Washington days

After the frantic pace of New York, Washington was much calmer with wider avenues and roads and generally more space. A very fine city with spectacular views up to Capitol Hill via the Monument and Lincoln Memorial and vice-versa.

All the major government buildings and museums of which there are many are on an impressive scale, mostly in classic styles. The building housing the Archives was a treasure trove and on a smaller scale it was interesting to see the theatre where Lincoln was assassinated and the bed in the house opposite where he died the following morning. Plenty of reminders in all the museums (all free by the way) of the role of the founding fathers such as Jefferson, Franklin and Washington and then later on the Civil War with over 600,000 dead.

Back in the Archives you can see a piece of paper Kennedy wrote/semi-doodled on during one of the critical meetings during the Cuban Missile standoff. Words such as blockade and crisis can be clearly seen. Another gem was the arrest warrant for Lee Harvey Oswald.

Choice of theatres, cinemas, restuarants not as large as NY or Washington but no problem there. we found a really good sports bar where you can eat,,drink and watch the ball game on huge screens above the bar. World series tied at 1-1 at present with three games to come over the weekend.

Hotel/hostel apart (see elsewhere) a great few days but as with New York you really have to shoot round if you want to do it justice. Five or six days much better. Should add that the weather was glorious all the time and now we have reached Pasadena for the Breeders' Cup horse racing it is even more so with temperatures well into the 80s. A few winners tomorrow should help counter the hotel/fiasco (also see below). dave (posting pix for the first time).