Day 29 – Gettyn cultured

Drove into the hills to the Getty Museum today. On the way I got my first glimpse of he Hollywood sign, hoping to explore that more on Monday. The museum is easy to find and has plenty of parking, which is the only thing you pay for ($10) as entrance is free. Access to the main building is via a tram and on the way up we got chatting to other passengers about our travels. Everywhere we go we get asked where we’re from, seems like its the American version of asking about the weather. The other thing is whenever I say I’m from England I keep getting an “oh, I used to live in York” or so and so has lived in York; Ive never been to York so that’s a conversation stopper!

Arriving at the top of the hill you are enveloped in the architecture of the building, sleekand off white squares everywhere. Luckily we had arrived just in time for a guided tour of the Getty’s architecture so even before seeing the works I was impressed by their housing, all $1.2 billion worth! The next 3 hours were spent touring the various buildings in chronological order of works. I was most impressed by the array of deep relief sculpture and the Bernini exhibition. Unfortunately the weather in the area was pretty grim today so the views from the grounds weren’t as stunning as I imagine they can be. Still the view of angry skys rolling in from the Pacific and clouds hiding downtown was impressive.

Emerging from the underground car park the heaven’s opened; I welcomed the rain and hoped it would clean some of the dust from the Grand Canyon rally session away. Heading back towards the coast we found food and accomodation in the area of Magic Mountain, the theme park I’ll no doubt be throwing up all over tomorrow; I saw some of the rides in the distance (spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch).