Visiting Hollywood & Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

What’s the first place anyone thinks of to visit when they go to Los Angeles? Probably the first place we headed to - ‘THE’ sign. I had Googled the best spot to view the Hollywood sign from, and the answer it gave was Griffiths Park. We went to that park, but could not see the sign from where we had parked, illegally as it turned out. In the UK a no parking spot is indicated by double yellow lines next to the kerb, in the USA they simply paint the kerb red. Carol had discovered this in a quick chat with a local in the park. “Don’t worry” he said, it’s only a $100 fine.

We got directions to where we needed to head, so we quickly headed off towards the Griffiths Observatory, before any fine could be issued. We had some distance to go, and by the time we found a parking space (at $10 an hour) we still hadn’t seen the sign. We walked up a hill towards the observatory (which is currently closed due to covid), still unsure if we were going the right way, eventually we stopped and asked someone.

We were only 100 metres from the observatory, and even the local person seemed a little unsure of what to tell us. You could go across the road and climb the path over there, up a steep hill, or you could go up a less steep hill to the observatory. So, where is the sign exactly? She pointed in a very vague direction, and then changed her mind a couple of times. We thanked her and headed on. We continued walking up hill, until at some point Carol turned around and pointed, we had found the sign, though to be honest it was some distance away, and I came to the conclusion Google had lied to me, and this couldn’t possibly be the best viewpoint for this world famous tourist attraction. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).