Next door to Santa Monica beach is Venice Beach, which plays the hippie dropout cousin to Santa Monica’s staid respectable member of society. They share the same vast sandscape, the same lines of waving palm trees, and to be honest, the same waves of homeless people. But Venice has the street performers on its boardwalk, the Rasta-themed street stalls facing the colourful souvenir and T-shirt stores, and it has the blocks of meat working out at notorious Muscle Beach.
The guide books promise that Venice Beach is the place where the beautiful people come to flaunt it in some of the best people-watching in the world. But when I got there, most of the promenaders seemed to be disappointingly normal and well-balanced – and disappointingly numerous.
The town of Venice is also known for its murals and street art, which is no surprise.
So that was Venice on a mild but grey Thursday.
The following morning, the clouds melted and I headed back to the beach. Southern California had started to happen.
Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade marks the Memorial Day weekend.
The flat, dreamy expanse of sand that typifies the two beaches. But this particular spot of Santa Monica beach has a sadder side…
Looking back to Santa Monica Pier and, in the far distance, Malibu beach and its super-duper-stars.
Baywatch was actually filmed on Santa Monica beach.
Enough of the beach, because someone has asked me why it’s called Venice. Where are the canals? For this we need to head on past the beaches and push on to Venice town.
The man behind the development in 1905, one Abbot Kinney, wanted to create a place which was a cross between the real Venice and New York’s Coney Island fun beach. Vegas did Venice with the fake architecture and a big pool in front of the resort with gondolas.
Kinney did Venice with canals.
And they’re stunning.
Punting and rowing around here was quite the attraction when they were constructed but the coming of the motor car caused them to fall out of fashion – the plaque I was reading didn’t explain why. But over recent decades people have seen sense and restored them, maybe to beyond their former glory.
I don’t know how much these little canalside properties go for, but I know what my lottery winnings might be going on if the impossible happens.
Lovely lovely, nice canals. You get the picture.
On the walk back to Santa Monica I get to answer a question that’s been bugging me. Venice…Venice…why does a Venice in California ring a bell, why has it done so for years…Venice…then I see it. Venice Place!
I was a big Starsky and Hutch fan as a boy. Venice Place was Hutch’s bachelor pad, and it appeared in the series as frequently as the police department or the Gran Torino with a white stripe itself.
Wow. I wasn’t expecting that. To celebrate, just before we get back we grab a bite to eat at SaMo’s original firehouse, which by the looks of it seems to be the haunt of choice for the Muscle Beach set.
Probably the worst pub in the world in which to spill someone’s pint.
orwellianTwo 