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Nearly reached that milestone in life (50), a little over weight but Hey. Married to Alison (25 years), a 21 yr old Son Tim who is at Hull studying Marine Biology. Still with the same company for more than 22 yrs now.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

"The Stars and Stripes Forever"

I've not been updating the Blog due to having too much fun in Washington and bad Internet connection in New York and not being too well. This Blog will cover the last two days in Washington.


Of all the places we've stayed, I think I could live here in "The Shirlington Village", everything one needs is here, just a nice feel about the place.

One of the locals

We've really enjoyed staying here

Best coffee & hot chocolate so far

This place almost carries everything one would need....

We needed to get to the centre of Washington to drop the car back (Union Station), easier said than done.... It would have helped if I had programmed the route correctly, instead of from the station to the Hotel !!! Washington is one big one way system, well got there in the end. Some major road reconstruction going on around the station.

The station is having a little facelift inside as well, its big with over 50 eating places inside, and no I didn't try all of them....just had an ice cream. We have good look around as we will catching a train out of here for our last leg of the trip to New York.

A larger copy of the liberty bell without the crack and it rings hourly.

The first landmark you spot on exiting the station is the US Capitol building, so it's the first place we visit.

They have a visitors centre here and we spend a little time here, you can book your guided tours here but we opt not to take one. The security here is pretty heavy, just like the airport, remove belts and all bags and jackets X-rayed.

"Freedom" a bronze of this statue is on top of the dome of the Capitol building. The displays and films are very informative on the US political system works and the history of Washington from the time they kicked us Brit's out.

The Washington Monument from the steps of the Capitol

The Supreme Court

Another view of the Washington monument.

You need to see this to get the feel of the sense of lose, dedicated to those that went and those that did not come back from Korea. Over 54,000 US troops lost their lives but the UN lost well over 600,000 but these figures do vary depending where you look.

This such an iconic statue, totally awesome.

A lot of construction work going here and at Union Station, should be a reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial, would like to have seen this, another iconic view.

The Second World War memorial.

Another local...

And finally, I think someone famous lives here.... needed the zoom to get this shot...

By all accounts this what FDR wanted as a memorial, a slab of stone the size of his desk in front of the national archive, and here it is...

One of my favourite pieces of art, Michael Lantz's "Man Controlling Trade", and so many Art Deco buildings, could spend a lot more time here just wandering, but we got to move on to New York now.

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