Tuesday 15 March 2011

Los Angeles and the Scenic coast road March 13th &14th


Getty, Getty.... So good we did it twice.......... 
So tired of flying, up on the road again.....  we're on the road againnnn......

We were amazed at the level of security before we boarded our plane to America. We had expected a very laid back routine, judging from the rest of our visit there, but Fiji came into it’s own in the airport. We had our suitcases scanned, our hand luggage and our bodies hand searched, including having to turn on phones and laptop to prove they were what we said, and then we were isolated until we took off. If you needed the loo, you had to be re searched afterwards!!!
Our Quantas flight was actually run by Air Pacific, who are not the same quality at all, but the flight was OK. Of course it’s difficult to sleep but we were sufficiently refreshed to get the hire car and set off down the Scenic highway, (More about that tomorrow) aiming for the most fantastic time share apartment in Oznard, complete with private hot tub.
We stopped off at the Getty Centre on our way and were quite blown away by the building and the garden, even without the fantastic exhibitions. Photos for Centre here .
We saw the Getty Villa in Malibu the next day, having decided we liked the accommodation so much we’d stay here an extra night. The Villa was built first, based on a Roman villa, buried with Pompey in the Vesuvius eruption. Getty loved to collect a variety of Art, but he loved Roman antiquities most and wanted to build the Villa to house them, once the collection outgrew his home, on the same site, but further up the hill. The collection then outgrew that space and the Getty Centre was built and the Roman collection stayed at the Villa, which was remodelled, and the rest went to the Centre. John Paul Getty never even lived to see the completion of the Villa, poor thing, and would have hated the modernity of the Centre, but left sufficient money for his trustees to be able to continue to enable the public to see his Art collection, as he had wished, and to continue to expand it. Web link here Photos for Villa here.
We really enjoyed both buildings for their different qualities and both also had gardens and collections that matched up to their high standards. Lots of culture, then back to the hot tub for a soak and Jacuzzi massage before going out to dinner. Not bad, eh, and a great introduction to America.

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