Final day, and we finally went to Los Angeles itself - beginning with a visit to Olvera Street, an ancient (for LA - its about 80 years old) area that is a historic hangover from the time when California was part of Mexico.

The street has an excellent market full of everything you could possibly associate with Mexico - including sombreros, puppets, painted skulls and wrestling masks...


We then had a quick tour of downtown LA, which including the splendid City Hall - too good a photo opportunity to miss!















Onwards, then, to the Pacific coast - the beauty of Santa Monica and its legendary pier (which forms the end of the equally legendary Route 66, a road beginning over 4000 miles away in Chicago). We then drove just a few miles along the coast to Venice Beach, with an entirely different kind of vibe - lots of odd shops run by odd people with odd customers (including the gang below checking out the action at Muscle Beach)







We spent the rest of the day at LAX, and the night and most of the next day flying, and no-one needs to see how tired we were at the end of all that.

The trip was great, the students behaved amazingly - I lost count of the number of strangers who approached me to say how well behaved and polite they were - and hopefully these are a few days no-one will forget!