WASHINGTON DC

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Wednesday 18th August

We took a 1 1/2 hour train to Washington DC and arrived about lunchtime. The train station on arrival gave us a taste of what was to come. Large marble historical buildings with plenty of greenery. No mucking about we checked into the international hostel which is set on 7 floors of an old building not far from most of the central attractions. The weather was wet and cloudy but the temperature was about 20c. 20%!o(MISSING)f Washington is parkland so the trees gave us good cover for parts of the day as it rained on and off.

First stop, the smithsonian museums. The natural museum of history was huge! lots to see and was interesting in parts and we managed to see the hope diamond which is the largest diamond in the world at 45.5 carats. It looked blue under the light and it was very busy and trying to get close was a nightmare but i got a wee snap and lookie at it. The stuffed animals and dinosaur bones and all the other run of the mill stuff was pretty cool. Oh, all the museums are free to get in here so that was a bonus for us cheapstake aberdonians! Next stop was the air and space museum but as we walked across the grass mall there it was....capitol hill to the left and washington memorial with the lincoln memorial building behind. couldnt help but stare in sheer awe at them...by this point jill asking if had taken a photo of capitol hill yet as i mustve taken about forty of it alone.

we walked all the way down the mall towards the washington memorial which is the large oblisc tower in the center of the park. wow, its some height when your there standing below the largest building in washington...more photos!! between here and the reflecting pool there is the world war two memorial with 52 pillars with each state etched on them. lovely. we walked the edge of the reflecting pool and i just wanted to jump in shouting "jill" like forest gump in the film..jill was having none of it.!! its a coincidence that the lassie in the film was called jill aswell as that wouldve been my excuse in front of the judge before getting deported!!

We arrived at the lincoln memorial building and looked back up the pool the opposite direction..the stuff of dreams...amazing. The north and south side chambers contain carved inscriptions of Lincoln's second inaugural address and his Gettysburg Address. Abraham lincoln statue sits here impressively. Apparently his fingers are spellin A and L in sign language but urban myth springs to mind but the more i looked the more im seeing it!! "you got a photo of capitol hill yet leon?" jill asks. 😊


many hours of walking passing through the memorials of vietnam and various wars we arrive at the whitehouse for a cup of tea with obama. no luck though, he'd nipped out to wallmart for his weekly shop..ah well next time!!

Our legs and feet were burning and sore so we went for a chinese in china town and then went to the cinema. it also meant less time at the hostel as we were sharing a dorm with 2 guys and its the only time we're sharing rooms the whole trip. to say we slept like a babies is an understatement plus i got the top bunk!!! oh to be 12 again!!

Thursday 19th August

Michty me!! here we go again. Lovely sunshine and roasting hot temperatures. we revisted all the places we did yesterday except we used to the hop on hop off bus this time. And yes i got more photos of capitol hill but sunny ones and closer up ones... 😊 we swtiched bus tour and headed off to arlington cemtery. I knew it excisted but i was not prepared for what i saw and learned. The sheer size of the place and the famous people that have been buried here blew me away. i mean as far as the eye can see there are white burial crosses and we walked for miles around it while every now and then stopping to read headstones. heartbreaking stuff to be fair. 18, 19, 20 year old heroes fallen in battle during vietnam to name some. Nasa astronauts, pan am flight and various other memorials are here to see. we headed off to see JFK's burial site and eternal flame which constantly burns at his resting point along side Jackie onasis. lump in throat time. 😞

the views are lovely here and by now we were burnt red as we forgot to take suncream with us so we spent a little bit of time in arlington house cooling off. A quick visit to the unknown soldier memorial. The tomb of unidentified remains of fallen soldiers are interred here and here they have a guard standing marching back and fore and he eventually changes guard with another soldier. the marble floor is marked by the boots of this ceremony having being repeated 12 7 365days a year. they are In full ceremonial uniform with rifles and its touching 30 degree's!! yikes!!

A quick visit to pentagon area and shops for some sunblock next. We caught glimpses of the pentagon from the bus and after about 4 photos of it the bus tour recording announces that photos are forbidden. Ah.... You can visibly see the different coloured stone where theyve rebuilt the affected part after the plane crashed into it on 9/11. not much more to see here apart from the drug enforcement museum which was closed at 4...ahh nightmare its 5pm!! so we headed home on the bus again hoping to catch the spy museum but we missed it by and hour too!! cant grumble as we've had a fantastic time in DC already and we've been here less than 2 days. we're having an early night tonight as we're catching our plane to miami in the morning. i hope the french guy in the opposite bunk from me doesnt come bursting through the door drunk at 3am like last night or ill have to teach him the eric cantona karate kick!! hahaha only joking, he's bigger than me anyway... night.x

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