So today was the first full day of my Washington trip. It started early – I woke at 02:30, which was of course 7:30 UK time. Reminding myself firmly that I wasn’t in the UK I turned over and went back to sleep, but by 6 o’clock I was definitely awake so I got up. This did at least mean that I was able to breakfast early and was out of the B&B where I’m staying at about 8:30.
My target today was the National Mall, and the plan was simply to walk up its length from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol, with diversions as they occurred to me. I started by getting the Metro to Foggy Bottom (love that name) and walked from there south to the western end of the Mall, where the Lincoln Memorial is. I visited that and spent some time there. It’s impossible to not be impressed by the architecture and the huge sculpture inside it, but I was taken by the two speeches that are written out on the inside walls of the Memorial. One is the Gettysburg Address, with which I was already familiar (the ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’ speech). However, I didn’t know the other one, his 2nd Inaugural address. It contains some phrases that struck me as being as among the most eloquent I’ve read.
Then I carried on walking up the Mall. I visited the Vietnam Memorial, and then walked on to the Washington Memorial. Next stop was the National History of American History, and here I especially enjoyed a display about a single house in Massachussetts, built in 1760 and occupied until 1963. The display, which includes the house itself – it was removed to the museum in 1963 – discussed all the owners and occupants of the house over those 200 years and the lives they lived there.
After lunch at the museum I walked on towards the Capitol. I was distracted, however, when I saw a stream of cyclists appearing, with a police escort. There were hundreds – thousands – of them. I learned that this was the culmination of 2015’s Police Unity Tour. It must have taken a good half hour for all of the cyclists (and motorcyclists) to pass where I was standing.
After that I just walked some more and at about half past three headed back to the B&B. It was very hot today – 90° – and also humid, so by late afternoon I was glad to go back to some good air conditioning.
Practicalities: I bought a SmarTrip card from the B&B For $10; this was $2 for the card itself send $8 credit on it. I also asked and was shown how to check my credit level and how to add more credit to the card. I made several Metro trips today and they all worked well.
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