Day 11 - A tale of two museums

Another day in Washington and the plan is to visit a couple of the museums along the National Mall.  Rhonda has developed the habit of getting a good coffee (from the local café with the huge mugs) before we head out.  Going there involves her walking past a McDonalds and today she encountered a homeless man, asking for money for breakfast.  Being the person she is she took him in to McDonalds and bought him what he wanted - pancakes and soda.  Not a healthy start, but if it brought him some pleasure that helps.  There are a noticeable number of homeless people here, mostly middle aged men.  They seem to favour the parks, which can be a bit confronting.

We've chosen the National Air and Space Museum and the National Gallery of Art.  We started with a short subway ride to a point near the museums and then walked the short distance to the National Mall.  Beside the Air and Space Museum Rhonda noticed a 'temporary' McDonalds (I guess because they can).

We visited the Air and Space Museum first, and I have to say it is awesome - boy toy heaven.  The museum is quite big, and is crammed with aircraft and spacecraft exhibits.  It also features a large IMAX theatre (we watched the feature "The Hidden Universe") which shows four features throughout the day.  A few happy snaps are below.



Rockets

Lunar Landing Module

Aircraft

One really cute thing we saw was an 'emotional support dog' with one of the visitors.  It looked very similar to the photo below (downloaded from the internet),but the dog we saw was a Jack Russell.  Very cute and obviously a source of comfort for its owner.

Then it was on to the National Gallery of Art.  It is located across the National Mall from the Air and Space Museum.  You get a great view of the Capitol building from the mall.

A zoomed-in shot of the Capitol

The National Gallery of Art is spread across two buildings.  The first is typical of many public buildings in Washington - large and featuring lots of Greek or Roman columns.  The second is more modern and appears to be channelling the entrance to the Louvre.

The inside of the older building is very 'Pantheon' like, with a big domed ceiling in the middle.

We joined a guided tour featuring Italian Renaissance art.  The guide was very knowledgeable and made it a very interesting and informative experience.

That's a Leonardo da Vinci painting

Without the guide the area would have been far less interesting - far too many variations of 'Madonna and Child'.  After the tour we wandered around by ourselves and the collection is magnificent.  The different galleries are themed on national lines, and we particularly enjoyed the French impressionists, the Dutch masters and the British landscapes (including Constables and Turners).  One of Rhonda's favourites is below, followed by one of mine.

A Monet - his garden (which we visited last year)

A Turner

Near each end of the main building was a small indoor garden - very tranquil but lacking in high tea - they would have been fantastic settings but we understand that they have to be careful with food and drink in the gallery.

After the museums we went back to the supermarket for supplies, and bought fresh sourdough bread, cheese and salad for dinner.  Another tiring but enjoyable day.  Today's sign was spotted by Rhonda.  It's good to see that they are encouraging environmental responsibility.

Tomorrow we're visiting the pentagon and the Arlington national Cemetery.  Hope everybody reading this is happy and healthy.  Love R & R.