The Sunset Limited is another train whose days might be numbered. It only runs 3 times a week, leaving New Orleans at 9am and arriving in LA at about 5am two days later. Leaving New Orleans one travels in a semi circle to cross the Mississippi at the Huey P Long bridge and you discover why it is called the crescent city.
Sunset limited trip
The first day one travels through Louisiana and southern Texas, both very like Mississippi; jungly, flat and well watered with some ponds where they grow rice and crayfish. Later in the afternoon we arrived at the drier, fertile part of Texas around Houston with lots of cattle and oil, although I saw no sign of the latter other than in the affluence of the area generally.
The next morning it was a totally different scene. I thought I had woken up in the Karoo! The parts of New Mexico and Arizona we travelled through on the 2nd day looked a lot like parts of SA; dry, not much agriculture but I did see pistachio trees where there was water; many adobe buildings. We were not far from the Mexican border in places. Much of this land belongs to native Americans. In the scrubby vegetation, which they call desert, I noticed various cacti, yuccas and tall red flowering ocotillos which were difficult to photograph as the train rushed by. Unfortunately in was dark before we got to the part of Arizona where the giant saguaro cactus grows.
Los Angeles
We arrived in LA soon after 4am. There is not much to do at that time of the morning other than hang about the station,studying the bus and metro map while waiting for Starbucks to open! LA is huge and although they have a metro/subway one has to rely on busses to reach most places if one wants to use public transport. American busses are usually frequent and designed to cater for the disabled -they can kneel-lower themselves and put down a ramp for wheelchair access; some front seats also fold up to make space for wheel chairs. Front seats are designated for seniors and the disabled and most people respect this. I saw a lot of disabled people in wheelchairs and many obese people, especially in the south.
Once I was fuelled on coffee and pain au chocolat, and had acquired a seniors’ subway/bus pass, I took the subway gold line to Allen metro station closest to the Huntington gardens in Pasadena. This left me with a nice mile long walk through an attractive suburb to the gardens. They only open to visitors at 9:30 or ten, but members can walk earlier and there is a cafe where I had more coffee and was befriended by a delightful lady who was a member and having enjoyed her early morning walk invited me in as her guest.
What a fabulous place. It is a series of gardens and art museums as well as the Huntington library, which sadly I did not visit. I especially liked the desert garden and kept clicking away. Had lunch at a little Chinese restaurant adjacent to the Chinese garden. One can easily spend an entire day here.
Mid afternoon I retraced my steps to the station and went back down the line for a few stops to visit the Norton Simon museum. Of all the museums I visited I think this comes close to perfection for me. It is a very modern building with a lovely garden filled with sculpture tastefully displayed and a fabulous collection of art.
Feeling exhausted but exhilarated I headed off to find my bed for the night at dusk in a fairly dodgy part of LA not too far from downtown. As I was travelling on a tight budget, price and location were deciding factors when choosing airbnb stops. I learnt a lot about excessive household security, lock boxes, access codes (in Denver even the lift had a separate access code) and challenging shower fittings on this trip. I was surprised to find no separate shower cubicles, showers were all over baths, but the bath was never used as such and seldom had a plug.
My second day in LA was a bit of a disaster. I wanted to visit the Getty Center which is a long way from downtown LA. I was given the wrong bus number by someone at the station; the bus driver said I could catch a connecting bus, but forgot to put me off at the right spot and I ended up barrelling down Sunset boulevard (or so the street name boards said), which did not look too impressive to me and finally by some miracle landed up to LACMA, which I also planned to visit, at lunchtime. After wolfing down a pizza, I started looking about, but sadly most of the collection was in storage- they are planning extensive renovations. They did have an interesting David Hockney collection of portraits which he had knocked off in a few months.
After checking the map, I set off once again to get to the Getty and finally arrived at about 4pm. It is a most impressive building with its own train to take you to up the hill to the museum which is built in a series of pavilions with landscaped gardens in between. Access is free too. What wealthy foundations these must be. I was a bit disappointed in the collection itself. No modern art and no American artists. Mindful that it would take me at least 2 hours to get home, I did not stay long and was fortunate with busses.
My last day in LA I decided to spend exploring the downtown area near the station. I paid USD10 to deposit my pack at the station and set off to explore a local food market, new cathedral, Frank Gehry theatre building, an urban park and a contemporary art museum housed in 2 separate locations. I walked miles that day, rode on the Angels Flight funicular and explored the station itself which I think I liked best of all the main stations. It has a long corridor with art work and many mosaics and a grand waiting room with massive armchairs. I also visited the nearby pueblo and market.
At 6pm I caught the South West Chief for my 6th trip which was to take me to Flagstaff to visit the Grand Canyon. LA is so big we were still in the suburbs when it got dark.
Read about the Grand Canyon & Denver
Sunset Ltd & L A Gallery
