Washington DC - No more museums

Before leaving the mountains we complete the drive so we have driven the 105 miles of the Skyline drive plus close to 300 miles we drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway, what a stunning drive.

Now onto Route 66 – unfortunately this is not the Route 66!  And onto Alexandria which is a suburb to the south of Washington where we were staying for 3 days.  To make the most of the time, we quickly checked in and then were on the metro into DC. We headed to the Mall and a great view of Capitol Hill,, it was starting to feel like we were in a film!  

The Mall is lined with the Smithsonian museums which are mostly free to visit – so first stop is the Air and Space Museum, wow it was busy! Not surprising as it is the summer and we are now not used to busy!  But fantastic place to visit with some amazing old planes from WWI, WWII, plus Amelia Earhart plane (what an interesting lady), lots of artefacts from the US Space programme, it was quite overwhelming with all the people!

Amelia Earhart's place

US space programme

Mark having a lovely day out

Apollo 11 moon landing - encased in perspex so looks a little strange

 From here we headed along the Mall to see the Whitehouse and then onto the WWII war memorial

He wasn't at home at the time so no invitation for afternoon tea

WWII memorial

Amanda at WWII memorial with ? in distance

Day 1, only the afternoon and we had already walked miles! Glad to be on metro and back to hotel within 25 minutes and enjoying pizza in 30mins!

Day 2 of sight seeing marathon, first along Pennsylvania Avenue and bagel for breakfast outside the FBI building, that’s a first!

Then onto the Natural History museum, we love the Natural History museum in England so we had high hopes and it didn’t disappoint but the volume of people was extraordinary and as the morning went on it became increasingly crowded.  After seeing the film Night at the Museum we were on the look out for quite a few of the characters! Although Mark was disappointed that we never found Pocahontas.  The Mammals, Oceans and Dinosaur areas are really good along with the Egyptians with lots of freaky mummies.

Easter Island  - "Dum Dum"

Elephant in entrance hall

Mammoth skeleton

Amazing building but look at all the people!!

The day wasn't over and the next stop was Museum of Modern Art, Mark was particularly pleased to be dragged around a ballet costume exhibition, not as great as the Tate Modern in the UK but still worth a visit. Then onto have a lay in the park, actually the sculpture garden which was nice.

Giant bunny :) although probably a a hare

Day 3 started with torrential rain but we head off in shorts with umbrella in hand, first stop was Holocaust Memorial museum which we thought we would have a quick look around, we were there for hours, what an amazing exhibition.  It is free entry and when you arrive it is not very clear but you then have to get additional tickets for the main exhibition which provide timed slots to limit the people.  The main exhibition is unbelievable, the graphic nature of the photos and video is shocking and there is a vast amount of information.  The only difficulty is volume of people so you almost follow a stream of people from one point to another but there is so much to read and absorb you are in there for hours, it is exhausting.  No photos as they were not allowed in the museum, well worth a visit but prepared to be shocked.

Next stop the America History Museum, again over flowing with people, we visited exhibitions on America at War from Independence, through Civil onto WWII, Vietnam and through to present day all very interesting but we were museumed out!

We had read that Washington sites at night are worth a visit so after a few hours rest at the hotel we drove into the City, it was nice to see the Capitol building, Whitehouse and the memorials all lit up, it was great to have a few less people around but still quite a few people doing the same as us.

Mark without the crowds at Capitol Hill

Amanda without the crowds at Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill at dusk

Night night Mr President

Jefferson memorial

Admiring the Jefferson memorial from afar

Night night Capitol building

The next day we had a quick look around Alexandria, really pretty town, expect it is full of commuters and then we were happy to be getting back to Magnum for a rest!