One of the best things to do in LA is bike riding along the beach. Jax had on her list to ride Santa Monica, so it was on.
We decided to head to Venice to pick up bikes (we booked online and got a 10% discount) and then get rolling.
Of course, a pick up in Venice was also the perfect excuse to grab some breakfast at Gjusta. Jax, Al & I went for dinner at Gjelina last October and it was amazing so I have been wanting to try Gjusta for a little while. Gjusta is this cool bakery/deli tucked just back a few blocks from the beach, and it’s busy! Trust me, the busyness is for a good reason! There’s all these amazing looking breads, salads and hot meats you are going to struggle to decide what to have. I went for the Bialy Eggs, So so delicious! I’m not really sure what a bialy roll is but it was good. It had merguez susage and a hint of harissa as well.
Martin had the croque madame- this was an absolute winner! So glad I now know a good place for this so I don’t have to get too jealous when my London buddies go to Paris 🙂 Jax had a great little salad and what looked like a empanada. Gjusta is such a great breakfast spot, I am going have to come back about 20 times to get through the things I want to try.
Fully satisfied, we jumped on our bikes and started down to Santa Monica. It’s such a great and easy ride. The beaches here are so wide, you have a good bike path and during the week it isn’t too crowded (I hate to think how many accidents we would cause if we were riding on a busy Saturday). You can get all the way down to the Will Rogers State Beach- so the return trip is a good few miles. Now don’t worry about that cloud cover you can see in the pictures, it was plenty warm enough and it reduced the sunburn situation.
The other place Jax wanted to test while we were out this way was Bondi Harvest. It’s a Sydney style healthy cafe in Santa Monica– but right at the back of Santa Monica, so it’s a few miles on bike out to it. It’s a good route though as there’s a bike path for most of the way. I did think it was funny that we were heading to a Sydney cafe when we were putting Martin on the plane back to Sydney in 5 hours and Jax would be doing the same in a few days but it worked for me, it’ll be awhile till I am back in a real Aussie place. It’s a pretty casual place with a small menu that will make you feel good about yourself. I had their cobb salad which was so light and fresh. It had a balsamic dressing and some blue cheese crumbled in rather than a creamy dressing and I think that is what made it so good. Jax had oneof their bowls which had veg & fish in it and Martin, of course, went for the burger. All in all we were pretty happy with our lunch. It looks like they change the menu fairly regularly too which is good. I’ve just checked their website and they have some recipes, so it’s worth look.
Sadly, after our late lunch it was time to ride back down the boardwalk to Venice and then head back to the city. It felt so good to be able to get out riding, if we’d had more time I’d have headed further down the coast, I think you can probably get to around El Segundo on the path before it runs out.
Riding down this coastal path you’re going to get the chance to see lots of things: the Venice art wall, muscle men, people playing basketball, beach boot camps, Santa Monica pier, beach gymnasts and heaps more. I’ve walked this path several times but biking is definitely the best option.
Jilltopia 