Day 13 - Original number of states in the Union

Another day in beautiful Washington - with a visit to the Capitol building (the seat of government).  We caught the Metro to the National Mall and visited the National Museum of the American Indian.  The museum covers indigenous people from throughout the Americas, and is a fantastic looking building.  The collection seems a bit sparse, but what they have is well laid out and very interesting - providing lots of insights into the culture of the people.  Some shots are below.

Beautiful building

Bronze statue of a Buffalo dancer

Rhonda viewing a pop-out drawer of exhibits

Love the building

We then walked up the National Mall towards the Capitol, and it is both huge and impressive.  Up to now we'd only seen it from a distance - up close is a whole new experience.

View from the front

Closer view from the front - visitors enter from the rear of the building - glad we had plenty of time to walk around

View of the back of the Capitol

Inside the building was a different world - it seemed almost normal size.  The tour was very interesting and we both admired the grandeur of the building.

Emancipation Hall - where visitors enter and register for tours

Richard in the exact centre of Washington, one floor below the central dome of the Capitol

Typically (this seems to be happening to us a lot), they were renovating the dome!

Close up of decoration below the dome - it's painted not carved

It looks carved - very well done

The great man

Rosa Parks - Google her if you don't know who she is

 

Beautiful statues and decorations

We were able to get tickets after our tour to visit the House of Representatives to see democracy in action.  Unfortunately we couldn't take photos.  Both of us were struck by how modest the House of Reps was, and by the fact that all members are arranged in a semicircle facing the speaker's chair.  The arrangement seems less adversarial than in the Australian parliament.  We walked back after our visit and admired more epically grand buildings.

Library of Congress

Supreme Court

National Archives

Final shot of Capitol - threatening skies but thankfully no rain

In case you are tired of seeing columns on buildings (they do love their columns) here's final shot of a squirrel - because we could.

Vermin

Tomorrow we do a Segway tour - see you then (actually we won't see you, but you know what we mean).

Day 12 - Pentagon and beyond

We set off for the Pentagon and the tour we had booked online.  You aren't allowed to take photos of the building so we've downloaded a photo from the internet to show you how massive it is (it's the world's largest low-rise office building).

The only place inside where we could take photos was in the waiting area for the tour to start.  Rhonda gave a very impressive speech calling for world peace, until she realised that world peace would make the Pentagon redundant.  A member of the honour guard came to take her away.

The tour was excellent, and bizarre.  We had two guides, who swapped roles halfway through.  The guides walk backwards while conducting the tour, something they have to practice for.  It's so they can keep their tour groups in sight the whole time.  The building is very impressive - it has 7,754 windows (the guides said that everybody remembers that statistic) which stop people spying from outside the building and are bullet proof.  The inside memorial to the 59 victims from the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, and the 125 workers from the Pentagon was small but moving.  

After the Pentagon we moved on to the National Cemetery at Arlington.  It contains over 400,000 graves and they still bury between 25 and 35 bodies a day.  We took a bus tour of the cemetery and spent time at the gravesite of John F. Kennedy (Jacqui is buried next to him, and two children, one either side) and then the site of the tomb of the unknown soldiers (one each from WW1, WW2 and the Korean War- there was a fourth 'unknown', from the Vietnam War, but he was identified by DNA recently).

The JRK gravesite

JFK again

A wreath for Australia, outside the tomb of the unknown soldiers, laid that morning by Bill Shorten during a visit

Saluting the Australian wreath during the ceremony for the changing of the guard

Graves, graves and more graves

A beautiful rose in the gardens at Arlington

We enjoyed our time at Arlington, in a sad and reflective way, but were impressed by the experience.  Next stop was the Lincoln Memorial, about a half hour's walk away.  It is impressive during the daylight, and even more impressive at night.  Some daylight shots are below.

The back of the Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln was huge!

The view from the side of the Lincoln Memorial, down the National Mall to the Capitol (which is about 3.5 kilometres away)

We went back to the National Mall in the evening to take some twilight shots, shown below.

We saw a squirrel on our way to the National Mall - the little varmints are everywhere (everywhere there are trees and grass)

Fountains at the WW2 Memorial

The WW2 Memorial again

The Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln as the lights come on

Washington is beautiful when the lights are on

By the time we got back to the hotel it was quite late, and our legs hated us.  I must say we are sleeping very well here.  No signs for today, but a general comment on signage - it's rubbish.  It shouldn't be difficult to know where you're going, but it often is.  Tomorrow we're booked in for a tour of the Capitol building.  'Bye for now.

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.