Alrighty well here comes Washington DC in one giant update. Writing it on a very hot and humid night in the courtyard of my hotel in Nice.
Arrived in DC via the Amtrak rail system which was perfect. No airline check-in lines or having to take your shoes off or any of that other crap that takes years to do at airports. Rock up and hop on, arrive three and a bit hours later in DC. Perfect. Although ive already gathered quite a bit of luggage so its not so easy getting around anymore.
Went straight to the hotel and didnt realise this at the time but the location was fantastic. Hit up some lunch and then went for a walk with some dude called Tommy McTomlin to get the lay of the land. Managed to see White House, Washington Monument, WW2 Momument, Reflecting Pool and Abe Lincoln in that afternoon. A lot of walking.
The next day, the first full day, was pretty big. Walked to the other end of ‘The Mall’, the end that has The Capitol building. Pretty cool building I guess. Police was obviously outside, carrying what looked like M4 assault rifles. Behind that is the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. There was some controversial decision being made in the court about black dudes getting promotions even though the white dudes smashed them in the tests (that is the exact wording of the case I swear), so there was all the top news channels there and a few hotty reporters. The older guy though easily did the best broadcast job (surprised?). Library of Congress was pretty sick too, Jefferson’s Library probably the standout. Fact: he used to have the largest single person library in the world. Unfortunately Americans being hektik crazy about security now you werent even allowed to take a photo of the main reading room which was fantastic looking. In the afternoon I went to Arlington National Cemetery. Saw JFKs gravesite, alongside is his brothers and other members of the most unlucky family in the world. Watched the changing of the guard at the Unknown Soldier site, it was a VERY serious thing to see with everyone dead silent (no pun intended) and the three guards doing everything perfectly.
Went out at night to see a few of the sites. Started at the Jefferson Memorial, which although isnt as good as Lincolns (nothing is), its still good and a little different in the fact you can walk all around it as hes standing in the middle of a dome. Then on to Roosevelt’s Memorial which has quite a few parts to it. Then a walk all the way around and back to the Lincoln Memorial which looks great all lit up. Oh yea and then I went to setup my tripod to take a photo and what the hell my tripod is broken. I seriously have NO IDEA what is wrong. All of a sudden boom it doesnt tighten. So yea dunno what to do with it now.
Day two was kind of like the Smithsonian day. One thing that is totally wicked awesome is theyre all FREE. Boo yea. Did the Air and Space Museum (or was that the day before?) which had some cool old planes like the Spitfire, then did the Natural History Museum in about 20 minutes as its just basically stuffed animals like the one in NYC. Walked down the road to the American History Museum which was really good. Kind of put Australia’s history to giant shame. Even I found a lot of the things interesting, all the wars they have participated in, all the presidents and their roles, and everything else from transportation to the invention of the light globe by Edison. On the walk back to the hotel I saw the Presidential motorcade. Must have been an ‘off the record’ trip as it was smaller and there were no flags on the vehicles which they only put on for official trips.
On the last day of DC I was leaving at 2pm to fly to Nice at 6pm so I didnt have a heap of time. The only thing I managed to fit in (and im glad I did) was the National Archives which houses the Charters of Freedom or ‘the big three’ – The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The writing on them is absolutely unbelievable. Unfortunately the Declaration of Independence is so worn down the bottom that you cant actually see any of the signatures which is a shame because there was a few extremely famous ones that dont appear on the other two documents. Although they mean absolutely nothing to me it was still a great site to see something you know was written so long ago and is referenced every single day. I also saw a near punch on with a weedy old dad and a young black kid. Americans take these documents pretty seriously.
I think ill leave it there. Up next – Getting to Nice, seeing Monaco and the Tour de France!
Outstanding photos, Dave. Sounds like you’re having an ‘ok’ time!!!
xo
Comment by Aunty Robyn — Saturday, 4 July, 2009 @ 13:14
Sure am! Feels like ive been gone for aaaaages already.
Comment by prento — Saturday, 4 July, 2009 @ 17:31