Tour De Santa Monica

Good job we packed these!
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Woke up to realise that Andy had locked the wallet which had the key to the padlock inside the locker which just happened to be locked! We tried to pick the lock with a hair clip (well they do it in the movies!) but in the end we had to get full size bolt croppers from the hostel reception.....we now need one new padlock! After breakfast we went to Perry's bike rentals on the beach and hired two mountain bikes for the day. We left at 10.20am and followed the beach bike path all the way past Santa Monica pier to venice beach where we stopped as Andy wanted to pay homage to the renowned Muscle Beach. As well as the gym there is a large spectator area and quite a few basketball and handball courts  which are free for the public to use. We got back on the bikes and rode through Venice beach and when the bike path ended we joined the road and ended up at Marina Del Rey where we stopped and had lunch in a nice sandy bay looking out over the marina. We turned around and headed back again stopping at Muscle Beach to watch a group playing basketball. We then continued along the bike path and through Santa Monica and kept going all the way to Will Rogers Beach where the bike path ended. We couldnt go any further as the only road was a highway which bicycles arent allowed to use so we went back to Santa Monica and retunred the bicycles. By this time it was nearly 4.00pm so we had a long day in the saddle! After a siesta we cooked dinner then went for a walk along Santa Monica pier and watched the sunset which was really nice. At the far end of the pier a man was miming and pretending to play a guitar to music but trying to carry it off as if he was actually performing. We found this bloody hilarious to watch! The pier was busy with people and stalls and some people were still in the sea when we left at 9.30pm. We both caught abit more sun today as again it was nice and hot.