The Loop in the USA
9-12 -2009 /10-5-2009
To my memory this journey in the USA has been
one of the most fascinating ever.
Such a long
journey to the far West takes a lot of one’s patience because all these
diligent officers keep asking why you want to come to the States as though they
don’t know themselves if this is a good country.
Our first
hotel in Hollywood was situated right at the hill with the letters “Hollywood”
. Hollywood boulevard by the way was a great disappointment. It seems quite
derelict and it doesn’t look at all like it appears in pictures. The “Walk of
Fame” looks much nicer in pictures than
in reality. On the contrary Sunset boulevard is more flashy in daytime , but in
the evening it turns into a busy prostitution quarter on the corners of the
boulevard. Only the restaurant “ The Hungry Cat” charmed us with his excellent
oysters and the lobster from Maine, on a
gentle terrace . They told us that the lobsters of California don’t not have scissors and of course this is the
best part of the lobster. This was quite a pleasant evening thanks to our
Michelin Guide.Public transport in Los Angeles is the best kept secret: bus 217
took us to “Venice” for one dollar 25 cent each. On the way back we discovered
the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of
Modern Art)for which we fell immediately. There was a temporary exhibit of arts
from the villa’s in Pompeii from the first century ad( the volcanic exploding
was in 79 ad ). We much admired “The School of Plato” in mosaic, a gold
bracelet in the shape of a serpent, a bronze girl starting to undress, a bust
of Epicure, beautiful glasswork and a couple of complete wall paintings and
other treasures. Of course this Museum of Modern Art presents painters such as
Magritte’s” Ceci n’est pas une pipe”,
Mondrian, Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Rothko, Jackson Pollock and many others.
On Monday
morning we took a taxi to Bob Hope Airport to
fetch our rented car. Imagine we were offered a white Mercury Grand
Marquis LS. It took us an hour to find out all knobs and buttons before driving
to the next hotel in Indian Wells near Palm Springs. Another surprise! Our
hotel appears to be a luxury resort. As we were really tired the swimming pool
was more attractive to us than all the sights of Palm Springs. The Italian
restaurant being closed we resorted to the Sushi bar. Strangely enough the cook
is a female Sushi Master who served us the most delicious Japanese food ever
seen before. The cook told us she is from Hiroshima which struck us thinking of
the fate of this city. We made friends
and exchanged e-mail addresses. The next morning we enjoyed a lovely
fruit-breakfast on a beautiful terrace along the water. Yes paradise
exists! Then we started our trip along
Colorado river and after 270 km we arrived at Lake Havasu City. This small city
has a strange history. A rich American named McCulloch bought London
Bridge in 1968 and had it transported
stone by stone to rebuild it across a small canal along the lake. An old
English bridge in the heart of the Wild West is a very strange sight.
Continuing our road along Colorado river we reached Grand Canyon, the highlight
of our journey. As we arrived in the middle of a thunderstorm the best we could
do was going to the Imax-three-dimensional show in front of our hotel, which was the best
introduction to this world wonder. When
the shower was over we took the shuttle bus to the most interesting lookout
points. I was really touched by the sight of such overwhelming beauty. In
setting sun the canyon coloured purple and became more beautiful than I could
ever imagine . The next morning we took the shuttle bus again to admire the
canyon of the rising sun and found the canyon indeed even more beautiful in the
magnificent shades of red and we could admire the pinnacles named Isis, Brahma and Buddha in even more splendid
colors. We wanted to go back in the afternoon but we met with a sad surprise:
we had to leave the hotel because of a
mistake in the booking. We were very disappointed but left in the
expectation of other beautiful landscapes. Indeed on the way to Lake Powell we
crossed the “Painted Desert” where we
were struck by the waving layers of colors in the landscape. This area is
situated, like the Grand Canyon, in the Navajo reservation. Strange enough
these limits of reservations are not indicated along the roads but only on the
topographical maps.
Our
Marriott hotel in Lake Powell looked like an Indian hotel, including the colors
of the walls, the shop with Indian jewels and the way the Indians are walking
and served us in a very tranquil behavior.
In this report I want to say how much I appreciate the Indians and could
soon recognize them; But usually they were very shy and avoided contact. Americans on the contrary are often noisy but
very helpful and cheerful.Lake Powell is the small city at the dam on Colorado
river that fills the canyon over there with water with a view to the production
of electricity. However it causes environmental problems because the
surrounding States use so much water from Colorado river that the water level
is too low for the production of electricity.
Even tourism is a problem. Boat excursions have become so expensive that
we decided the next day to leave for Monument Valley. This valley is world
famous because of the cowboy films made here between the massive rocks.
Absolutely beautiful!
On Saturday
September 19 we had been on the way for exactly one week and were driving to
Bryce Canyon National Park and here too we find the typical folds in the rocks,
which we recognized also from the cowboy films made in this scenery. By noon we arrived at the entrance of this National Park . This canyon is said
to be the most beautiful one. It is shaped like an amphitheater cut out like lace in the landscape. In our room in the
Ponderosa ( what’s in a name?) section of the huge Ruby’s Inn hotel we planned
our further exploration. A shuttle bus
picks us up right at the hotel door which proved very handy as we came
back in a terrible hail storm. It seems that Winter comes earlier in the Wild
West than in Europe. At Ruby’s shop we
bought a Stetson hat for Armand and an Outback Oilskin hat for myself. Now we
feel safe becoming real cowboys. On the way to our next hotel we drove through
beautiful Zion National Park, not to be
missed.
Something
about food in the U.S.: the steaks are excellent if you can explain how you
want them. Any way better than fast food. In the cities our Michelin-guide- the
bible of gastronomy- always helped us to find an adequate restaurant.
On Saturday
we left for Las Vegas. This artificial city in the desert is full of kitsch and
prostitution, without forgetting the slot-machines in de casino’s. Beautiful
European cities such as Venice and Paris are truthfully copied here but
look ever so fake. We had a Japanese dinner in the front garden of the Opera of
Paris with a view on the miniature Eifel tower. Las Vegas is also sweltering
hot and horribly dangerous because of reckless
driving. On Monday we had a very long drive ahead of us, 600km ( about 400
miles) through Death Valley. Driving through the deepest point of the U.S. was
made tolerable thanks to the airco in our Mercury. We only felt the heat
stopping at Zabriski Point. The
temperature of the wind blowing over the hills was 109° F or 43°Celsius. Our pictures show how we are melting in the
heat that felt like an oven.
The next
surprise was Yosemite Park . We stayed at the Hotel Cedar Lodge at seven miles
from the entrance of the National Park. I wanted to know about the falls in the
Park and where to find them. Because of the warming up of the earth there is
only one small fall called the Veil, left in the whole canyon. By the way there
are no bears to be seen and no lions
either , as the folders told us. The next stop in our tour was a three-day stay
in San Francisco, the typical sixties-city. Our hotel Tomo was situated in the Japanese area in the center
of the city. San Francisco immediately stole our heart because of the
strongly European character, the peaceful atmosphere and the friendliness of
the inhabitants. Unfortunately the fog
made it very cold and a veil of fog hung over the Golden Gate Bridge. Alcatraz – the famous prison island- was
hardly visible. But the restaurants like
“Boulevard”, “AME” and “Anchor & Hope” are excellent . In “Boulevard” we did have a great dinner offered by our
American friends who visited us at Easter. We also made the acquaintance of an
interesting lady, Vice President of the
Penguin books editors . Now I know where to find rare books and she promised
me to show us round in New York and I
promised her sightseeing tours in Bruges
and Ghent. Hope these wishes come true.
Public transport is in the main cities of the West of the US Is reliable and
takes you everywhere you want so that we could leave our car at the hotel
garage. In the center of the city the splendid Museum of Modern Art (SF MOMA) is
a jewel by the architect Botha and offers a beautiful collection of
paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Magritte, Jackson Pollock, Rauschenberg,
Lichtenstein Rothko, Paul Klee and also Kandinsky and
many others. We thought we would
never make it in two days driving from
San Francisco to Los Angeles. But indeed we reached Santa Maria on the first
night . The next day we continued to Los Angeles via Santa Barbara, Malibu and
Santa Monica to round off our tour. Our next stop for one week was Anaheim
south of Los Angeles well known as a venue for Conventions and for his original
Disney Park; On Monday September 28 we
first brought our beloved Mercury back to the Agency Avis. Luckily without any scratches or dents. We walked back to Disney Park at the end of
the Boulevard, to the great astonishment of the Americans who always come by
shuttle or by car. As the prices are
rather prohibitive we decided I should go alone next day while Armand was at
the Congress. I had to go through all
the attractions by myself but enjoyed Peter Pan’s flight over London and the puppets in “It’s a
small world”. I saw also an Imax horror
movie with mice creeping around my legs. The shops in Disney are all over the
Park but I bought only a small black
Mickey Mouse hat and key hangers with
original figures for my daughter Eva and her friend. They loved it! When the
Congress was over Armand and I visited downtown Los Angeles together by bus in
spite of all the warnings by the locals that there was nothing to be seen
downtown and the buses were dangerous.
On Broadway we visited the Bradbury building built in 1892 and famous for the notorious
hall in Iron and Belgian brick and a bronze sitting Charley Chaplin. The
covered Grand Central Market on the
other side of the road is also a must but looked deserted in the afternoon. Two
other beautiful buildings are the MOCA ( Museum of Contemporary Art ) and the
new Walt Disney concert hall by architect Gehry which looks like an opening
metal rose. The glass skyscrapers on Bunker Hill make Los Angeles into a real
metropolis, which makes us dream of New York. The next morning, instead of going
back to downtown Los Angeles, we took the advice of a tourist couple to rather
go to the beach. So we took the bus to Santa Monica and were surprised to find
the beach-huts known from the old serial “ Baywatch”. On the famous Pier we
found the Carousel from the film “The Sting”
( George Roy hill 1973) starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. To
finish in beauty we had an excellent dinner at
“The Lobster” with a splendid view on the beach and the Pier.
Happy but
tired we arrived at home on October 4
with a head full of good memories of this journey “go
to the West”!
Linda Van Pottelbergh – November 3
2009
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