WASHINGTON DC

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Went into Washington DC today to do an open top bus tour with Rene O'Brien Harlow and Bill Harlow

(Big Bus Tour of Washington D.C.)

An impressive array of museums, monuments and galleries



The Washingtonians have put their 'awl and their all' toward embedding their constitutional pride into the landscape.

Towering majestic monuments and impressive museum collections testify to the founding (fathers' you will note) principles

There is a gob smacking array of monumental and well kept symbols of American freedoms.

One of our tour guides Fowzia (pseudonym) was full of insights and amusing anecdotes

As an American born Muslim - she was notably sensitive to landmarks of ethnic significance - keen to point out the broken Swastika of the Holocaust Museum, highlighting the newer African American Museum and its popularity, the symbolism of the American Indian museum architecture, focussing also on the one about 'freedom of speech' (the Newseum I think) and the newer monument to Martin Luther King Jr. and its Stone of Hope



Clearly she had read her briefing notes but enhanced them somewhat with her own researches, brief touches of mischievous irony and insights.

Of the 3 guides we came across as we hopped off and on buses - the only one to understand that effective engagement with your audience requires you to involve them fully by posing speculative questions



Visited the Thomas Jefferson memorial at which point Donald Trump obligingly flew over in an airforce helicopter

More irony than you can shake a stick at!

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Photos

Union Station exterior
Our starting point

Union Station interior
Our starting point - a fine piece of architecture - a myriad of eateries. Commerce rules!

SMITHSONIAN CASTLE
Visitors centre to the Smithsonian cluster of museums

FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Something about Freedom of Speech?

YOU SHALL NOT PASS
Would like to look at the White House? Uh, no - the President's at home