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Published: June 12th 2011
Cathedral in Washington DC
In Washington DC they have a cathedral. The building of the cathedral started in late 19th century and the style is clearly Gothic. A quick visit to the US capital city
In January this year we made a quick visit to the US. We haven't had the time to create a blog entry from this trip until now, six months later. A bit off season perhaps but still worth reading we hope.
The first place in the US we went to was Washington DC. We
visited the US Capital in 2008 so we have already seen many of the must-see-sites there. This time the main reason to go there was not sightseeing but to visit friends who live there. But there were a few places worth visiting that we didn't have time for three years ago so we have a few things to write about here.
In Washington DC they have a cathedral with a few interesting features. The building of the cathedral started in late 19th century but the style is clearly Gothic, an architecture style that was popular in Europe several hundred years earlier.
One of the features Gothic buildings have is
gargoyles and
grotesques. Both the gargoyles and the grotesques are placed on the roofs of the buildings and the main purpose they serve is to divert rainwater from the side of
Cathedral in Washington DC
The cathedral has a few interesting features, especially the gargoyles the building. They are often shaped like animals, birds, distorted faces and/or like monsters. The reason the gargoyles were created looking scary was to remind people visiting the church what awaited them if they didn't follow the word of God. They would end up in Hell where these monsters live.
The Washington DC Cathedral has taken this art form of making gargoyles into the 20th century. Among the creatures that adorn the roofs of the cathedral it is possible to find a grotesque shaped as Darth Vader. Supposedly there is also somewhere a grotesque shaped as a schoolgirl with pigtails and dental braces, but we never found that one. That's not very scary though, only funny.
Another place we visited in Washington DC was the
Exorcist Steps. The final scene of the movie the Exorcist, a scene in which one of the characters first throws himself out a window and then tumbles down a staircase, was shot there. That scene is so well known that the staircase is known under the name the Exorcist Steps and is even mentioned in guidebooks on Washington DC. This is a similar situation like in Odessa where one of the staircases is named
Cathedral in Washington DC
Some of the gargoyles are quite funny the Potemkin Steps.
When we decided on visiting our friends in Washington DC these days one of the things we looked forward to seeing was the American History Museum. Three years ago that museum was closed for renovation but selected items from the collections were on display in another museum. We absolutely loved the temporary exhibits that were available then and we thought that the rest of American History Museum must be out of this world. It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment though. Many of the exhibits that we did see three years ago were not on display now and those that had replaced them were much less interesting. Maybe our expectations were too wound up or maybe the museum simply wasn't aimed towards us in the first place. Well, a wonderful thing about many of the museums in Washington DC is that they are free of charge. So if you go there and come out disappointed at least you didn't spend any money.
If Emma hadn't been with Ake this day Ake would, after the failed visit to the American History Museum, have cheered himself up by visiting the National Air and Space Museum and
Cathedral in Washington DC
Another gargoyle. A frog this time having a look at some cool planes and the Apollo 11 Spacecraft. But with Emma around Ake can't do funny things liked that...
In Washington we also made a quick visit to Ford Theatre to have a look at the place where John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln. Is it sick to visit a place for the only reason that a person got murdered there? We hope it isn't because you can bet that we are going to visit
Dealey Plaza if we ever go to Dallas.
...followed by an equally quick visit to NYC
On this trip to the US we also spent a little time in our favourite city of all - New York. Since we have been to New York a few times by now we can, when we are there, walk around and be pretty relaxed and just enjoy life instead of running from one tourist site to the next just because "you have to see them when you are in New York". We don't have to see them when we are there. We can and some of them we do see. But we don't have to
Darth Vader
They had a sense of humour when they created the gargoyles. This one is made to look like Darth Vader see them all and that's makes us relaxed.
We may feel at home in New York but the locals can still easily spot us as being visitors. We just can stop ourselves from staring at the top of the skyscrapers.
When we don't have to see a lot of must-see-places we can instead visit much lesser known sites in New York and that can be fun too. One such place is the narrowest house on Manhattan. It is on West 46th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue if you want to know. So is it silly to visit the narrowest house on Manhattan? Or maybe it can be seen as pointless? For us it was mostly a reason to go visit West 46th Street.
We also went up the top of Rockefeller Centre. From there we had a brilliant view of Central Park. It might be one of the best places on Manhattan if you want to get a bird's eye view of the large recreation area between 59th Street and 110th Street on Manhattan. From the top of Rockefeller Centre we also had one of the best views you can get of Empire State Building.
The Exorcist Steps
Another place we visited in Washington DC was Exorcist Steps Last time we went to New York the Guggenheim Museum was all covered by tarpaulins. So on this visit Ake made a quick visit to Fifth Avenue and had a photo of the building.
Ake has a colleague, Jan, whose father was a painter. Jan's father once sold one of his paintings to the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The Guggenheim Museum probably only displays one percent of all the paintings and other artworks they have. So the chances that one particular painting, a painting that is not very famous either, can be seen are slim. But just for the fun of it Ake decided to visit the information desk to ask for it. The woman at the information desk was very unfriendly and unwilling to help and that surprised Ake. She just gave him a look that said "Oh my god, he wants me to do my job". Then she looked bored for a few seconds, tapped on the computer and said "Computer says no". Well, she didn't use those words but it was something that meant that. If you want to get an idea of what it was like try
this link, or
this link or as a last
The Exorcist Steps
The final scene of the movie the Exorcist, a scene in which one of the characters first throws himself out a window and then tumbles down a staircase, was shot there. chance
try this link and browse the search results.
One of the days we spent in New York was a Friday. On Fridays the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, doesn't charge an entry fee. When they opened the queue went half way around the block. But the staff worked very efficiently, more than you can say about some of the staff at Guggenheim Museum, and soon we were inside the museum and could look at the art. We are not art people really but we had a good time for an hour or so.
In New York they normally don't get much snow in winter. Therefore they don't have any trucks with snowplows standing ready like they have in parts of the world where it snows more regularly in winter. When there is a snow storm in New York they mount snowplows on regular garbage trucks and use them to remove the snow. The consequence is of course that when it is snowing they can't use the garbage trucks for what they are meant to - to pick up garbage. A few days before we arrived in New York they had a snow storm and for several days the garbage trucks had been used for
White House
When in Washington DC a photo here is more or less compulsory. Barry didn't ask us to come in for coffee this time either removing snow. The snow was already gone when we arrived but there were large heaps of garbage everywhere.
A very odd thing we noticed when we were in the States this time is that
the actor Chevy Chase seems to be very popular in the Washington
suburb Bethesda. Why he is we don't but he must be next to a God to the locals considering how many signs with his name we saw everywhere... 😊=
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Daniel Tingdahl
non-member comment
Darth
Darth Vader was probably a fast guy, it seems like he got you in Bratislava too!