Till the Sun Comes Up Over Santa Monica Boulevard

Sheryl Crow's got a lot to answer for.  It's absolutely impossible to spend any time in LA without constantly singing her classic hit All I Wanna Do.  In fact, I have no idea how the Angelenos cope with the incessant earworm.

On my mint green steed near Santa Monica Pier

Once we had left San Diego, we were back on the train to LA.  I was very curious to see whether anyone at all cycles in LA and the surrounding area, given its reputation for being a sprawling city of the car.  I needn't have worried - well, not too much, anyway.  All of the buses in LA have the same type of cycle racks on the front as in San Diego, but they seem to be used less in LA.  We hadn't been in Pasadena (my Uncle Simon's adopted home town) for very long before we saw our first people actually cycling on the road, and they were serious about it.  They were in a pack of about 15, all dressed head to toe in matching Lycra kits which were undoubtedly replicas of those worn by their favourite tour cyclists.  They were most likely riding up into the San Gabriel mountains for a few tough hill climbs and scenic descents.

The elusive other side
of the marina

We had the opportunity to meet one of these cyclists, Uncle Simon's friend Gordon, who regularly cycles on a Sunday morning.  There was some talk of us going on one of his mountain jaunts, but the reasons why we shouldn't join him were so numerous (fitness levels - we're not used to climbing mountains, having to cycle on the "wrong" side of the road for most of the ride, the heat, and so on) that we decided that it would perhaps be better to hire bikes at the beach and ride there.  Gordon provided us with a recommendation for a cycle hire shop and Uncle Simon kindly dropped us at Santa Monica Beach.

James outside the restaurant we had lunch at

This time, I knew what I wanted - a cruiser with hand brakes - and James opted for the same.  There is clearly some colour coding going on in Southern California, because I scored another mint green beauty.  James had a black "Pantero", which sounded far more aggressive than it was.  We set off south and soon found the cycle path.  The distance from where we started to Venice Beach can't be more than a mile or two, but the path was so winding (to avoid playgrounds, car parks, showers and other amenities) that it could easily have been more like five miles long.  At Venice Beach, the beach cycle path disappeared and we were signposted down a street.  We followed the signs a short way, but ended up unconvinced that we could get around the marina we came across, so turned back and got some lunch at a lovely restaurant in Venice.

One of the better skaters

After lunch, we made another attempt to get around the marina and got a bit further, but there were so many roadworks in the area (many of them causing the inside lane on dual carriageways to be closed, making it quite dangerous to cycle), that we decided it was a bad idea and turned back again - in any case, the whole point of the exercise was to watch the crazies on Venice Beach and our route was taking us further away from there.  We were slightly surprised not to find any mad Schwarzenegger-style body builders in this area, but there were plenty of places that would be willing to fulfil a medicinal "herb" prescription and the whole place was a bit like a very hot Camden-Market-on-Sea.

We came across a skate park and stopped for a few minutes to watch the skateboarders.  Some of them were very good and some were mediocre.  None was bad, but we soon realised that anyone who was a terrible skater wouldn't be skating at Venice Beach at a time when there would be a guaranteed audience.

These people are 47% upside down

We pootled (did I mention that I love that word?) back up to Santa Monica Beach and spent some time watching people messing about with the gym equipment.  We came to the conclusion that there must be a law in the city of Santa Monica (which is sometimes referred to in the local area as the People's Republic of Santa Monica) which prohibits people from spending more than 30 minutes on the beach unless they promise to spend at least 47% of the time upside down.