Monday 31st May 2010 – Main Street Santa Monica (LA)

Santa Monica to San Simeon

Started off this day with the aim of driving up to San Simeon. Min though had never seen and had heard of Venice Beach so we headed to the next suburb south and had a quick stroll along the promenade on Venice Beach. It consisted of an uninterrupted stream of tourists, homeless and some rather strange people. It was the homeless people who had stalls on the beach that were the most depressing.

One highlight though was the Gym that is situated on the beach, open to the air. The Gym was holding a bodybuilding competition. There were some very orange and strange people involved in that contest. It seems that the place to go if [your into bodybuilding and] want to be seem in Venice Beach is the gym on the beach. One ‘lady’ who was not in the competition but seemed to be famous was rather disconcerting as I had assumed she was a lady until she spoke. After ‘she spoke I thought ‘she’ was male, well until I sore the bikini that she was wearing and thought there is nowhere to hid your bits (if you have them) in that tiny bit of material.

After that we said goodbye to the smog and craziness of LA and headed north. We had no real plans to stop anwhere except our hotel for the night at Ragged Point north of San Simeon. First stop though was a small beach just north of Malibu for Coffee (from Starbucks where else you gonna get coffee when your in the US) and a snack of Strawberries. It was much better than The Beaches in LA and I recommend anyone heading to California to Surf that you head north of LA to at least Malibu to surf for health reasons. The water is BROWN in LA.

On the way to where we might stop for lunch we spotted a sign “Buelton the home of the split pea soup”. Sorely tempted as we where we decided to press on to at least Santa Barbara for lunch.

Next stop was Santa Barbara for lunch a it had been recommended but Mary-jo at my work and one of Min’s host families in South Carolina. After getting lost for about half an hour we found the main street and a park. Walking around a little we spotted Joe’s Café. We decided to eat there not just because Min was starving and refused to look for another café but also because it looked nice.

Back on the road next stop was San Simeon the home of Hursts Castle. Though I made the executive decision to stop at one of the many Vista Points along the way and looked at a colony of Elephant seals. I have to say I did this for my own benefit as much as Min’s as I have never seen Elephant seals in the wild before either. Min took a million photo’s. Well OK min only took about 50 photo’s of Elephant seals but still it seemed like a million.

Last thing of the day was stopping at the Ragged point hotel situated on a cliff over the pacific ocean. A beautiful spot and quite a nice hotel with a fantastic restaurant.

Day 1ish – Sunday 30 May 2010 -Main Street Santa Monica (LA)

Nothing opens until 11 on a Sunday (except the farmers market across the way – which despite having recycling bins etc in place still hand you food in a plastic bag…. Getting there but still some work required).

Found some astero turf apparently you get a rebate back from the government if you install astro turf… great! But was really cool as some real grass was pushing through – go nature!

Lewis ordered a pirate chai which turned out to be a GREEN spiced coffee… apparently tasted nice until he hit the green gritty bits at the bottom – funny. Nice lavender and kangaroo paws at the café.

Did some shopping at Patagonia and REI (adventure equipment stores) cool stuff but not really needed right now. Then checked out the beach from top of the cliff (overlooking the pier) Pollution was insane, could hardly see Marina Del Ray which was about 5km away. Planes would appear out of the smog towing signs, water looked brown lots of people at the beach one or two people in the water… not sure why water brown??? Cool plants on the cliff top (cool old twisty tree that looked like flossy) and statue of a saint.

Headed to whole foods which is a food shop – massive choice in lots of great things, eg huge range of fruit and veg, massive selection of bulk rice, grains, flour, nuts etc can buy wine (section included wine bar) out of all the cheese lewis managed to pick Sheeps cheese (because it was in a orange mould) roasting coffee in store (cool) sushi chefs, grill area with fresh meals prepared, full pizza oven, soups, salad bar INSANITY but cool. Car in carpark for compact car… was filled with a 4 wheel drive dodge ram… compact????? Only in America. Lewis doing a great job of navigating, he somehow knows his way around… crazy.

Haibach Germany

First stop on my travels was Frankfurt where Kathryn Graciously had agreed to pick me up at 6am in the morning. The flight to Germany had been a 10hr flight from Sydney to Bangkok then a 14hr flight to Frankfurt after a 4 hour stopover. So by the time I arrived in Germany I had been awake for about 48 hours with no more than a couple of ten minute kips on the plane. Arriving at 6 in the morning I decided that the best way to get over my Jet lag instantly would be to stay up until about 9 than night. It worked! 64 hour awake and then a good nights sleep and I was adjusted to the German time zone in one day.

The week in Haibach passed with much needed rest and reading which I hadn't done in ages. Also lots of discussion with Kathryn ranging from women's right to choose to the effects of high doses of coffee, this later topic actually involve experimentation.

I finally got to meet Kal who is a lovely guy and told me many a story from his hospital giving me new insights and horrors from the world of hospitals. Mum being a pharmacist has already introduced me to the medieval torture chamber that is the Hospital but Kal being a doctor and surgeon just had those extra few details that really top off a good story.

One of the major highlights of the trip to See Kathryn was the trip we took to Nuremberg. I had heard the term the Nuremberg Rallies before but I didn't link them to the name that Kal suggested as a little trip. First off the Congress Hall that the Nazi Party built is huge. Huge really doesn't do it justice, it's Colossal. It was never finished and the most of the plans for the Nazi Party Rally grounds were never even started. They have turned the Congress Hall into the Documentation Centre which is basically a museum detailing the rise in power of the Nazi Party and the ways in which they dismantled and rebuilt Germany's systems of government to suit their own ends. It also details many of the social systems the Nazi Party put in place to get the German people to follow them. I cried a few times on the tour but one of the most startling thing from it is the understanding of how the people of Germany were manipulated. Kal and Kathryn both were startled to realise they would have been Nazi's. Kal would have joined whichever group would have given him the most badges. I figured that it would depend on how old I was when it all started. If I was in my 30's or older I would have been killed by the Nazi's well before the war even started. If I was in my 20's or younger I would have ended up joining up and either would have been in the SS or in some secret lab conducting secret super soldier experiments (or having them done to me). If ever you find yourself in or near Nuremberg please go to this museum and see this for yourself, it is well worth the visit.

After Germany I had a flight to America and a short stay in Santa Monica before Min turned up and we started our big Californian Holiday.

This Blog has been Co-opted

So over the next few posts Min and I will be updating you the reader about our travels in California. The next post though will cover most of my trip to Germany.

Desert Island

Every so often the XKCD comic just posts an amazing strip that says so much with one frame. This one really struck me. so I thought why not share it around.

Enjoy