Escaped from New York (finally).
After two weeks of v high alcohol consumption and late nights it will be good to be able to live a bit more healthily again. Moved on to Washington DC for a short (too short!) visit and then on to Philadelphia, so have covered a lot of US history in the last four days.
The best thing about DC is that most of what you want to see is around the National Mall, and that is less than 2.5 miles from one end to the other. Did go on a Duck tour to get an overview o
f the city before started to explore. Tour was ok but not really sure why they bothered with the duck. Yes it took us on to the Potomac river but seemingly only to bypass a section of the highway. The only bit of Washington we saw from the water was the Reagan airport. Walking was far better. Managed to take in the length of the Mall from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. Included stops at the House & Senate offices, a couple of Smithsonian museums (Air & Space: good; Natural History: dull), Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument. Tried to get a tour of the Capitol but was too late to get a ticket.
Got up early on day 2 to try for a ticket to go up to the top of the Washington Memorial (500+ feet up) but missed out by less than ten people, so had to settle for the Old Post Office tower which is only half the height. Picked up the
Metro later in the day to go up to the National Zoo and National Cathedral. Zoo is good - has pandas including a youngster just under one year old. Cathedral is almost finished. They've only been building it for close to a century and are just working on the car park now. Main structure of the building hasn't been finished for very long.
And so on to Philadelphia by Amtrak.
P.S. forgot to mention that I had a look around the outside of the White House. Didn't get arrested so all those emails I've sent Dubya obviously haven't got me added to the list of America's most wanted (or unwanted?).
The best thing about DC is that most of what you want to see is around the National Mall, and that is less than 2.5 miles from one end to the other. Did go on a Duck tour to get an overview o
f the city before started to explore. Tour was ok but not really sure why they bothered with the duck. Yes it took us on to the Potomac river but seemingly only to bypass a section of the highway. The only bit of Washington we saw from the water was the Reagan airport. Walking was far better. Managed to take in the length of the Mall from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. Included stops at the House & Senate offices, a couple of Smithsonian museums (Air & Space: good; Natural History: dull), Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument. Tried to get a tour of the Capitol but was too late to get a ticket.Got up early on day 2 to try for a ticket to go up to the top of the Washington Memorial (500+ feet up) but missed out by less than ten people, so had to settle for the Old Post Office tower which is only half the height. Picked up the
Metro later in the day to go up to the National Zoo and National Cathedral. Zoo is good - has pandas including a youngster just under one year old. Cathedral is almost finished. They've only been building it for close to a century and are just working on the car park now. Main structure of the building hasn't been finished for very long.And so on to Philadelphia by Amtrak.
P.S. forgot to mention that I had a look around the outside of the White House. Didn't get arrested so all those emails I've sent Dubya obviously haven't got me added to the list of America's most wanted (or unwanted?).
posted by Alan at 2:07 am
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