L
LA Resident
Guest
Here's a link to an LA Times travel piece highlighting things to do in downtown LA. The suggestions run the gamut. The text is from the article's portion on Union Station.
link:
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-lamoments-20110130,0,7113529,full.story
part on Union Station/Olvera Street:
Union Station and Olvera Street. Angelenos sometimes avoid Olvera Street, maybe because its genuinely historic buildings are crowded by vendors and carts peddling cheap trinkets, maybe because parking can cost a fortune, maybe because the neighboring buildings seem to have been under renovation for longer than most of Los Angeles has been standing. But this is where settlers from Mexico founded Los Angeles in the late 18th century, and it's where the 1818 Avila Adobe, oldest home in Los Angeles, still stands. And it's an excuse to see Union Station. To visit, leave your car behind and take a Metro train to Union Station, and linger. This 1939 building is the last grand train station built in the U.S., and its entwined Art Deco and Spanish Colonial styles suggest the mansion Hernando Cortés might have built had he married a flapper. Traxx, an upscale bar-restaurant, is tucked just inside the main entrance. Now, head across the Alameda Street and walk the crowded alley that is Olvera Street. Unless you need a plastic guitar or wrestler's mask, stroll briskly past the stalls on your way to browse the more varied goods at Olverita's Village (No. 24). Then take a patio seat at La Golondrina (No. 17, main dishes $10-$24), one of several restaurants on the alley. It's not awesome food, but it's hearty. And if it's Friday night between 6:30 and 9, you'll have a five- or six-man mariachi playing for free. If it's not a Friday, think twice before you hire those strolling singer-guitarists. They've been known to ask as much as $4 per guy per song.
link:
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-lamoments-20110130,0,7113529,full.story
part on Union Station/Olvera Street:
Union Station and Olvera Street. Angelenos sometimes avoid Olvera Street, maybe because its genuinely historic buildings are crowded by vendors and carts peddling cheap trinkets, maybe because parking can cost a fortune, maybe because the neighboring buildings seem to have been under renovation for longer than most of Los Angeles has been standing. But this is where settlers from Mexico founded Los Angeles in the late 18th century, and it's where the 1818 Avila Adobe, oldest home in Los Angeles, still stands. And it's an excuse to see Union Station. To visit, leave your car behind and take a Metro train to Union Station, and linger. This 1939 building is the last grand train station built in the U.S., and its entwined Art Deco and Spanish Colonial styles suggest the mansion Hernando Cortés might have built had he married a flapper. Traxx, an upscale bar-restaurant, is tucked just inside the main entrance. Now, head across the Alameda Street and walk the crowded alley that is Olvera Street. Unless you need a plastic guitar or wrestler's mask, stroll briskly past the stalls on your way to browse the more varied goods at Olverita's Village (No. 24). Then take a patio seat at La Golondrina (No. 17, main dishes $10-$24), one of several restaurants on the alley. It's not awesome food, but it's hearty. And if it's Friday night between 6:30 and 9, you'll have a five- or six-man mariachi playing for free. If it's not a Friday, think twice before you hire those strolling singer-guitarists. They've been known to ask as much as $4 per guy per song.
