Greta? Who is Greta and where is Dimitri?

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We arrived in Washington at about 8pm local after a long journey that included a short stop over in Dallas. Thankfully at least that stopover meant we didn't have to clear Customs and Immigration as we had done that in Dallas, a very lengthy process.

After collecting baggage we grabbed a train straight into town, where our hotel was about 100m from the station. Cost us a grand total of about US$3 each, nothing near how much it would cost in Australia. Checked in, and basically dropped bags upstairs before heading out in the rain to grab dinner.

Managed to find a Five Guys which does burgers and fries and grabbed a rather late dinner before walking further in the rain to find a 7-11. After three wake up calls at 6am and me calling reception half asleep and rather annoyed, we managed to sleep til 10:30am, after which time we headed to Macy's to do some shopping, before going across to Union Station, which was in part covered by scaffolding. Likewise, from out the front you got a view of the Capitol... also covered by scaffolding.

From there it was on to the very exciting Postal Museum, which is dedicated to the preservation, study and presentation of postal history through stamps and objects. It was actually ok, learnt a little bit about stamps and postal services and sent myself a stamp selfie.

Then it was onto the International Spy Museum where I became 'Greta' - a 33 year old German astronomer. I failed miserably at my assignment, barely able to remember my name through the couple of quizzes we had as we went through the museum. Stuart became Dimitri, a 48 year old fisherman from Russia who remembered everything and even got details he didn't know correct.

There were heaps of people but it was nonetheless an interesting museum, well laid out and entertaining. Essentially the museum is dedicated to the tradecraft, history and contemporary role of espionage, featuring the largest collection of international espionage artifacts currently on public display. Ironically there was a rather large James Bond section of the exhibit and for someone that hasn't seen a Bond movie I was rather lost but it was interesting to see some of the bugs and read about spy tricks of the trade and how many of them would choose death over capture and torture.

After resisting the temptation to buy a range of spy memorabilia from the gift store we headed back to the hotel for a brief rest. Then it was back to Chinatown via Macy's to pick up a jacket for Stuart before grabbing some Chinese food for dinner. Hot crispy beef which was neither.

After dinner it was a stroll down to the Whitehouse where the intention was to grab some pics of the monuments at night, but I hadn't brought the right lens and couldn't work out the settings. So, with freezing fingers we gave up instead.

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