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Our journey from Nashville to Washington was by our second internal flight. Whilst the stewards were just as helpful as on our last trio their approach to their work was somewhat more conventional. However, just as we started to descend towards Washington, the captain spoke to us for the first time - he wished us a very happy Darth Vader Day, introduced us to his co-pilot Chewy and signed off with a Wooky impersonation! Once again, a very efficient way to travel - city to city in just under 90 minutes.Having deposited our luggage at the hotel we hit Washington running, not wanting to waste any time in a city with so much to see and do. We headed first for the National Archive museum, home to the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and much more. These documents are on display in the Rotunda. It's a beautiful room which is reverently decorated but lighting is dimmed to protect the documents with no photography allowed on the premises at all. Although it's quite a thrill to get up close and personal with these fabulous documents the writing is minuscule, the ink mostly faded, and in the dim lighting it really isn't
possible to read anything legible at all. Washington appears to have been invaded by bus loads of high school kids over the past 2 days. They are literally like a not so small army of sullen looking teenagers, clearly not that excited about visiting their nation's capital and mostly more intent upon riding elevators and escalators repeatedly whilst shouting across atriums at each other about their next destination. There are about 12 Smithsonian museums in DC, all free to enter. The newest, and Obama's parting endorsement, is the one dedicated to African American history. This is an imposing building with an exterior that looks like some kind of dark coarse grass designed to resemble an African headpiece I believe. It's been so popular we haven't been able to secure entry but thankfully there are many more to choose from.Smithsonians aside a major goal this time was to visit The Newseum. This is a huge building on Pennsylvania Avenue principally dedicated to, of course, news broadcasting and journalism. Outside are cases holding today's paper from each state. Inside the 6 storey building there are exhibits on everything from the history of news broadcasting to the civil rights movement. Entry gives you
a free return the following day which was just as well as we didn't have nearly enough time to see it all on our first afternoon. It really was a fabulous place to visit and I learned loads about First Amendment Rights, the history of the press in general, freedom of the press around the world and the civil rights movement in the 60's. We particularly enjoyed the section dedicated to the relationship between music and politics.Talking of politics, very little discussion on the subject is in evidence here. I'd expected it to be far more prevalent as we travel the nation's capital but far from it. We've been using a hop on hop off trolley bus to navigate our way around these first two days and not one of our many drivers has mentioned anything even vaguely political. Tourist shops are full of fridge magnets and key rings with cheesy photos of the first family but the propaganda mill seems to start and stop there. On Pennsylvania Avenue stands the newly opened Trump Hotel. Rumour has it he wanted it gold plated like his other hotels but was barred from doing so by the local authorities. I'm loathe to admit it but it actually looks quite smart. The outstanding archeological thing about Washington is that there are no skyscrapers. Buildings here must not exceed the height of Freedom, the statue on top of the Capital building. With wide streets also, this gives the city a very open and airy feeling, something I expect to be in stark contrast to New York when we get there.Last time we were here we visited the Capital building for a guided tour. Whilst we loved the building we were disappointed by our rather lacklustre guide. As it's free we decided to give it another go this year in the hope of a better experience. What an excellent decisi on it proved to be. Our guide gave us an excellent tour with a wealth of additional information from our last visit. Once again we were struck by the history steeped in those hallways - walking in the footsteps of American political giants and loving every minute of it! The trolley bus has been an excellent way to see this city. We've had a mixture of rain and generally colder weather here ( a bit of a shock after the heat of Vegas and Nashville!!) so waiting for the next trolley has been a bit damp on occasions but the drivers are invariably informative and eager to help. Our first driver was called Smiley and it wasn't just a clever name! He had an infectious laugh which he wasn't afraid of sharing and something amusing to say about every stop and buildings in between. Today's driver was Buckeye. Whereas Smiley advertised his "Driver of the Year 2015" award, Buckeye evidently held the 2016 title. Both were excellent but I'm not sure how Buckeye got his name! Tonight we are going to see a Bruce Springsteen tribute act (!) before another full day tomorrow. The museum of flight, the entire Mall and all the monuments are on the agenda so with that in mind I feel I must prepare with a cuppa and feet up for a few minutes. I therefore hand you over to our sponsor who is eager to share his thoughts as usual! Despite being unashamed tourist who cover the obvious sights and attractions, we do like to get a sense of local culture and goings on. This example comes from Nashville. We had discovered a bar with good live music and food called the Wild horse saloon. We had been there two or three times and decided to go for a last drink on Sunday night. As we walked in there were none of the normal security but the place was buzzing. No live band but a stage full of very excited scantily clad young women and a large highly charged audience. No, we had not walked in to a saucy club by mistake but the annual auditions for cheerleaders for Nashville's football team, theTitans. As we watched the successful candidates being called on to the stage I couldn't help feeling a little uncomfortable watching the young women with very little on leaping about the stage. What really caught our attention was in the bios announced by the host. These women were all graduates, one had a doctorate! Looking at the parents glee and pride we realised just how important the position of cheerleader is.I cannot help wondering if this objectification is something that would be accepted in GB universities. As I said at the beginning, local culture you find is surprisingly different where you least expect it.
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