USA: As cold as ICE: March 2026

Monday 2/3

Yesterday was our only full day in LA. Good news was our complimentary breakfast ! Love them.

Of course the GF options were limited to GF toast. No cereal, no pastries etc. However I no complain.

After breakfast we took advantage of the 'house car' to go to the Beverly Centre for some shopping. Note: shops open from 10am, not 9am which is interesting. The Beverly Centre at 10.05 was pretty deserted and we realised it was very high end with Bloomingdales and lots of other big brands. Huge and empty. The hotel had suggested we go there (?)

We asked and were told of a pharmacy across the road which turned out to be in a lower end shopping centre with Target and TK Max. So interesting.

and Bloomingdales outlet store which had nothing.

Back to the hotel and we decided it would still be worth doing the Hop on /Hop off bus tour we had booked. We were pleasantly surprised to find that one of the stops was across the road from the hotel. So convenient. Maybe that was why we were booked into this hotel as it is not really near anything and very expensive.

Anyway we hopped on for the 2 hour tour and we decided to hop off at the Hollywood walk place. It was a very old bus and there were 5 people on it including us. Not particularly exciting.

Back to the Beverly Centre. did not hop off.

Other stuff:

Protest against the war i think

famous hot dog place where famous people hang out. Really???

Look, we are in Hollywood!!

My favourite street

famous warner brothers building.first to introduce sound using these antennas ?

Always a McDonalds around

Ripleys

Chinese theatre

We hopped off at he Dolby Theatre and walked down Hollywood Avenue. Lots of interesting stars. A selection below:

We had a great lunch at this real American diner:

And they had great gluten free melts. Huge serving but

It was part of an amazing hotel, old but beautifully ornate. I think it was the Shirley Hotel but not sure. Best rest rooms. No I did not take a photo of them. But i took these of the lobby.

And a few more interesting things as we waited to Hop on our bus to take us back to our stop.

look its elvis

the shirley hotel i think

ferrari

me and the rock

paul and the rock

I had the timetable which i had taken as we first hopped on and we waited at the appropriate time. Huge mess as we found out we had the old timetable, then the bus driver at the stop was having lunch and then left. A nice lady tried to help, as did her supervisor so we waited and waited. We waited an hour before taking an Uber back to the hotel.

A huge day in Hollywood. One of my favourite things was seeing Santa Monica Boulevard, such an iconic song for me.

That is the end of our Eagles and Knights American Dream tour. Tomorrow the plane home. Hopefully Trump's war won't cause problems. Interestingly we have not met anyone who supports Trump. Thank goodness we are not going via Dubai. It feels so good to be going home.

Aussie Aussie Aussie........

Sunday

We left Vegas really early to go to the airport for our flight to Los Angeles.

We are staying at The London hotel in Beverly Hills and it is the most amazing hotel of our trip. Very old world elegance and luxury.

Our room is twice the size of all previous rooms with a kitchenette, dining area, lounge area and king size bed. There is also a dressing area behind the bed leading to the biggest bathroom i have ever seen in a hotel. And there is a balcony.