After Philly, we took another train to the nation’s capital. We were there for three days and rather intensively bounced around all of its (mostly free) sights and museums. DC isn’t very big, and one can walk it fairly easily when the temperature isn’t in the mid-thirties and the air isn’t like breathing through a sponge. Both of which it was while we were there, but we still marched about a fair bit.
The first night, we walked over to the Lincoln memorial from our hotel near Dupont Circle. We got there for dusk, which made for some dramatic lighting.
I will mention that the climate of D.C is particularly favourable to all manner of midge, mozzy and gnat. I will also mention that that reflecting pool you can see above, which is next to Lincoln, is a really big body of standing water, alongside which we were walking at dusk. So I was thoroughly exsanguinated by the time I took those snaps. Chan retrieved my camera from my desiccated remains and went on her way.
Monuments aside, the big things to get around are the various Smithsonian facilities. Well there is this, I guess:
The newer, non-burning version
The secret service are spectacularly poorly named, by the way. They also look bored as hell. You’d best not put down your backpack/umbrella/toddler for more than three seconds, because they’ll controlled-explosion that motherfucker in a heartbeat.
We did also get to the Capitol building (don’t tell them; they’ve been spelling it like that for ages now and it’ll just be embarrassing) where I tried to understand their system of government (Short version: Congress = Parliament; Senate = the Lords, only someone voted for them; Representatives = the Commons). We caught a Republican rally outside, demonstrating against the most recent dealings with Iran. Sarah Palin was there. Somehow Jesus and abortion entered the discussion. She sounded like she possibly spends her spare time driving rivets with her forehead.
Durrka derrrrr!
Back to the Smithsonian: evidently it got its name from a British scientist called James Smithson who bequeathed the yanks his fortune to set up facilities to spread knowledge and wisdom in that fledgling nation. Nice chap. Anyway, we got around the Air and Space, American History and Natural History museums. There’s a lot to see, but here’s some edited highlights.
From the American History Museum:
Ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz; The original Kermit; Julia Child’s kitchen (American Delia Smith); Old containers from McDonalds that made me more nostalgic than I expected
From the Air and Space Museum:
A Fokker; An X-15; A brace of A-wasters; Nazi Germany’s best London landscaper; A Hubble
Natural History Museum:
The Hope Diamond; A massive Bird-eating Spider that plainly wanted to eat my face; A T-Rex; a cast taken from a Giant Squid. Bit eclectic, this one.
We also took a night guided tour around D.C, which was insightful. But while we doing that, we found someone we recognised. Back when we were in New York Penn Station waiting for our train to Philly, there was an issue with the incoming train and a certain amount of chaos ensued. The Station Master, Mr Jermaine Jones, came down to the floor and reorganised the trains on the ground, shifting half of our train onto another route to minimise drama on our train, and get that crowd to their destination quicker. He kept us all in the loop and got around everyone making sure we all knew what was happening. All in all an excellent face for Amtrak, and many grumbles were averted.
The man at work. Brit rail firms take note.
Anyway, shifting back to D.C: Chan spotted him in the queue for our night tour because my wife is terrifying. We introduced ourselves and he was delighted to be spotted (even though he was travelling incognito for some ‘me’ time. I suggested a false beard and glasses next time). He insisted on a photo:
So that was a fun (if somewhat unlikely) encounter.
When we were done here, we picked up Das Auto and resumed our journey on the road.
Kurzfassung auf Deutsch: Wir haben ein paar Tage in Washington DC verbracht. Während wir dort waren, haben wir das Weiße Haus und das Capitol besuchten. Das Smithsonian hat sehr vielseitige Ausstellungen. Wir haben den Bahnhofsvorsteher von der Penn Station in New York wiedergesehen, der hat uns früher in unserer Reise geholfen. Das war überraschend!
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