Hollywood

We were booked in to dive with the great White sharks in Guadalupe so called into Hollywood on the way down to Mexico, using Hollywood just as a stopover really. Hollywood is one of those places you don`t want to miss, but only really go to get a photo or two of the Hollywood sign and the stars on the Hollywood Boulevard walk of fame. We started off finding the sign by driving up the Mulholland Highway almost to the top where there is a vacant plot where you can get a really good view of the sign, it does say no trespassing so be respectful, but also be really careful as there are "no Parking" signs everywhere. Unfortunately some over zealous LAPD officer issued us with a parking ticket even though we never parked up, Tracey momentarily stopped to drop me off so that I could walk up to get a photo and the same to pick me up again. We were never challenged in person, we just received the ticket after in the post which was worse as it came through the hire company that also charged us a fee, we appealed the ticket and were told the officer concerned had made a statement saying he had  stopped and in person and issued us with ticket so there was no appeal, this was a lie! but we had no choice from back in the UK to challenge this so paid the fine.

From the end of Mulholland we drove back down to the Lake Hollywood Park area where there are some short stay legal parking bays. We managed to get one of these but only stopped briefly for a photo in front of the sign before moving on to find the Hollywood walk of fame.

What struck us on our first impression of the Hollywood Boulevard was the rubbish and filth of the place, the homeless and piles of cardboard doorway homes. We found somewhere to park the car just off Hollywood Boulevard down one of the side streets, and took a walk west toward the Chinese Theatre. The Walk of fame is on the right hand side of the boulevard if you are walking west, starting at North Gower Street and running around 1.5 miles down to North La Brea Avenue.

The walk along the boulevard can be quite a bit of fun, looking amongst the stars and trying to find the people you know or like or particularly want to see. When you get to the TLC Chinese Theatre you get to see all the hand and foot prints in the concrete. The TLC Chinese Theatre is famous for holding many movie premiere nights, film festivals and imprint ceremonies and it also houses the worlds largest Imax auditorium.

We had a browse around the Theatre and the prints in the concrete and then retraced our steps back up toward the car, but not before coming across a chap that places letters out on a blank walk of fame star, so we had "Hartshill Daredevil" done for a photo, this was referring to the name to given me by a local newspaper magazine when writing a story about me a few years ago.

Finally we returned to the car and headed off towards San Diego.