day - later discovering that the next day had been even busier, and they had
even had to refuse entry to some guests. Instead we decided to see more of
the real - or more accurately unreal – LA, by taking a bus tour.
The focus was on Hollywood, and the tour lasted for half a day - mainly taking
this long because the journey to get to the sights in question took about an
hour. Our driver/guide announced that this was his first tour. 'Oh, yes, ha ha
ha' we all thought, nice way to break the ice. But actually, on reflection, I
would not have put money on this being a joke.
Although knowledgeable the driver did not seem completely
comfortable with his 'patter' and his presentation style left something to be
desired. That 'something' being style.
Our guide often took so long trying to get his words out that whatever
he was telling us about had already disappeared into the distance. In addition
he pointed out things of interest –‘look at that cool hotel’ – but neglected to tell
us which side of the bus we should be looking out of in order to see them! Or
he would say 'check it out' - but not what, or where. Finally his thick Spanish
accent made comprehension very difficult for us, though it did lead to some
very entertaining misunderstandings. Classics included:
'Wheelchair Street' (Wiltshire);
'Orients' (audience) as in 'in that stadium there is capacity for 20,000 orients’;
'Pawn brokers' (punk rockers) as in 'pawn brokers have taken over this
district'.
Then there were things he just got wrong such as 'Beverly Hills hill billies' or
'Sandra Bullocks'. Still we did learn a lot, when we could hear him over the in-