DISNEYLAND – THE ORIGINAL

We’re posting in flashback from England again. This is our last post about the USA. Our last day was spent at Disneyland and what a fantastic way to end the trip this was.

Disneyland was the brainchild of Walt Disney, wanting to create a place where children and adults could have fun together. The other reason for its existence is the fact that the general public wanted to meet Mickey and Minnie and all the other wonderful cartoon characters. After a lot of hard work by many people, the most by Walt himself, and for the cost of $17 million the park opened on July 18, 1954. Although, the first day was an absolute disaster, dubbed Black Friday forever. LA was going through a heat wave and the recently laid tarmac melted as people were walking on it. The plumber couldn’t complete the water fountain installation meaning there was no water for people to drink. Counterfeit tickets were created meaning 30,000 instead of 15,000 guests turned up and the catering was insufficient. To top off all that there was a gas leak causing the shutting of half the park. All in all a disaster but in the days to follow all was sorted and it has been a success story ever since.

It really is a place to have fun with children, even big ones like us. We thoroughly enjoyed a day and night of wonder looking around and riding as much as possible. It is always packed with people so a lot of time is spent in queues but you get there in the end. Half the fun we had in the day was watching little children light up in wonder as a favourite character would pass, especially during the daily parade, at this time of year Christmas themed. We loved Mickey’s Toon Town and Fantasyland, getting lost in these make believe worlds.

We went home to rug up for the evening and to eat dinner and then headed back in for the night. The lights were just gorgeous creating the magical atmosphere that Disney is famous for. We were treated to a spectacular show called Fantastica which is the dream world of Mickey Mouse projected onto a misty water screen and includes appearances of lots of wonderful characters. Between shows we fitted in a our last few rides and in our opinion the best rides in the park. The New Orleans style haunted house was just the right amount of spooky and we loved the Indiana Jones Adventure ride, although our absolutely favourite was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The fireworks were just spectacular and a very fitting end to our time in the USA. We all decided that as much as we had really enjoyed our Disney adventure we would not plan a holiday around it, it was just good to do as a part of our LA adventure. Universal Studios we felt was a much better adventure along the theme park line with much better rides for us adults, a win to Florida.

Well, this was the last night for our USA adventures as we settled down to a lovely hotel stay, free from our Wyndham rewards, and woke to do our final pack. We had talked our way into a late check out at 2pm so perfect for our then trouble free trip to the airport to drop off the car. Alamo is a rental car company I would recommend to anyone, they have been a trouble free experience and have gone out of their way to make it so. We have completed 13,100 miles of travels through this amazing country of natural wonders, big cities and very interesting people. Time to return to Blighty to see our family before returning to Australia so do stay tuned for more fun to end our world adventure, or part of it at least.

We had a trouble free flight and were met by Graham right on time, helped by following our flights progress on the good old iPad. It is a bright but cold sunny day and we enjoy the last minute views from flight over England of the green fields and hedges. Back on the ground we spend our time catching up on what has been happening over the last 3 months and reliving some of our adventures. The Bells welcomes back with the Christmas lights shining and fire glowing bright, just gorgeous. It is so good to be back.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album DISNEYLAND.

HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES AND BEVERLY HILLS

We’re now back in England getting ready to spend another wonderful Christmas with family. This post is about the rest of our time in Los Angeles, Hollywood and Beverly Hills up until our last day in the USA at Disneyland.

So, what else did we get up to? Next stop was Hollywood where we spent most of an afternoon at the Hollywood Museum that is housed in the Max Factor Building. Yes, you are right, this is the building purchased by Max Factor in 1928 and eventually opened as the place of business and creation by the man himself in 1935. Hollywood’s ‘make up king’ was considered the father of modern “make-up”. Born in Poland, Max Factor became the beautician/make-up artist to Russia’s Czar Nicholas II and his family. After immigrating with his family to the United States in 1908, he fulfilled the American Dream. Through his innovative ideas, and hard work, Factor built a cosmetic empire. From Hollywood royalty to housewives of America, Max Factor’s stylistic genius changed our vision of beauty. He created silver screen gods and goddesses as well as a new look for the everyday woman. I cannot imagine that there would be any woman who has not had a Max Factor item in their make up bag at some point. This is the place where it all began.

Max was a pioneer that recognized that the make up and skin tones must match the hair colour, something especially important once the camera is rolling. He was the person who made Marilyn Monroe blonde and Lucille Ball a red head and proceeded to create the makeup to suit. He is also the creator of lipstick. Where would we be without this amazing man? The most bizarre thing to see is his beauty calibrator. Max invented this scary-looking machine to aid in the perfect application of makeup. The contraption helped identify the areas of a person’s face that needed to be enhanced or disguised. The beauty micrometer became a huge hit in the movie industry. It actually looks more like a sophisticated object of torture and apparently ended up being used in horror movies. Not his greatest success but you have to admit he went to all sorts of lengths to get the perfect ‘look’ for the women, and men, of the world.

It is a fabulous Hollywood Regency Art Deco building that greets you with the gorgeous white and rose marble lobby complete with chandeliers and gold leaf. On this floor one can browse through the original make up rooms designated by hair colour. There are four floors of photos, memorabilia, horror, costumes and so much more from days of old and modern movies. It was a pleasure to be lost amongst all these treasures.

We are lucky enough to be in town for a movie premiere for Inherent Vice, so we spend a couple more hours just wandering around Hollywood Boulevard, soaking in this surreal world and checking out the stars on the pavement, that make this the Hollywood Walk of Fame, before securing our spot outside Hooters opposite the TCL Chinese Theatre, hoping it is the one that will give us the best view of the stars. We are not disappointed as the evening unfolds and we get to see the stars, our favourites being Reece Witherspoon, Jena Malone from Hunger Games fame and Maya Rudolph from Bridesmaids fame. What a fabulous day in down town Hollywood.

Another day is spent touring around and exploring Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive (just gorgeous but a little out of the adventure budget) and the Hollywood Hills. No more stars spotted on this day. In daylight this is not really that spectacular, it does tend to sparkle a bit more in the night. You can see lots of big gates to big properties but privacy is the issue here, and who would expect anything less. The views over LA are great from up on the hill but it is just a sprawling urban mass with a surprisingly small high-rise district. We pop into the centre of town to the Town Hall and are able to pop up to the 27^th floor that offers a wonderful view of the inner city and surrounds. All in all we soak up as much as we can before we head back in the atrocious traffic to get to our beds. We all decide that unless we were to be stars we would not want to live and commute in this city, it would drive you absolutely crazy tackling the traffic on a daily basis.

Time is running out very quickly now but we have one more adventure planned for out last day and night, a trip to Disney Land. We have done all the packing and are moving into a 4 and ½ star hotel right at the gate so we will have a fantastic day of adventure and childhood fun followed by a lovely evening before we head off to the airport tomorrow. We’ll tell you all about it later.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES AND BEVERLY HILLS.

PRAGUE, OLOMOUC AND CESKY KRUMLOV IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

When driving into a new country in Europe one of our favourite things to do was to pick out all the subtle changes we could see. To decide what made the country we were in unique, our first impressions and things that we had seen before in other countries. It’s amazing the changes you see even when moving along only a short distance and that’s the beauty of traveling in Europe.

Our first stop in the Czech Republic was a relatively large town called Olomouc where we spent an evening walking between churches like Saint Wenceslas Cathedral and Saint Moritz Church, mostly closed or holding services, before heading to the main square. With the days becoming longer walking around in the evening is a perfect mixture of cool daylight hours and quiet tourist free streets, perfect for walking around what is touted as being an old town to rival Prague.

Dominated by the old town hall, the town squares main attraction is the tall Holy Trinity Column, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is definitely worth a look, with its elaborate detail.

We found a spot to camp in the forest between Olomouc and Prague where we were lucky enough to see more wild deer. Though they didn’t come very close it’s always nice to see wild animals, as long as they’re not dangerous and keep their distance of course!

We knew when we arrived in Prague that we were in for a treat and we fell in love with this beautiful city as much as we did with Budapest. We can’t seem to get enough of beautiful buildings and they seem to have become a basis for what we seek out to see on our trip.

Planning to camp a couple of nights here we were on a mission to find a good free camping spot and settled for a side road at the top of the hill in the castle surrounds. When looking for a spot in the city it’s important to find free, non-ticket and time unlimited, parking in a nice area to avoid both parking tickets and theft. As always it’s also very important that the space is level as it is our little home on wheels and homes don’t work very well when parked on a hill.

Again we spent an afternoon doing everything we could while there were less fellow tourists around, walking around Saint Vitus Cathedral in the Prague castle complex and down Golden Lane. We took the chance to view Prague from below whilst walking across Charles Bridge and had a laugh practicing our posing for photos, tourist style.

Some shopping at Wenceslas Square took us into the night when we moved on to the old town square. Alive with people and street performers we did our best to stick together while admiring the amazing Tyn Church and the very cool old town hall clock tower that features an astronomical clock as well as intricate mosaics lining the entrance inside.

We finished the day walking back to Vincent through the Jewish Quarter and back across the river to see the buildings lit up at night, stunning! We were also treated to some fireworks along the way, glimpsing them over the tops of the buildings!

In the morning it was time to tackle the crowds, making our way to Saint Vitus Cathedral again to see the inside. Walking through the gates to Prague castle Mum suddenly stumbled and the guards on either side of the entrance struggled to keep a straight face. Inside the Cathedral was very busy and we decided no to pay the entrance fee to the crypts to see the tomb of Saint Wenceslas we had somewhere else we were much more excited to see!

Most of our day was taken up visiting the Toy and Barbie Museum on Golden Lane. Releasing our inner children, not hard, we took in rooms full of old and new toys. Lead soldiers, tin trains, doll houses, toys from many different European countries, teddy bears, life size characters and much more.

The highlight though, the Barbie dolls. On a floor of their own we saw Barbies through the ages. A huge collection of Barbie, her friends and her family, and their progression through facial and body features and most importantly fashion. Impossible to choose a favourite and makes me want to start my own collection!

A walk up Petrin Hill for a magnificent view over Prague was next where we sat for a while before heading back to Vincent in time to move on. We found a spot to sleep and recharge right on the river about 30 kilometers south of Prague, ready for constant driving the next day to get to Cesky Krumlov right near the south border of the Czech Republic.

In Cesky Krumlov we walked through the lovely palace gardens, when moving on so quickly all the time it’s nice to be able to relax and take a stroll. Set at the top of the hill overlooking the castle and Vltava River the gardens contain a lake and a rotating outdoor theatre as well as beautiful garden beds full of flowers.

On the way down towards the castle we popped into another garden on the cliff and got an amazing view out over the river, old town and castle. Walking through the lower parts of the castle we came across the bear pits and it’s crazy to think that even in this day and age animals are still allowed to be kept this way, in small concrete boxes with a few pot plants. Very sad to see these huge, intelligent animals confined this way.

Our time in the Czech Republic at an end we started on our way to into Austria, excited for some time in the Salzkammergut, Austria’s Lake District.

Photos can be found on our Facebook Page in the album CZECH REPUBLIC.