After enjoying our visit to the Getty Villa earlier in our stay we decided to explore the Getty Center on the last full day of our holiday. It was a bit of a trek to reach the museum by public transport but well worth the effort. From Downtown LA, we caught a bus to Westwood taking approximately one hour, changing there for Bus 761 to the Getty Tram Station in the Brentwood suburb of West LA which took a further 20 minutes.
Visiting the Getty Center is a memorable experience from the start as visitors ride a free tram up the hillside to its entrance. The lower tram station is accessed close to the museum’s large car parks and from the tram windows we had some lovely views of the surrounding countryside.
The Getty Museum is one of the most visited museums in the United States and offers free admission funded by the legacy of the U.S. oil tycoon, J. Paul Getty. The Center cost $1.3 billion to construct and has been open since December 1997. From the upper tram station, a flight of steps lead to the main doors of the rotunda building. At the information desk we picked up a map and then climbed a grand staircase towards the artwork on the floor above.
The upper rotunda opens onto a terrace linking all five of the museum’s pavilions. The collection of many famous artists is huge with paintings, drawings, sculptures, decorative arts and photography gathered internationally. The west pavilion contains many of the highlights of the Getty collection including works by Vincent Van Gogh, Monet and Rembrandt.
There are four gardens, one at the lower tram stop and the others on the hilltop, each of them an absolute delight. The central garden is designed to change with the seasons and despite the trees not yet being in bloom, it still looked beautiful.
From this elevated section of the garden there are far reaching views of Santa Monica, the skyscrapers of Downtown Los Angeles and the surrounding mountains.
A path from the upper garden crosses over a stream which then winds its way gently downhill to a plaza containing a maze of flowering azaleas. Numerous outdoor contemporary sculptures adorn the gardens and with the modern design and dramatic city views, the Getty Museum is a stunning place to visit.
We returned to the lower tram station and just as we approached the main road we spotted a bus approaching so we ran as fast as we could to the bus stop and just managed to jump on board before it departed.
As the bus was passing the Los Angeles County Museum of Art we decided to alight there for a look around. LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States with a collection of nearly 149,000 objects. There wasn’t really enough time to go inside so instead we viewed its outdoor artwork. We started with Urban Light, a forest of city street lights comprised of 202 vintage lamp posts. These are all painted the same shade of grey and arranged symmetrically. I’m certain they would look much more impressive illuminated at night but we still enjoyed strolling amongst them.
Other outdoor art installations include Levitated Mass, a 340 ton boulder from a nearby quarry that has been positioned on top of a long walk through trench cut into the sandy landscape and dotted around the gardens are 50 larger than life Rodin sculptures.
Continuing our bus journey along Wilshire Boulevard we changed for the metro at MacArthur Park so opted to take a stroll by the lake before returning to our hotel. This park in the Westlake district of Los Angeles is named after General Douglas MacArthur but is probably better known for the 1978 Donna Summer classic hit of the same name.
The park is divided in two by Wilshire Boulevard with a small lake, fountain and reflecting pool to one side and a children’s playground, playing fields and bandstand to the other.
The park is surrounded by a street market but as the neighbourhood is one of the poorest areas in Los Angeles and suffers from high crime rates I would strongly advise against wandering around after dusk.
Pershing Square was our final stop before returning to our hotel as it was close by in the heart of Downtown. It’s surrounded by several hotels, restaurants and office blocks and contains seating and an elevated open-air theatre for summer events. Our attention was drawn to a bronze statue of Ludwig Van Beethoven in celebration of the founder of Los Angeles’ Philharmonic Orchestra’s favourite composer.
Our ten night holiday split between San Francisco and Los Angeles had come to an end and we were returning home with fond memories of our visit to California. We managed to get around everywhere using public transport which with careful planning worked well, was inexpensive and felt quite safe. The only thing we couldn’t plan was the weather which wasn’t at its best during our time in Los Angeles but we made the best of it and didn’t let it spoil our holiday.
