Getty Center and Universal studios

Since I have now a car I can now visit attractions that are a bit further away from Irvine. My last Saturday’s target was the Getty Center. Located in the north of L.A. on a hill it offers a great view over L.A. and his agglomeration. But it has to offer a lot more than only the view, the construction of the different buildings is phenomenal! The complete museum consists of several big halls, which are built of stone with a lot of balconies, columns and terraces. Between the buildings there are little parks with fountains and benches and on the outside of these buildings there is another big park with a little river, a lot of green space and a lot of flowers and sculptures.

Even though I’m not a big connoisseur of arts, I had a lot of fun to explore all the buildings and the different expositions. But I think for art lovers this must be kind of a heaven! There were different expositions about French art, Dutch art etc. where they exposed paintings, sculptures, furniture etc.
By the way, the entrance was free (I only had to pay $15 for the parking!!!) and when I arrived there I drove down into the parking building. The first few levels were complete, so I drove in a spiral manner down to the 4th floor where I finally found a free space for my car. On my way to the elevator I asked me how many more levels the building has. The answer I found on the display of the elevator, there were three more level, which means that all in all there are 7 different parking levels (all sub ground).

I decided not to take the direct way home, but to drive through Beverly Hills and Hollywood along the famous sunshine boulevard. I was really disappointed from this street, the condition was miserable and there were a lot of potholes! And this in one of Los Angeles most famous streets! I didn’t make stops on the Villas, and from most of them you only could see a big wall and a roof. But on every corner you could buy star maps with the addresses of the different stars.
Sunday Rodrigo (my assistant) picked me up at my place and we went for the Universal Studios in Hollywood. Besides Rodrigo there was also his wife and his parents in law. After arriving there we took a tour through the actual studios. They told us about the different Halls and which films and shows were produced in these halls. We also saw a lot of different sceneries that were kind of familiar. For example those who saw King Kong know the scenery on the picture. They also explained some of the effects and on the TV screens in the trams they showed some of the actual scenes.
There was also a subway station scenery that started to move once we were inside, the ceiling busted and a truck came down towards us. It wouldn’t be Hollywood if this truck wouldn’t break apart and start to burn. Last but not least a Metro train came into the scenery and crashed into the truck. All in all very fun to watch and it was like to take part in one of the many scenes from a Hollywood blockbuster. After this action scene we also visited Mysteria Lane known from Desperate Housewives, the world from the Grinch, the motel from psycho, a plane crash (can’t remember the movie) and much more.

After the tour we needed some adrenaline kicks and first we got on the Mummies Rollercoaster, which was very amazing, besides the ride is most time in the dark, there is also one part where we moved backwards. The next ride on the program was then the boat tour through Jurassic Park, which ended with a big splash. Then we visited a show where they demonstrated some of the special effects their using in the movies, from some digital effects, over the masks to the musical effects. It was quite funny, because they made a big show out of it and some of the elements came back all the time. Another highlight was the animal show, where they presented some of the animal stars and showed how they are trained.

And
there was a lot of other stuff we did, like the Simpsons Ride, Shrek 4D, the houses of Horror etc. All in all it was a very funny day and I even learnt a lot. But the best of all was that I got a pass for the whole 2010 for the price of only one day, so I can go back as many times as I want! :D