Day 29 - 14 Oct: Washington DC

Pretty busy day making the most of our time in DC.

Jumped on the Metro and went to the main Smithsonian building in The Mall, known as the Smithsonian Castle.

This has mostly information and a gift shop, but also had a fascinatingly bizarre collection of exhibits, including such things as a piece of the Berlin Wall, a piece of the Bastille, a piece of George Washington’s coffin and a piece of Joan of Arc’s dungeon prison.

We decided the National Air & Space Museum would be our first port of call, so headed there and got on a brief tour of the space part, which was excellent. They’ve got three actual command modules from the space program – the one that was used for the first US orbit by John Glenn, the one that was used for the first spacewalk, and the one that went to the Moon. There are also life-size models of Mars rovers and stuff, rockets…and an actual piece of Moon rock which you can touch! A really good morning.

Also saw the actual, genuine, original, Wright Flyer.

From there we went outside to eat our packed lunch, and go on an historic carousel...

..and sort of stumbled across a sculpture garden. I’m no art expert but I do like a nice sculpture, especially Henry Moore. This garden had heaps of his works…

..and a whole bunch of Rodins, too.

Plus a couple of other works that I really liked.

We then wandered to the National Museum of American History, where Finley and I had briefly stopped yesterday. This time we had a good look through the ‘America at War’ section, learning about the War of Independence and the Civil War especially. Didn’t get any further than that as it was so detailed, we were in there for quite a while and had had enough by then. Very good though, and very, very interesting.

Finley wanted to go up the Washington Monument, so we headed there next, only to find all the (free) tickets for the day long gone. But as we sat there lamenting the situation, someone came by giving away spares, so we grabbed four. They were for the 2:30 slot and it was 3:00pm, but we managed to get up what was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1885. Special view from the top, obvs, and a really great perspective on the amazing scale of Washington and its buildings.

Time was getting on by now and we were pretty knackered, so we strolled down to the Tidal Basin and visited the Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial.

Having visited so many other places which were significant in his life, it was moving to see this great monument to him, and read the many inspirational quotes engraved there.

They certainly know how to do a monument here – this one is to Jefferson and is on the other side of the Tidal Basin from the King one.

Walked back to the hotel then with the intention of having a quick swim, but unfortunately the outdoor pool is closed at this time of year. So after a freshen up we jumped back on the Metro and dropped in at the National Portrait Gallery and Museum of American Art. We only had half an hour before it closed, so grabbed a quick look at the contemporary section, which was cool.

Then got some dinner in Chinatown and headed home, via Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln was assassinated. After today’s history lesson it had much more meaning for us, and the tragedy of his untimely death was brought home.

Packing tonight as we leave for NYC tomorrow.