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Published: September 7th 2005
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Washington was really good, there are heaps and heaps of museums all of which are free - ideal for the budget conscious backpacker!!!! We took advantage of this and did a tour of the Capitol Building, wandered through the air and space museum, where Warwick would have happily spent all day! It was an interesting museum with lots of original pieces that have broken records - the 1st balloon to float around the world was there, as well as the 1st plane to fly around the world without stopping to refuel. The American history museum had so much stuff inside that we ran out of time and didn't get to see that much of it......
We did get to see the flag that inspired the American national anthem. In the war against the british - the war of Independence this guy was captured and the fighting continued overnight. It was so bad that he thought for sure the British had one, in the morning he looked out of his little window and saw the American flag still flying. He wrote a poem and it became the nation anthem. The flag is so badly damaged that they are trying to restore
1600 Pennsilvania Ave
Street sign for the white house it so it can be flown or at least hung up again.
We have had great weather the whole time we have been on the road so we decided it would be a nice day to walk from the middle of DC out to Arlington Cemerty and the Pentagon... it didn't look that far on the map and we could see Arlington house so it couldn't be that far to walk right??? Wrong! we walked for at least an hour in the scorching summer heat, we made it but were pooped when we got there. This didn't stop us walking around Arlington looking at all the things there are to see there - JFK's burrial site, Arlington House - which was used as headquaters for the north USA during the Civil war. It was during the civil war that Arlington became a cemetry. All the bodies of the soldiers who had died during the fight were left on the grounds of the property as punishment to General Lee. Arlington was his property and he didn't like what was happening with the slaves and didn't want to be the head of the army so he left Washington DC for Virginia
to head up their army to fight for freedom.
The tomb of the unknown soliders and the changing of the guards are also interesting to watch. There are guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. During summer they change every 1/2 hour, the rest of the year they change every hour. The soldiers that are appointed to Arlington only ever perform Military funerals and guard the tombs - they don't see the front line or risk getting shipped off to war. Currently there are about 40 military funerals a day at Arlington, out side of war times they number drops to about 20.
While we were in Washington we had to go and visit the White House - you can't get inside anymore, and we made sure we didn't take our luggage and stand for hours hoping to see the president 😊 even though having our bags blown up would save us having to carry them around everywhere. The white house is impressive due to its size but it in real life it really does look the same as in TV. An interesting fact - it is called the
white house because it had to get painted white to hide the burn marks from where the British set it alight around 1812....
We are still a little confused as to the significance of the Washington Memorial - Lincoln, Jefferson and Roosevelt all have fancy memorials and Washinton has this huge finger looking oblisk sticking out of the ground the only interesting thing seems to be the fact they built it in 2 stages so it has 2 different colours.
Between the Washington and Lincoln memorials there is a pool of reflection, which is supposed to reflect the mood of the country. Currently the mood of the Americans is pretty poor as the pool is filled with algae, duck feathers and poo. Kind of reflects the mood of the rest of the world towards aspects of america...
Touring Capitol wasn't that exciting, we didn't get to see any of the things that are in use today. We only got to tour the ceremonial hall, which is under the big dome, the original house of Representatives and the Crypt where Washington was supposed to be buried. He died before the building was finished construction so he is buried
elsewhere. The strange thing with this crypt is that its not under ground. It is above ground and there are things below it... hmm not quite a crypt.
Getting to and from the bus station in Washington was an interesting experience, we had to walk through the "projects" the equivilent of our housing commision. It was the middle of the day both times so it was safe but there were still a few interesting characters on the street. On the way back to the bus station there was a chick who decided to freak out at us after we had gone past her - saying something like don't stare at me, i'll come and slap your eyes out. So we kept walking and didn't look back!!!!
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