Wanderung 20

Australian Walkabout

May - June 2009

Sunday, May 17th, 2009, Los Angeles and the Flight to Sydney

Bob:

In any event, we did manage to get packed and out to Dulles Airport in plenty of time to catch our flight from D.C. to Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. In Los Angeles we had a seven-hour layover and Chris, our old college friend, drove by to pick us up so that we cold spend some time together. He thought we might want to stretch our legs in between the long airplane rides, so he selected a Volksmarch that started just a couple of miles away from the airport and traversed the small city of Venice, California.

Monika:

I had packed on Friday, but then re-packed on Saturday after figuring out that "winter" in Australia was more like fall in Virginia. So I chucked the long sleeves and took more short sleeves plus a few cardigans and warm shirts. Our flight was not until 12:40 on Sunday morning. We decided to call the cab for 10. By 9 we both were ready and eager to go and just sitting around waiting for the taxi to come. It got us to the airport in plenty of time and we went to the international check-in for United. It is, of course, electronic, so fewer humans are needed. Knowing that Bob's passport had suffered from too much heat and sweat in Madrid, we used mine to sign in and found our reservation easily enough, but then we had to wade through at least four or five screens of offers for more legroom or quicker boarding – all for a price, of course. What was annoying was, that the first option was always "yes" so you had to move the cursor before touching"no", "no", "no", and always "no"!!! But finally we were done, received our boarding passes, said good bye to our luggage and headed for our gate. We still had to catch one of the old-fashioned people movers to get to the C-terminal, but once there we settled down to eat our lunch consisting of hard boiled eggs, rolls, and brownies. Yummie.

The flight to LA was smooth. We declined the $5 sandwiches but enjoyed the still free soft drinks. We had two aisle seats so we could get up and walk around to our hearts content. Since we had a seven hour layover in LA we had contacted our old friend Chris. He was right there at baggage claim and we had a wonderful time with him.

Bob:

Venice California is so named because it does, in fact, have a set of canals with small bridges arching over them just like Venice, Italy. Unlike the crazy-quilt pattern of the canals in Venice, Italy, however, the canals of Venice, California, are laid out in a neat, midwestern-style grid. So you end up having blocks of houses just like in the Midwest, but the blocks are delineated by the canals rather than by streets. But just like streets in any self-respecting midwestern town, the canals in Venice, California, are bordered by nice sidewalks where we could walk along and enjoy the view.

Venice, California, was apparently built in the early 1900s, and a few of the homes reflected the small cottages and beach bungalows that typified that era. But Venice has become trendy in the last couple of decades, and well over half of the old, small homes had been replaced by far newer, more extensive, and no doubt more expensive ones. Many of those were the severe, modern block-style of house (think Bauhaus writ very small), but some were much more fanciful and interesting.

Monika:

First we did a Volksmarch in the Venice area, where we enjoyed walking along the canals. The houses were an interesting mix of small Cape Cod cottages from the decade of the 50s to modern buildings. You could see, that it would not be long, before all the old homes will have been "modernized". Californians are trying to cut down on water use, so every now and then we saw a cactus garden instead of flowers. I enjoyed seeing the different varieties of cacti and succulents that had been planted.

Bob:

After traipsing up and down the canals of the American Venice, we ambled over to the seashore area where we found a very nice beach together with a truly tacky strip of beachfront businesses. The assortment of people thronging the beachfront area was, however, a never-ending source of interest and amusement. The folks there were a highly eclectic mix of just about every ethnic variety you could think of, and many were what I would call " Certifiable California Eccentrics" or CCEs. In my book, CCEs are folks who flaunt some extreme aspect of their life style such as the muscle-bound beach bum in his tiny, almost invisible pair of Speedo swim trunks.

Monika:

Back at the beach we walked through a typical beach scene that was very crowded on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and on past some elegant homes back to the start point.

Bob:

We ended up our walk in Souplantation, a really nice soup and salad place on the second floor of a small mall that had an all-you-can-eat buffet for $10 apiece. That being California the salad bar was, of course, quite good, but the home made soups were also quite excellent. I overdid it, I'm afraid, and had chilli, black bean, and leek soups along with a generous helping of salad. I might have still been OK if I had stopped there, but then I found the dessert bar and had to sample all those, of course..

All that food made it somewhat more difficult to nap when we arrived back at the airport and found out that our flight had been delayed due to work on the Auxiliary Power Unit of the Boeing 747-400 that we were supposed to take to Sydney.

When Monika took a break to go to the bathroom, I was quietly reading when I heard a “BAM” and felt the building lurch a bit. Chris later checked and found out that it had been a magnitude 5.5 earthquake! Curiously Monika did not hear or feel anything and did not believe me when she got back!

I'm glad we had that break with Chris, because the flight to Sydney turned into a 15-hour endurance contest. We had, fortunately, been able to book a couple of seats that faced a bulkhead, so I had enough room to cross my legs and didn't have to worry about someone lowering their headrest into my lap! The weather was also calm, so we had our meals and drinks on schedule without any problem.

Monika:

By now it was dinnertime even for Chris . I had decided not to convert to "Washington time" since that would get just too complicated. Chris took us to a place that offered salad and soups for $10.-- with a 10% discount for seniors. The salad bar was extensive and the soups were excellent. There even was some pasta and great breads, and even deserts were included. So we were happy and ready for the next leg of our trip.

Chris got us back to the airport two hours before our plane to Australia was supposed to leave, so we had ample time to get through security. Once through, we found out that we had more time than we thought. Our plane needed some mechanical work and would not leave for an extra two hours. So here we were in LAX with four hours to kill. Well, we found a bench with four seats without armrest, so Bob laid down for a little snooze, while I read. The time passed, we got on the plane and found to our happy surprise that we had seats at a bulkhead which gave us ample leg room. I remembered that we got to pick our own seats and had hoped that these seats would be bulkhead ... and we did not even have to pay extra!!!

Of course, we were served another meal - but no free wine, oh well. I gave up to figure out what meal it was; it just seemed all right to eat every six hours or so. We then settled in for some serious sleeping. But the movie screen was right in front of us, and even with closed eyes I could see the light changes.

Copyright 2009 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Index
Prolog Map of Australian Walkabout Epilog

May 2009
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
June 2009
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30

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