The Landsby supplied a very basic complimentary breakfast, which consisted of juice, coffee, granola, plus one choice of muffin and a pastry.
We were handed a menu, with the option of ordering additional breakfast items, such as a meat and potato skillet or a roasted vegetable skillet for $14 each, poached potato omelet $12, or french toast $12, plus a selection of sides. We were happy enough with the complimentary breakfast - the pastry was particularly delicious.
Out to explore a rainy Solvang, particularly to find Ingeborgs Chocolate and Sweet Shop , we wandered around, admiring the picturesque shops, streets and windmills.
The friendly, helpful lady in Ingeborgs was rather amused that, although most people visit to sample the fabulous chocolates on offer, we were there to purchase the salted liquorice - which we bought a wide sample of.
There’s also a good selection of sugar free offerings, plus the usual sweets, and even a small ice-cream and soft drinks bar. This place is definitely worth a visit.
As you would expect in a Danish inspired village, there are plenty of bakeries with some amazing pastries on display, a Christmas shop, boutiques, wine shops, windmills and even a replica of The Little Mermaid sculpture from Copenhagen.
We decided a bit of culture was in order, so we visited the Hans Christian Andersen museum. I have to admit, we were expecting more than a cramped, rather stuffy, area, above a book shop and cafe. Given the current popularity of Disney’s Frozen - which is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s, Snow Queen. I think they’ve missed an opportunity to gain more interest from today’s younger readers.
It was interesting to read the small amount of information about the man himself, and to see some of the earlier publications of his other books, such as Thumbelina (one of my personal favourites, as a child), The Ugly Duckling, The Princess and the Pea etc, but within 15 minutes, the children were bored and asking to leave. So, we walked back to the hotel, to pick up the car and continued on our way.
First stop was Santa Barbara. Thanks to the persistent rain, the drive wasn’t as scenic as we’d hoped. It was hard to make out where the sky ended and the sea began. Looking on the bright side (pardon the pun), there was hardly anyone around, so we were able to drive onto Stearns Wharf (the pier), park easily and, umbrella’s up, see what Stearns Wharf had to offer. This mainly consists of restaurants, souvenir and sweet shops, plus an aquarium. We were entertained by the sea lions, and even a dolphin, surfacing out of the water under the pier - even they weren’t mad enough to be out in the open on such a wet day. Not like us!
Back in the car, we exited Stearns Wharf within the 90 minutes free parking time (expect to pay $2.50 per hour or part thereafter, up to a maximum of $20), and continued towards Malibu, stopping for lunch here, before arriving at our final destination, Los Angeles, late afternoon.
Our hotel for the night was the Hilton Garden Inn, Marina del Rey. Although the view from our hotel room was rather uninspiring. The room itself was adequate for the night, with the usual 2 queen beds, a 42 inch HDTV, fridge, microwave and coffee machine.
The room lacked the wow factor, previous rooms possessed, but we were impressed with the communal areas. The light and airy lobby had plenty of seating, so we sat by the huge fireplace and enjoyed the complimentary refreshments on offer. Hot drinks, including coffee, decaf coffee and tea (yay!), flavoured iced water and cookies, were all nicely displayed.
A break in the clouds, which was predicted to last a couple of hours, prompted us to leave the hotel and walk the 15 minutes to Venice Beach. It was 5.30pm by now, so we wandered down the almost deserted beach, watching the surfers and enjoying the late sunshine.
I’m not sure what the beach is like during the day, but the vibe as we approached Muscle Beach, didn’t feel very family friendly. I had been warned it wasn’t the safest place to be wandering around at night, but didn’t think we’d feel quite so unsafe that early in the evening. We did remark that in our twenties we probably would have enjoyed the vibe at Venice Beach itself, (some of the surrounding bars and restaurants were already lively), but the amount of homeless people around, the smell of marijuana and the tacky shops, with music blaring out, had us making a hasty retreat back to the hotel.
As our plans to eat out in Venice Beach were now thwarted, we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant - the Marina Grill & Bar. It turned out to be one of the best meals we had. 3 of us chose the hanger steak, which was cooked to perfection and served with really tasty cheese mash and a delicious selection of vegetables ( I think we were really missing our usual high quantity of vegetables by now, because we all devoured them). Even Zachary’s ‘Grown-up Mac ‘n’ Cheese’ was surprisingly palatable - it’s a good job, as he managed to pinch some of my dinner, on the pretence of a quick taste...I was never to see it again! So guess who ended up having to eat the Mac 'n' Cheese.
After dinner, we spent an enjoyable hour finishing off our bottle of wine in the hotel lounge.
