Then it was back to the hotel before heading off to Hyde St to catch the cable car.  The weather became very overcast and we had just purchased a 3 day ticket for $18.00 when it started to rain. We joined the queue and at the start it wasn’t too bad but as we shuffled along the sky opened and it began to pour.

We were both drenched, well so was everyone else except for those smart enough to have brought umbrellas. Paula decided she was wet enough and set off back to the hotel. I figured that as I was already soaked through I might as well stay in the queue, more so because I wanted to get the Ipod speaker finally sorted out with Apple.

 I am short and so was sheltered by the umbrella being held by the gentleman standing behind me.  We started chatting and eventually he and his wife decided to go back to their hotel.  His place was taken by a really tall man who I don’t think even noticed me down by his kneecap. But he inadvertently sheltered me with his enormous golf umbrella until it was time to get on the cable car.

Finally the cable car arrived at the turnaround. Now this is an interesting exercise, the cable car pulls up onto a turntable arrangement and two men actually manually turn the cable car around until it is the right position to set off again. 

The Hyde St cable car drop off point is on the corner of Hyde and Market St, so you get off right in the shopping area.  Anyway I was on a mission so off to the Apple store I went.

I explained how this was my third visit to the store and the speakers still weren’t working with my Ipod Nano. The salesman assured me it should work after all it said so on the box.  We bantered too and fro for a while each taking a firm stand.  Eventually another salesperson chimed in and said, “Oh no, the Belkin Speaker won’t work with the Nano”.  And then the two salesmen had a discussion  along the lines of  - Yes it will, No it won’t.  Finally I got my money back.

I walked back to the cable car stop and the queue was really long so I set off up the hill and thought about heading out to Circuit City in Van Ness St, but once I arrived at Union Square I decided to return back to the hotel as I was dripping wet.

When the cable arrived the only space was on the outside hanging onto the rail. This was fun and I felt just like a kid again. Once we reached Chinatown, a few people had hopped off and I got an outside seat.  

 Now what I didn’t realise was that this was the Market - Powell St cable car not the Market - Hyde St cable, so when we reached the final stop I had no idea where I was other than I was not to far from the water.

So off I set, without a map, trying to identify any local landmark that may give me some idea of where I was. 

 It was quite funny really as I turned out to be about a block away from the street our hotel was in, I recognised the corner souvenier stall and the corner shop with some relief. 

The Holiday Inn Express is situated in an excellent location close to many tourist attractions, bus and cable routes and there are many local restaurants and souvenier shops in the same block. So we found it really handy.

The Powell St stop is nowhere near as busy as the Hyde St cable stop so my advice is to go to Powell St if you want to catch the cable car without having to queue for absolutely ages.

The cable cars are rickety and not terribly comfortable, but it is something you have to experience.

The hotel have arranged a car for us because the shuttle buses don’t start running until 9am and we have an early start. The ride in the car (which cost us $55! plus a $5.00 tip) is way more comfortable than the shuttle bus and our driver John is very friendly and chatty. We spend the time chatting about everthing from the lousy weather to travel. It turns out that John is an avid traveller and we have visited a lot of the same countries such as Italy and Hawaii.

Southwest Airlines is another new experience.  They do not allocate seats but simply issue you with a boarding pass that has a group number and when your group is called you get on the plane and just select where you want to sit on the plane. At least that’s how we think it works. Everyday we experience something new.

It turns out we were almost right when a lovely lady named Michelle comes onto the intercom and explains the convoluted system.

So here is how it works:  There are poles with numbers on - 1-5 , 6-10, 11-16 etc,  and another pole with the alpha A B & C. You check your boarding pass for your numer and alpha, then when your group alpha is called you line up in order of the numeric on your boarding pass. I had B10 and Paula had B6 so we were separated by persons 7 ,8 & 9. Apparently this doesn’t mean that these are your allocated seats, when you board you sit were you like or wherever there is a seat avalable. At least we think that is how it works - will know more once we board.

Families with small children are permitted to board after group A passengers and before the passengers in group B.

We decided to have Mc Donalds for breakfast as we doubt there will be any on board service and we were too early to eat at the hotel. McDonalds in LA tastes much like back home, unlike New York where they serve the big breakfast with sweet biscuits like scones.

Okay back to the plane, because there is no seat allocation there are heaps of single middle seats. Single fares have filled up the window and aisle seats for a number of rows so this makes it awkward for people travelling together to get adjoining seats near the front. We head straight down to the back of the plane where there are plenty of adjoining seats.

Southwest is like Virgin Blue in Australia where you can purchase drinks on board.  The trip is only an hour and a half so there is no food service except for packet of peanuts and a water or juice.

The flights are reasonably priced and apart from the ticketing system which actually slows down the boarding process, we would with Southwest in the future.

The staff are dressed in the attire of the period and are extremely friendly and accommodating, the service is exemplary and the food is fresh and tasty.   We were thirsty so started with drinks, Paula had a strawberry shake and I had a Hershey Chocolate shake, both were full of flavor, nice and thick and served in  a glass with a  dollop of cream and maraschino cherry on top.  The remainder of the drink that didn’t fit in the glass was served on the side in a milkshake cup.

Refreshing, chilled water with ice is also served with every meal.

We ordered a half and half order of fries and deep fried onion rings and Paula ordered a Route 66 which is a hamburger with mushrooms, onions, swiss cheese and mayonnaise; I had a Bacon Cheese Double Burger which is two fresh patties, two slices of Tillamook® Cheddar cheese, thick bacon, fresh lettuce, ripe tomato, onion slice & special sauce. The whole meal was reasonably priced at $29.80 which we rounded up and left a $5.00 tip.

As we had enjoyed the meal so much we went back again today for lunch. This time Paula ordered a Butterfinger shake and I had another Hershey’s Chocolate shake. We had a side order of fries and shared a delicious grilled chicken breast sandwich which came with lettuce, fresh tomato, mayonnaise and bacon.

Our waiter was a delightful young man and the service was impeccable.  Todays meal cost $21.00 and we left a $4.00 tip.

We thoroughly recommend the food and service at Johnny Rockets Hollywood & Highland store.

After a rather long day having set out from our Hawaii hotel at 5am,  and finally arriving at The Celebrity Hotel at around 6pm we were just looking forward to having a shower and having a cup of tea.

Paula had already advised me not to expect too much from the hotel as it was only 2 star. So it was nice to be pleasantly surprised when we arrived.

The check in process was easy and the receptionist was friendly. The foyer has pictures of stars and some comfortable chairs to sit while you wait for transport and it is spotlessley clean and well kept for a two star hotel.

Our room (#106) is on the first floor right next to the breakfast bar and on the first evening a group of very loud people seemed to be having a sort of trivial pursuit contest. We would recommend that if you have a problem with noise that you request a room on one of the other floors. The noise didn’t really bother us as apart from the group of people mentioned previously as otherwise it was reasonably quiet during the night.

A continental breakfast is included free in the price but there is no dining room. People just mill around a small area eating their bagels and croissants with philly cheese or they take it back to there room. This is what we did, and as we were right next to the breakfast bar this was quite convenient for us. The continental breakfast included coffee, tea, orange juice, bagels, cream cheese, butter and croissants.

There are urns with hot water, tea, decaf coffee and coffee available 24 hours a day in the breakfast bar area and up a few stairs there is a soda machine if you want coke etc.

The room is spacious and has 2 very comfortable queen sized beds, with 4 pillows on each.  There is a small table and a couple of chairs which are handy for working on the laptop. We also chose the room with the kitchen which has a microwave, gas oven, large sink and all the utensils for cooking and eating.  The stove unfortunately didn’t have a rack to place food on to cook, so we resorted to only using the microwave. 

Our wall has a mural of Gene Kelly from Singing in the Room in keeping with the Hollywood theme.

There is a walk in robe and the usual bathroom with a shower over the bath, which took some time to figure out how to work but then a lot of hotel showers can be confusing to work out.

It also has an extra wash basin separate from the one in the bathroom and includes the hair dryer.

Unfortunately there is no safe in the room, however you can leave valuables at the reception desk.

The view from our includes includes a pathway between the buildings and because we are on the first floor we have bars on the window so we feel pretty safe.

The hotel is situated in a really convenient position, just around the corner from Hollywood boulevard where you can find the Kodak Theatre, Hollywood and Highland Centre, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, The Wax Museum,  Gruman’s Chinese Theatre and also find tour buses to go out and see the stars homes.

We would definitely stay here again. For a 2 star hotel it is in excellent condition and kept spotlessley clean. It is great value for money.

Our Rating of the Hollywood Celebrity Hotel:

Checking in and out 5/5
Room 4/5
Position 4.5/5
Price 4/5
Cleanliness 5/5

Booking this hotel is easy through: Expedia.com!

A large block of Hollywood Boulevard has been cordoned off with steel fencing and the lighting and speakers and the red carpet have all been set in place outside the Kodak theatre.

Larger than life Oscar’s are set at the corner of Hollywood and Highland and everyone is having their photo taken or taking photos of others in front of the Oscar’s.

For a list of the nominees for the 80th Academy Awards head over to the official Oscars site.

The theatre is set within a courtyard and is quite sought after for studio premiers in Hollywood. Of course it was packed with tourists all wanting to take plenty of photos of the hand and foot prints. It was also full of touters trying to sell us things including a young man by the name Jamal aka Young Mystro who pushed his CD into our hands - “Just a donation is all I want” were his words as he proceeded to tell us that he was part of a rap duo called Nothin But Heatt and is trying to make it big. We ended up giving him a few dollars for it and had a listen to it later….not too bad… considering neither of us like rap music. He sounded as good as any professional rapper to us.

So back to the theatre…..we spent about half an hour wandering around looking at the hand prints. It is a mix of old and new stars including Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenager, Rock Hudson, Margaret O’Brien, Shirley Temple, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and the list goes on.

It was fun just seeing the sizes of the hand and foot prints - Natalie Wood seemed to have the smallest.

For the movie buff a visit to the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre at 6928 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles is a must.

Sid Grauman’s opened his first Hollywood theatre, The Egyptian Theater, in 1927. Funnily enough Sid built this theatre in competition to himself as he also owned the Million Dollar Theater in downtown Los Angeles which at the time was where the movie going public attended movies shown in palatial theatres.

The recent archaeological discoveries in Egypt at that time encouraged the movie going public to check out the lavish Egyptian decorations in the Egyptian theatre.

So how was Sid going to top this achievement?

He decided on a Chinese theme and undertook the building of the Graumann’s Chinese Theatre, sparing on expense. In fact the theatre cost $2 million to build back in those days, imagine what it would cost today.

Sid imported Chinese artefacts from China including sculptured stone Temple Dogs. This magnificent theatre celebrated it’s 80th birthday in 2007.

The opening on May 18, 1927 was a premiere showing of the Cecille B DeMille’s spectacular ‘King of Kings’ with its cast of thousands. Thousands of Los Angelos citizens lined the streets hoping to catch a glimpse of their favourite movie stars and celebrities. The theatre opened for business to the general public on May 19, 1927.

Grauman’s theatre still previews movies from most of the major film companies such as Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Dreamworks, Sony, MGM/UA and New Line etc

Some of the movies that have premiered at Hollywood’s Grauman Theater in the past few years include:

• Ocean’s 13
• Music & Lyrics
• Rocky Balboa
• Pursuit of Happyness
• The Dukes of Hazzard
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• War of the Worlds
• Batman Begins
• Miss Congeniality 2
• Ocean’s 12
• The Aviator
• Cheaper by the Dozen
• X2–X-Men United
• 27 Dresses

The forecourt is a fascinating place that is full of excited tourists trying to find their favourite stars signature, hands and feet prints. There are also a lot of people dressed up as various characters such as Darth Vader, Spiderman, Batman etc, all touting for tourists to have their photo taken with them for a small fee.

We got as swept up in the moment as any other tourist when we spotted the prints of our favourite stars. And when you have found and photographed the stars outside the Chinese Theatre, you can follow the star trail up and down either side of Hollywood boulevarde.

LA airport is not very user friendly.  We collected our bags and made our way outside to find a shuttle bus. This proved to be somewhat challenging as the signage is almost non-existant, but we finally found where the shuttle buses leave from and had a short wait for the shuttle to arrive. The charge to Hollywood was $15.00 per person plus the customary $1.00 per bag tip.

The drive from the airport to Hollywood took over 1 1/2 hours.  The driver and one of the other passengers had a heated discussion as to whether or not she was on the right bus and then we went to the wrong address.  Paula told me not to expect too much of the hotel as it is only a 2 star, but when we arrive we were pleasantly surprised. The hotel is the “Hollywood Celebrity Hotel” in Orchid Ave just behind Graumans Chinese Theatre.

Check in was quick and easy and the room has 2 queen sized beds in a large room with a walk in robe and a kitchen. So we have everything we need, on hand, including tea and coffee provided just outside the door. Breakfast is also included in the price of the room.

We do the customary and drop off our bags and then head out to survey the surroundings. 

We head around the corner not knowing where we are actually going as we haven’t picked up a map, and we happen across Hollywood and Highland. There are lots of people taking photographs so we head off up the stairs to see what the big attraction is - and there high on the hill in the distance is the HOLLYWOOD sign. 

So we join all the rest of the tourists and take the opportunity to photograph the sign and surrounding area.

We take a quick look around the Hollywood and Highlands centre, just to get our bearings before heading down to Hollywood Boulevarde.

The first place we come to is Graumann’s Chinese Theatre so we stop to check out the stars signatures, footprints and handprints.  It’s is a lot of fun mingling with everyone else checking out our favourite film stars as well as stars from the past such as Ethel Merman, Shirley Temple, Rock Hudson and Clarke Gable etc.  We then wandered out to the street and found that most of the main street is blocked off as they are setting up for the 80th Oscars on the 24th Feb. We of course will be in Las Vegas on that day but it was interesting seeing everything being set up for the event.

By now the time was getting on and we were feeling a bit peckish.  There are so many places to eat and we settled on “Johnny Rocket’s” hamburger bar.  Excellent atmosphere and the food is reasonably priced and just fantastic. To start with I had a Hersey’s chocolate shake and Paula had a Strawberry shake, this was followed by a Double Cheese and Bacon burger and Route 66 hamburger with a side serve of fries and deep fried onions.  The resulting meal was very tasty and filling.

 Then it was back to the hotel.   We have been up since 5am this morning and after a 5 hour flight and a 1 1/2 hour drive around LA we are ready for an early night.