Well we are currently en-route to New York via a very packed Amtrak train, enjoying the sights of Maryland and Philadelphia (oh we’re in Jersey now) as they fly by our window. Thus ends our time in DC, which after a hairy start, turned out really well. I have christened the hostel we stayed in as “Fawlty Towers” following our dramas with checking in, the eccentric rules around thou shalt take thy shoes off to enter, and not to mention the window curtain rod collapsing in the middle of the night (with a little bit of help from a rather odd fellow roommate), the mysterious case of the room lights ceasing to work and several cold showers, which although a little off-putting was strangely refreshing given the high humidity and temperamental air-conditioning system.
Outside the hostel confines was a great city, very easy to navigate by foot, lovely parks and architecture, friendly people, an impressive National Mall, good vibe and excellent (end even better - free) museums. Unfortunately 2 days wasn’t enough to explore everything we hoped to see, so we will have it note it as a place to return to in future travels. This was compounded by us still being on west coast time, a lack of quality sleep and late starts to the day despite our best intentions of hitting the town early.
Day 1 consisted of visiting the front (and back…..for some reason they wouldn’t let us go inside) of the White House. We were just in time to witness a protest against the treatment of Uhghers by the Chinese Government (but why they were protesting outside the White House and not the Chinese Embassy we couldn’t quite understand), along with the more typical anti-nuclear, pro-peace, anti- Israel, pro Palestinian agitators. We were pleased to hear that conspiracy theories are still in vogue….. Apparently it was a conspiracy by an unlikely coalition of Jewish bankers, the Freemasons and Catholic radicals that brought Obama to power…..those of the far right are claiming that Obama shouldn’t be President because he wasn’t born in the US…. That the validated birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii was a fraud….they even tried to get their ridiculous claims heard by the Supreme Court! We love American politics, much more lively than our dull Kev…..although it appears a restaurant in DC has been named in his honour FuddRuckers!!! Kevin from Queensland has made it to the bigtime!
While checking out the back of the White House we watched a cavalcade of police cars, secret service and what looked to be Obama going past….Jeff swears he got a wave……or perhaps just a finger??
We checked out Capitol Hill, the National Monument, plus monuments to Jefferson and Lincoln (all very Greco- Romanesque) and the Franklin Roosevelt monument which was my personal favourite. The Korean War Memorial was good too….lots of sculptures arranged as though the soldiers are advancing though a field. They are planning to build a monument to Martin Luther King Jnr which will be good to visit, but so far it is just a plaque on the ground. We also visited the Natural History Museum and enjoyed an exhibit on the peoples of Africa and lost track of time in the Air and Space Museum whilst marvelling at the mysteries of the universe, checking out the lunar landing module, astronauts suits, a test version of the Hubble telescope, plus some disturbing nuclear rockets, ballistic missiles and the Wright Brothers Original aeroplane. Jeff was fascinated by the logistics of Air traffic Control while Stacey checked out the little robot dude deployed on Mars. We had planned to visit a few other museums but didn’t quite make it…..I guess it just means we will have to come back.
And so start spreading the news….I’m leaving today…..its up to you New York New York!!!!
