Jean Paul Getty was an American industrialist - founder of Getty Oil, and was an avid collector of art. Getty established two museums before his death, and left much of his wealth to his art foundation - the richest in the world. In recent years, the foundation have built a new facility just north of Bel Air in Brentwood, that houses thousands of works of art either owned by Getty or purchased by the J Paul Getty Foundation.
The building itself is stunning. Designed by architect Richard Meier, it houses pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, manuscripts, sculpture, and decorative arts; and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs. The main centre is separate from the 10 storey basement carpark and is reached by electronic tram.
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| A rude welcome |
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| Must be cold |
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| Sculptures are in abundance in the outdoor areas |
The Getty centre sits atop the Santa Monica hills and offers visitors great views of the city.
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Downtown in the distance
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| Starry Night; Edvard Munch |
We aren't the biggest art lovers in the world, but we did have a good look around . The stars of the centre are the Van Goghs and the Monets, but are well supported by works from Edvard Munch and Edouard Manet amongst the 3,000 items on display.
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| The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light; Claude Monet |
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| Irises; Vincent Van Gogh |
By far the most interesting part of the centre for us was the exhibition documenting the life works of Herb Ritts. In his life and work, Herb Ritts was drawn to clean lines and strong forms, and worked almost entirely in black and white print. He took countless iconic cover shots for the worlds leading fashion magazines, featuring the worlds most iconic celebrities. I'd love to show you the highlights of the exhibition but cameras were banned (I still managed a couple of sneaky ones though!).
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| Madge; True Blue |
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| Versace Black Dress |
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| Stephanie, Cindy, Christy, Tatjana, Naomi |
We left the Getty and headed into Hollywood for our night at the Kodak, home to the Oscars. We love Cirque Du Soleil and Iris did not disappoint. Aptly, Iris has a motion picture theme running through the amazing displays of acrobatics and phenomenal set.
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| Awesome! |
Hollywood was quiet - the night before the premiere of Avengers Assemble was in full swing, and thousands lined the streets to see Robert Downey Junior arrive in a $9m supercar. Still, the views were nice!
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| Looking towards downtown |
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| El Capitan - now owned by Disney |
We headed back to the hotel along Sunset, passed hundreds queuing to get into the notorious clubs like Roxy and Viper Room, both known as the final drinking places of James Belushi and River Phoenix respectively.
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| ROXY on Sunset |
Our next morning, we woke early, full of excitement, as we drove north out of LA towards Valencia. After a quick stop off at Brent's Deli (one of us had a sensible breakfast - I'll let you decide who!) we arrived at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
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| Sensible? |
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| Yuuuuuummmm! |
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| Rollercoaster heaven |
Six Flags Magic Mountain features some of the worlds biggest, longest, highest and fastest rides. We rode most during the day ranging from Goliath with a 300 foot near vertical drop, to Riddler's Revenge where you are standing up to Tatsu where you are suspended headfirst. Amazing!
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| Tastsu |
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| Head first! |
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| Stand for the Riddler! |
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| Batman - a mess of steel! |
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| Scream if you want |
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| Looks like fun - was a lot of fun! |
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| Goliath. How appropriate |
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| Viper |
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| Colossus - twin wooden coaster is dwarfed by Goliath |
We left Six Flags a little dizzy but vowing to return!
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