After almost 14 hours we landet at around 7.30 in the morning in Los Angeles. Through to customs, fetching our backpacks and then we walked all the way to our accommodation: LAX Suites. We would have liked to fetch our campervan straight away, but in the USA you can’t get the van the day you arrived.
As check-in was not before 14:00 we just left our big backpack and walked with our small backpack (including our MacBooks and stuff) around. We needed adapters for the US and also became hungry again. Finally we could check-in and were happy to sleep a couple of hours.
Santa Monica Pier & Venice Beach
L.A. is really big and there is lots to see. On the other hand, we had heard so many things about public transport being not safe or that the big sightseeing spots were totally overrated, much more pretty in TV but in reality dirty, disgusting and overcrowded… hence not much fun. After our breakfast we decided to go to the beach first and decide from there. We took the bus to Santa Monica Pier and had a drink with a nice view.
We then strolled along the beach towards Venice Beach, which was a nice walk and we could see lots of gymnasts exercising on the beach. Their body control was just mind blowing!
On our way back towards Santa Monica Pier, we came along “Big Dean’s Ocean Front Café” which we already noticed before. The music was great and it reminded us a bit of Hard Rock Café. It was packed, but as one man was sitting alone chatting with guests at the next table, we asked him whether he was waiting for friends or if we could join. We could…. and ended up chatting with Thomas and having beers together for FOUR hours. Super fun!
Hello Joshie!
Next day at 10 am we had an appointment at Cruise America to pick up our new campervan. We were really looking forward to it – this one was bigger than all vans we had before. The bed is permanent on top of the driver’s cabin – so no converting of couch to bed needed. This is our little beauty – and his name is “Joshie”.
