Visiting Los Angeles at the moment and staying in the Hollywood Hills before moving on to New York. When I visit somewhere,  I really like to walk as much as possible – it is one of the best ways to get a ‘feel’ for a place, the sights, the sounds, the smell, the music are all so present when you are on foot.

The other best way to cement an experience is to sit somewhere and draw/sketch your surroundings – that really makes you observe and leaves an impression far more powerfully than a photograph. In this blog I have documented my 14,000 step wander around Hollywood.

My son lives there and I asked if he could drop me at the corner of Bronson and Franklin – there is a great little magazine/book and other interesting objects shop where I like to buy an arty magazine to have later with coffee. Walk down Bronson and you arrive at famous Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk of Fame. It’s interesting to walk along looking at the star’s names in the sidewalk and think about them – many famous, of course, but some not known to me. I watched some workmen work on a brand new star (so new, I didn’t recognise the name). Of course Hollywood is full on – touts for tours, people out to be seen, enormous groups of tourists speaking a multitude of languages. People being photographed by their friends in front of famous landmarks – especially the Hollywood sign and standing or hand in the cement handprints of the famous. Jean Harlow had hands the size of a ten year old’s.

It’s a long, steep walk back up into the hills, so I left the famous road and made my way back to Franklin and passed through Whitney St which has a number of handsome Spanish/art nouveau style buildings from the golden era of Hollywood. Found my way to a cafe I have enjoyed on my previous visit – the kind you can sit in for hours, sit at a computer, sketch, talk, eat and drink a good latte. From there it was up, up, up the twists and curves of the narrow roads up into the hills. The ‘Health’ app on my phone informed me that I had walked 11+ Kms, taken 14,300 steps and climbed 20 stories – now there’s a cure for jet lag – slept better than the baby in this house!