, Walk of fame, Chinese theatre.

The Disney Concert Hall has to be one of the, if not the, most spectacular buildings we have ever seen. Its flowing brushed stainless steel exterior, it's beautiful wooden interior go to make this building spectacular. It's hidden secret though is an almost sold eight inch thick concrete box that encompasses the main auditorium, giving it the best acoustics in the world. We were lucky enough to get to see in the main auditorium, which is not normally open to the public. We took the free audio tour of the building, narrated by John Lithgow (an L.A. native) which gave us so many little insights into the building that you'd not get if you were to just wander about on your own. We even ate our lunch in the garden that is part of the building, all be it on the second floor.
The main feature of the garden is a large water fountain, in the shape of a rose, made with thousands of bit's of broken Delft pottery, Walt Disney's wife Lilly commissioned the building and this rose was designed by the architect as a tribute to Lilly using her love for cheap Delft as inspiration. Oddly though when he approached Delft pottery for the cheap "seconds" to use in the fountain they refused and instead supplied the 'expensive stuff', over 300 pieces of 'expensive stuff', which were then broken to make the mosaic fountain.......

The Walk of Fame, those pink stars embedded into the floor for many, many blocks along Hollywood boulevard. We got the metro to Hollywood and Vine to start our walk west towards the Chinese theatre, the stars are every few feet and most are names you'd recognise, with the odd one you don't. We walked a few blocks to the Chinese theatre stopping to photograph just a few of the stars, the neighbourhood is another place that makes you think cheap and touristy, not the Hollywood you imagine. The closer we got to the Chinese theatre the more up market things became as you'd imagine. We gawped for a while at the hand and foot prints at the front of the theatre, at the architecture, the opulence, the crowds... There's now a small mall to the side of the theatre with views of the Hollywood sign, so we had the obligatory photo and walk about the overpriced shops before returning to the metro and back to the car.
Day six, day off (Today)
Doing the things we need to do before moving off tomorrow, catching up on blog posts etc :)

Farewell LA....see ya...wouldn't want to be ya......