So on the second full day of our trip, we were all up and about by 8 am (a small miracle for some of the youngest among us) We decided to go and check out the Getty Museum. Funded by the oil fortune of J. Paul Getty the place occupies a huge area high up in the hills overlooking LA, and is absolutely spectacular. Rather than waffle on about it I'll let the photos speak for themselves :
We only had time to look around one of the four main galleries in the grounds, There was a great exhibition by a photographer named Minor White, who I'd never heard of before, but seems to have been a rather talented chap. We also had a gander at some Dutch masters, and a few impressionist pieces from the likes of Monet and Van Gogh. The museum has a huge collection of other sculptures, paintings, photographs and classical art all available to the public for free.
And some lovely gardens manicured to within an inch of their life
Afterwards, we drove across town via Mulholland Drive, past some rather over the top fancy celebrity mansions perched precariously on the side of hills to soak up a bit of musical history in Laurel Canyon. The place has been home to a whole host of musical legends over the years including the Doors, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, Crosby Stills and Nash, James Taylor and many more.
The Laurel Canyon general store was where in the words of Jim Morrison "the creatures meet" to buy a pint of milk, some crisps and rizlas at 2 in the morning (not the words of Jim Morrisson)
(you might need to zoom in a bit to read it but this article gives a good sense of the place - certainly sounds a bit more exciting than the local 24 hour BP garage in Brighton)
It seems like the locals were anticipating our arrival
And had put up some helpful signage for us
Afterwards, we paid a visit to the not at all pretentious Whole Foods store
Filled with not at all pretentious novelty beers
and got some rather fancy steaks for dinner and settled down to watch a documentary about metal music. All in all a pretty enjoyable day!
No comments:
Post a Comment