Sulkyblue's Blog

I finally finally finally got round to writing up my diary and sorting out all the photos from the trip I took to Washington with sarahinthepark


Saturday 6th September
The holiday started at a relatively civilised hour, Sarah and I c-ordinated beautifully to meet in the last carriage of the Heathrow Connx 08.11 from Ealing Broadway. We arrived at the heaving terminal 4 and proceeded through the whole thing with minimal fuss, the most stressful element being the queue at Pret.

Sadly the good luck evaporated on the plane, some missing passengers made us miss our departure. Forty five minutes late was a bad start, turbulence a lot of the way across was a bit miserable and the descent was utterly miserable. In hindsight we should probably have realised that hurricanes are big and flying into the leading edge of one filling the news with tales of destruction was likely to be a bit bumpy. On the positive side BA's video on demand is great and I watched kids films all the way across. The turbulence did mean they weren't able to serve the second cup of tea, which they apologised for at least half a dozen times.

Immigration and customs were amazingly polite and friendly, although our luggage took forever to arrive which was a slightly tense few minutes. There followed a coach and a metro, one with lots of rain, one with lots of confusion and maths about tickets. There comes a point where the brain is just too addled to make decisions.

The metro was big, clean and weirdly carpeted. The stations are kinda cool but the mood lighting is a little extreme.

Finally at fivish we emerged into Washington! It's clean, made mostly of stone and utterly deserted. We turned around and there all of a sudden was the view down Pennsylvania Avenue to see the Capital building with clouds rolling by. It was one of those perfect holiday moments that make nauseating turbulence and confusing ticket machines all seem worth it.

The hotel turns out to be surprisingly comfy considering its budget nature. There's working wireless and a comfy bed which is all I care about at the moment.


Sunday 7th September
Having collapsed into bed by 9pm we woke up at 5am. Thanks to a good quality shower and some weather channel we were almost human by 7am and we headed out for a walk. Everywhere was pretty unsurprisingly empty except the Mall which was setting up for an event and being circled by joggers. It was all kind of eerily beauty with a light mist in the distance and wide deserted streets.

We breakfasted at a local diner full of cops and their guns which was a bit weird, but a good sign about the quality of the diner. We had excellent bacon, eggs and pancakes. By 9am we were waiting for our bus marvelling at the tacky souvenirs and political t-shirts on display ("Friends don't let friends vote Republican").

The trolley tour was perfect! The guides were friendly and informative and the routes very useful. We took the orange route around Capitol Hill and over to the Lincoln Memorial where we stopped for a bit. It was very beautiful and impressive - such a strange thing to build. The view down the Mall seems huge, such an amount of space to dedicate to something so unimportant and yet so very important.

A quick drink and we hopped the red route over to Arlington where we possibly foolishly decided to forego the bus tour for a walk in the noon heat with not a cloud in the sky. Arlington was achingly beautiful and thoughtful with white graves disappearing into the distance in parallel lines. We trudged up to watch the changing of the guard which was utterly clinical and comically camp. On the other hand the hundred or so people watching in complete silence managed to make it moving. There was a tremendous sense of peace in the cometary, so many people whose deaths were defined by their service.

We returned to the bus and to Lincoln, then back on the orange line past the museums and the Washington Monument which was beautiful, surrounded with flags and kite flyers. We returned to our original pick up point and had amazing salads at Cosi's for lunch.

On to the green line to go 'uptown' to where the rich people lived, out of range of the swamp, apparently the houses were originally advertised 'malaria free'. This was a different feel - no longer shining and clinical, but more functionally impressive - big houses, balconies and driveways all making sense in a way columns don't.

We emerged at the top of the hill at the National Cathedral which was a return to columns, or rather flying buttresses. It's a gothic cathedral that took one hundred years to build, finally being completed in the 1990s. It's the sixth largest cathedral in the world and is huge, impressive and beautiful. But again seems to be more about being impressive than being a cathedral. It seems to be shouting "look at me, we can do anything those fifteenth century Europeans could do". Well done! We managed it five hundred years ago.

It was pretty though.

We got back on the bus, frantically driving down Embassy Row, "Left Venezuela, right Slovenia, left Lesotho" etc with an equally random collection of architectural styles. Georgetown is very pretty though, feeling like an old university town should. Some nice shops, people buzzing about, street cafes and tram tracks! We planned to go back there for dinner one evening but completely failed.

We retreated back to the hotel via a rather nice ice cream shop.


Monday 8th September
Sadly Sarah has to go do some work, so I'm back to travelling by myself and ticking off sights in between finding places to sit.

My body clock is a bit screwed so I woke up at 5 again this morning. This did mean there was plenty of time for a slow morning browsing the web and watching the weather channel. We breakfasted at a Bon Pain, a brilliant chain of cafes that serve pretty much anything you want.

Sarah and I walked down the Mall and she headed off to the library while I queued for tickets to the Capitol with a couple of rude Americans and a couple of nice ones who liked my accent. Being by myself I got slotted on to another tour group which unfortunately meant lots of rude Spanish people and a very stunted tour which had to be translated on the fly.

The Capitol has a few amazing rooms and lots of unremarkable dingy corridors. The rotunda was very pretty but that was about it. I loved the concept of the statues - each state contributed two so there was a real mix of people and styles, but we got rushed through a bit so couldn't take the time to really look at things. The outside is pretty amazing with the sun shining and the flags fluttering.

I took a break to eat my bag of carrots and scribble some notes. My first sitting spot was pretty amazing, sitting on steps of Ulysses S. Grant's statue looking down the Mall across a pool with ducks paddling. Traffic makes it a bit noisy and there's a distinct lack of places to pick up drinks, but I have a bag of carrots to keep me going.

Next up was a brief walk around the North side of the Capital taking in Taft's rather austere memorial and a very pretty fountain. I navigated to the Supreme Court and took refuge from the heat in the excellent cafe. The court itself was pretty unremarkable, sadly they were all closed so I couldn't actually go into the court rooms, just the foyer and the dull museum.

I scurried from the Supreme Court to the Library of Congress at noon and the 5 minute walk pretty much turned me to a puddle of goo.

The library was very impressive and actually felt real, maybe because it's dedicated to the universal aim of learning rather than anything with an even slightly dubious background. I missed the tour sadly but took my time wandering around looking at the wonderful painted ceilings and peering into the reading room, the viewing room for which was behind glass so the nasty tourists didn't interfere with the scholars. It was quite cool to know that somewhere in the building Sarah was working away.

I scuttled outside again over to the National Botanical Garden where I was just in time for an interesting tour with two ladies from Seattle who described me as 'young' and again liked my accent. I couldn't help but feel a bit smug about how much bigger, better and older Kew was, but it was still nice and pretty impressive considering it was right in the middle of the capital city. Kew might be huge, but it's not across the road from the Houses of Parliament.

I made another brief excursion out in the baking heat to walk across the Mall to the Natural History Museum. I took a leisurely meander through the museum, first taking in the dinosaurs. Sadly they didn't really compare to the ones in the London Museum. There were basically half a dozen dinosaurs piled on tome of each other in a very dim room. They did have some well presented fish fossils though, overlaid next to their modern day equivalents.

Next stop was the mammals wing which was very well done, with the animals in interesting poses full of movement and well presented information all inside a brightly lit open room. Even the video on evolution was informative and fun.

The final visit was the Hope Diamond, which was extensively advertised and not nearly as exciting as it was made out to be. The rest of the gems and minerals section was interesting though, with some expensive and unique gems.

Back to the hotel by 5.30 for another early dinner and night.


Tuesday 9th September

The weather has taken a turn for the worse, still hot but now muggy and grey as well, with flash flood and thunderstorm warnings for later in the afternoon. In honour of the weather I decided to spend the day touring some museums. The other good thing is they don't open until 10 so I had time to investigate the local Starbucks. This was a bit of a mistake at 8.45 in the centre of the city as I had to try not to get in the way of hundreds of desperate fast moving office workers. A quick, but lovely cream cheese danish and I took my iced mocha to go.

I walked over to the Navy Memorial, a calm square in the middle of bustling offices. It's an interesting space with a simple life size statue, flagpoles and a lot of enthusiasm and pride. Likewise the Law Enforcement Officers a few blocks away was respectful, proud and very moving. The statues of lions guarding their cubs was a perfect image.

I waited for the Building Museum to open while sitting in the foyer which is pretty amazing. From the outside this building is just plain red brick, inside is a giant atrium, four storeys high with giant marble columns towering up to giant golden capitals. The birds flying about inside are a bit odd yet add to the sensation of being outside yet inside.

The museum actually turned out to be two small exhibitions which was a little strange considering the scale of the building. The exhibitions were interesting and fairly well presented except for the absence of chronology. A lovely docent chatted to me for a bit. I've been really delighted at how nice security and docents have been. It's only people behind tills that seem rude.

It was just starting to spot with rain and was nasty and sticky, so I took the metro which was fast and clean and weirdly dark. I emerged into the still spitting mugginess and high tailed it to the Air and Space Museum where I stood open mouthed in the foyer for a bit. Friendship 7, Spirt of St Louis, SpaceShip One and Apollo 11 all within eye shot. Quite amazing.

I spent a whole afternoon in the museum, pootling about a bit until I met up with a tour group which was very interesting but a bit long at an hour and a half long. They have pretty much every first plane or meaningful artefact from the history of flight.

I lunched at the McDonalds in the museum which seems to serve pizza. After recovering some energy I continued to tour the galleries, all of which are well laid out and interesting. I found a good spot to collapse in a mock movie theatre listening to Douglas Fairbanks narrate an interesting montage of WW1 aviation films.

Sarah and I made a special effort and actually went out for dinner, catching the metro to Dupont Circle and Kramer Books. The bookshop turned out to be pretty small, plus US books aren't very nice. The restaurant however was wonderful with amazing giant deserts.


Wednesday 10th September

We had breakfast at Bon Pain again, opting for some solid bagel, sausage and egg to keep me going while watching all the office people come through with their travel mugs. Then I took a leisurely stroll to the White House.

I walked down to Freedom Plaza which has an interesting concept, a mini map of the city laid out with quotes engraved around it. Shame most of the quotes were illegible - but a nice way to represent the city, poor implementation but good idea.

I skirted the treasury building and the back of the White House, both of which would have been interesting a few days ago, but are now just yet more white, classical buildings. I sat in Lafeyette Park briefly laughing at the women in ridiculous shoes and Sunday best.

I continued to drift settling in front of the Old Executive Office Building, possibly my favourite building in Washington, grey and gothicy and very different to all the other buildings. I also had a completely geeky West Wing moment seeing the gate next to the White House that they exit from.

The Renwick gallery was surprisingly nice, to be honest I was only going in because I was nearby, it was free and I wanted to use the bathroom. It turned out to be a very pleasant way to spend half hour. The building is lovely and there's some impressive modern pieces of craft work and an amazing room filled with paintings of American scenery.

I ambled around the area ticking off buildings such as the Octagon and the State Department. You quite quickly fall out of the 'pretty' Washington and into an area full of grey concrete buildings.

I went into the National Academy of Sciences which very much confused the security guard, who didn't understand that I just wanted to look at the dome my guidebook recommended. Once I'd negotiated my way in past the Morgan Freeman lookalike the dome was indeed very pretty, although not really worth the arguing. I sat in the grounds for a bit admiring the giant Einstein statue.

When I realised what a beautiful day it was I changed my plan and went for a walk around the Mall, Tidal Basin and the memorials. I started at the Vietnam Memorial which was amazingly understated and beautiful, cut away from the ground with SO many names on it. I teared up at the sight of an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair with a flag on the back and a veterans cap just staring at an area of names on the wall.

I had a giant and disappointing ice lolly while sitting by the reflecting pool watching the geese. I continued on to the WW2 memorial, which was considerably less moving because it's back to being about America and the state instead of the individuals. It's very calm though, the roar of the fountains drown out all the other noise and the stone benches are surprisingly comfortable.

I lingered for a while at the Memorial before setting off around the tidal basin. It was a beautiful day with the blue sky, sunshine and a light breeze to stop the mugginess. The basin is pretty but plain without the cherry blossoms, and we seem to be being buzzed by helicopters - six just flew past in formation.

The FDR memorial didn't quite work - it felt very unfocussed trying to tell a story with sculptures spread through granite rooms. It just seemed a bit over the top for a man who specifically requested a monument the size of his desk.

The Jefferson memorial is very similar to the Lincoln - big white marble and a looming statue. Not so many tourists seem to make the trek though, so other than planes, helicopters, traffic and some very loud insects - it's pretty quiet. Sitting on the steps looking at the Washington Monument and White House was very sleep inducing, so it was probably a good thing they were hard and uncomfortable.

I continued walking, returning to the Mall proper and attempted to go up the Washington Monument, but they'd sold out for the day. So I dropped in to the National Aquarium. The label of National is pretty embarrassing to be honest, most of the tanks are slightly less impressive than my tank at home. They had some cute turtles though and it was nice to see some young kids get excited.

I dropped by the hotel to drop stuff off before having a depressing shopping experience which I quickly gave up on. Picked Sarah up at the hotel and headed out to dinner in Chinatown, but it was all depressingly tacky and unpleasant looking. So instead found a wonderful pizza place which I can't remember the name or location of.


Thursday 11th September
Another restless night but at least we slept through to 8. Breakfast at Bon Pain again before taking the metro up to the zoo. It was very lovely and peaceful - just one school trip and lots of families with toddlers. The enclosures all looked wonderful - large interesting spaces with lots of levels.

It was fun watching the elephant have his shower and dutifully moving around as they directed him to. Sadly the octopi were on holiday somewhere, which was a shame as there was supposed to be a public feeding. In fact most times I tried to see a scheduled event it didn't seem to happen for various reasons. The orang-utans using an overhead rope pathway to go and collect their lunch was impressive though.

I drifted about the zoo for over five hours until I was pretty much exhausted. The multi-level enclosures are lovely but it means a lot of up and downhill. The restaurant was stunningly poor and annoyingly lumbered me with a souvenir cup which I carried around for no real reason.

The highlight of the zoo was probably the giant Amazonian fish that were drifting around an immense tank. Unfortunately the apparently 'world famous' giant pandas were all sleeping, including the supposedly adorable baby. Oh, and the wild chipmunks roaming around were a surprise too.

I took a detour to Union Station to investigate the shops and found quite a nice collection of boutiques. Back at the hotel by 5, we dragged ourselves out to a nice, but expensive French restaurant and then returned to our favourite spot in the Barnes and Noble Starbucks.

Friday 12th September

For the first time this week, I really didn't want to get up, finally I've broken into the right time zone! But I hauled myself up for breakfast at Cosi's and felt almost awake by the time I left to walk over to the White House. Having dutifully ticked that box and seen it across seven different fences, I continued on to the Washington Monument.

The monument is essentially a big pillar, the only interesting part of which is the collection of memorial stones built onto the inside of the pillar which you can only see moving slowly past from the lift. The view from the top is impressive, but with grubby windows and a lot of clouds, today probably wasn't the best day. It's good to be able to see the layout of the designed city and see how small the city really is - probably a good place to start your holiday.

I decided to make the most of the dry, cool weather while it lasted and caught the metro to Rosslyn and the Iwo Jima Marine Memorial. It's very impressive - big and solid and powerful, but essentially six men working together to raise a flag pole. Like most of these memorials I'm not sure about the balance between remembrance and uncomfortable celebration - while I agree completely with honouring the sacrifice of soldiers, was their sacrifice necessary? My only other criticism of the memorial is the lack of benches nearby - surely there should be more resting places, not just for exhausted tourists, but for elderly veterans and those that wish to spend time quietly thinking.

The easiest way back to a Metro station seemed to be back through Arlington, which I had no objection to visiting a second time. I think it is one of my favourite places in Washington, I've always loved the peace and tranquillity of cemeteries. I had planned to visit the newly opened Air Force and September 11th memorials near the Pentagon, but they turned out to be quite a long walk from anywhere.

I headed back to DC and found the most wonderful museum in the world - a temporary exhibition of Jim Henson's work. It was really lovely to watch the videos of him speaking and see his early concept sketches for characters that would become very familiar. It's a shame there weren't more muppets, but I was thrilled to see Kermit, Bert and Ernie and the Muhna-muhna puppets. I toured the whole exhibit with a smile on my face and happily watched the whole 20 minute compilation video.

I then started the quest for lunch, which was harder to find than I expected. Neither the African Art, or the Hirshorn Museums had open cafes. The Smithsonian Castle had nothing interesting in at all, although it is an impressively weird building and I was actually thankful the Arts and Industries museum was closed as I didn't have to feel guilty about not spending time there. In the end I returned to the Air and Space museum for a McDonalds.

I returned to the hotel planning a quick nap to recover strength, briefly popping in to the National Archives on the way. I know I shouldn't have been surprised it was just a collection of pieces of paper, but I just didn't feel as reverent towards them as the flocks of American did. When I arrived a the hotel the maid was still cleaning the room so I had to go and hide in the Starbucks in Barnes and Noble. Exhaustion is really kicking in now!

Saturday 13th September
Sarah and I just about managed to cram everything into our suit cases and left them at the hotel while we set off into the amazing heat to grab breakfast and a few last sights. We had a small mountain of food at the cops' favourite cafe again then walked down to the National Art Gallery. We spent several hours touring the galleries and appreciating the art, architecture, sofas and air conditioning, not necessarily in that order.

We walked through the sculpture garden which had some very interesting pieces that really benefited from being outside in such a large space. Sadly it was way too hot to loiter around too much so we continued on to the Natural History Museum where we grabbed lunch. I showed some of the highlights of the museum and we went to the indoor butterfly house which was pretty amazing. Hundreds of colourful, giant butterflies swarming around and landing on you.

Despite good intentions to do a last tour of the mall, it really was too hot to stay outside and we were too exhausted to walk. So we went and had an iced coffee before collecting our luggage and dragging everything to the airport.

Google map of sites visited
Full photo set at flickr