So we got on with sightseeing, being in the political capital of the world and the capital of monuments we decided the best way to get truly aquatinted with the city was by having a tour. (I'm a bit obsessed being trained as a guide myself) we went for dc by foot. This is a company that offers FREE TOURS! I know... What's the catch, we'll the idea is that you tip what you can afford or think it was worth. Which I think is pretty cool, we have all been on some horrendous tours not worth the time or money and we have also all been on EXCELLENT ONES. (Mine)
So this tour... We chose (I chose) a 4 hour mammoth tour of the national mall in DC. (it's where you'll find all the famous bits.) not knowing I would be ill for it. We'll I got up regardless of the needed tissues and cold/flu tablets (yes we may have been over cautious but you see, Heavy Backpack, this is why you are so heavy, but ultimately I am the winner here) and we walked a mile down the road to meet up with our guid at 10am, cleverly grabbing a subway in prep for lunch.
We are living on subways at lunch... For 5 dollars we share a footlong... Epically cheap!
We signed in, ( the guide looked and sounded like the annoying one in hangover.... EPIC) at this point I'm regretting my shoe choice faced with the next 4 hours being walking and standing and not much else, stupidly I'd worn my new birks which I am still in the process of breaking in. Hello blisters. It's in the strangest place though, right at the bottom of the ball of my foot/top of the arch? ODD. Plasters just rub off after 5 paces... No joy. But I persisted and we had an excellent tour.
We started at the Washington monument, it's overwhelmingly LARGE. And has a pretty interesting story behind it, won't bore you with it, it's probably already written down on the internet somewhere anyway... We then wandered to the ww2 memorial, which was ok... It had a fountain. And some stars.
We walked down to the Vietnam memorial, this was surprisingly moving. It is really peaceful and the memorial itself kind of envelopes you at one point, it was sad to see wilting flowers, it's obviously still very recent to many families. There's also a statue that is so realistic! It's of 3 soldiers and they look as if they have just walked out of the jungle.
We moved onto the Lincoln memorial. Ahhh good old abe, he's very big. Very serious. I got a few cool photos here. And on instruction by the guide to check out the back of abes head from certain angle I saw general lee, sculpted into the marble. Now if your want to know who he is you'll have to ask mike as I don't... But whilst grabbing a snapshot of this a ranger told me that the general didn't exist. He was quite stern and very matter if factly about it. I verbally disagreed with him... I think he gave me evils as then a few other tourists came to check it out.... Lol. ( I totally won that encounter with the law)
We wandered down to the Martin Luther king memorial (I didn't like it)
Now before you all judge me I'll tell you why.
It's rubbish.
A) he looks like Han Solo trapped in the metal thing in the film my husband loves.
B) even though his face is very realistic, his suit is crap, it's not in a style of sculpture I like, it's cartoony and poop.
C) it was sadly outsourced as it was done on the cheap... (To china...) I was looking for the made in China logo...
D) it's rubbish
Google it. You'll see I'm right.
See, I'm right.
Then we walked through the FDR Memorial. Loved it. It's huge and interesting. Not rubbish. And we went on to finish at the Jefferson memorial. The tour was about 2.5 miles long and ended a good mile from anything else you'd want to do... So I was super tired and ill (don't forget) se we walked to a subway and got the train back to the area we were staying in.
Had a surprisingly awesome tea (surprisingly yum and cheap) it was a make your own pasta Sunday special. You chose the type (fat spaghetti for me) the sauce (pesto obv) and then just chucked whatever else you wanted in. I went for asparagus, broccoli and italian sausage. NOM.
I then went to bed. And pretty much stayed there for more than 24hours. I knew if I didn't stop I'd only get worse.
LUCKILY we had a TV in this accommodation so we have had a fair share of crap American TV. I feel we are getting the full package. ;)
So Tuesday was spent slowly meandering and not overdoing it as I'm still ill, we went to newseum. It had an anchorman exhibit. Which was pretty funny, especially as every other part was epically serious. But in a city where all museums are free (except this one) it's worth paying!! Very emotional 9/11 section. It's an interesting view on world events as you see behind the scenes from the medias perspective.
So then Wednesday was spent on a train. All 10 1/5 hours of daylight (hah) on a train. Although we had the sleeper car seats so it was comfy enough. We are now well trained at the art of train. We get a footlong sub each (half lunch half tea) and plenty of supplies as we are very aware that train food is poop.
Annoyingly the train was delayed by 2 hours.. So we got into Charleston pretty late last night. It was humid and gross. Buuuuuut I'll leave Charleston for the next post... :)
Xxxxx Jess
Location:Washington
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