Washington ho!

Well, I promised a wrap up of Washington, so this is it. I'm writing this at night over here, at the conclusion of our second day of venturing into the capital. Yesterday we saw the Museum of American History, as well as various sights around the town, including the Washington and Lincoln Monuments. Today we went to the National Air and Space Museum and Ford's Theatre (where Abraham Lincoln was shot.)

It's been an interesting couple of days. Although we drove to Arlington National Cemetery on our first day in Washington, that was on a Sunday. To go into the city on a weekday we decided against the car and opted for the metro, given that we were near to a station. The only problem is, the metro system here is fully automated. Automatic parking lots, automatic ticket machines, automatic trains. Now, this is fine for me, but for the technology challenged dad of mine, I need to take it slow, and avoid the appearance of bossing him around, make it look like he's worked it out. Anyways, after we(I) worked out what tickets we needed and what card we needed to escape the parking lot once we returned at the end of the day, we set off on our first day.

After being fleeced for the grand total of 2 dollars for a map that didn't show what we wanted it show, we eventually decided to go to the Smithsonian Museum of American History for our first port of call. If anyone ever makes it to Washington, I cannot recommend this place strongly enough. Admission is completely free, and it is packed full of American national treasures. These included the original Star Spangled Banner, which flew over Fort McHenry in 1814 and inspired Francis McKey to compose America's national anthem; Judy Garland's Ruby Slippers; artifacts belonging to such famous Americans as Washington, Lincoln and Eisenhower, girders from the World Trade Center, a genuine Huey helicopter and loads more. You could spend all day here and not see everything - just as we did. Despite arriving just after it opened at 10am, by close at 5:30 we still hadn't seen it all. This is in part due to the old man, who gives the word exhaustive a new meaning when he comes into contact with a museum. He carefully scrutinises every plaque, every word, every article, every item. Me, who is an exponent of the theory of spending a lot of time on stuff I find interesting and a quick scan over anything that doesn't grab my attention, finds this somewhat frustrating at times, but then again, each to his own.

After we strolled out of the museum, we ventured over to the Washington Monument and were almost lifted off our feet by the massive air currents swirling around the base. Being out in the open, and close to 100 metres tall and 20 metres wide at the base, the monument gets in the way of a lot of air. I almost lost my beloved Wests Tigers cap, but quick hands on my part saved it. After the monument, where we could have been blown away by the wind, we made our way to another location where we could be blown away, this time by a sniper bullet, namely, the White House. I'm not sure if George was home or not but we noticed police all round the perimeter fence and in the gardens, snipers on the roof and secret service patrolling the house itself. Very impressive. Regrettably, it does seem as though George will, like the spirit of Sauron, endure.

Following our trip to the house of a crummy President, we made our way to the shrine commemmorating the greatest of them all, none other than Abraham Lincoln. This monument is awe inspiring. The massive statue of Lincoln gazes down on everyone massed in front of him, with the Gettysburg Address (We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain) and his second inaugural address (with charity to all, with malice to none) carved into the walls on either side. Even 140 years after his death, he remains one of the most revered and influential figures in American politics.

We then made our way back to the metro, but blundered onto something we'd been looking for all day - the Vietnam War Memorial. Although we'd seen other war memorials on this day, as well as at the battlefields of the Civil War, somehow, this one seems the most poignant of all. I think perhaps because of all the names listed in one place, you are struck by the magnitude of the loss. Over 68,000 names are scattered across this wall - most of them young men, my age or younger. A great American tragedy.

That night, we crawled into bed, somewhat weary. We had attempted to find a different motel to stay at, since the place we're at doesn't have a fridge, and we had some stuff in our home-made esky that would probably go off in the next day or so. However, we couldn't find anything else nearby, despite searching, and as a result, returned to the motel we're at now, bought a bottle of whisky en route, ate all the cold stuff for dinner and retired for the night. The next morning, today, actually, we headed into Washington a bit later. A bit too late - as we found out, the difference between arriving at 9:15am as we did yesterday, and 10:30am when we did today is that the carpark tends to be full. Moreover, Dad almost blew a head gasket when we attempted to leave the carpark and found that he may have to pay a parking fee even though we couldn't find a park. Nuclear meltdown was averted though when we noticed the sign saying we could park in the reserved spots after 10am. So, with that solved, we headed into the National Air and Space Museum.

This museum is in two parts - the building in the city which we went to today has all the smaller stuff. The second building, which is at Dulles International airport, contains all the stuff they can't fit into the building at Washington, such as Concorde, a SR-71 Blackbird, various Boeing jets, etc etc. Yes, we will be going to that. Still, what we saw today was very interesting. Essentially a recap of flight in America over the last century, it has it all. Amongst the collection we saw the Wright Brother's Flyer One (the first aircraft to make a powered flight), a U2 Spyplane, Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis, a V2 Rocket and an X-15, which remains the fastest ever plane, reaching a speed of over 7,700 km/h. They also have pieces from space flight, including the original Apollo 11 Command Module. Like the American History Museum, this is a must-see for anyone in Washington.

After we left the museum, we quickly made our way to Ford's theatre. Unfortunately the theatre itself was closed, so we couldn't see the Presidential box where the shooting of Lincoln. We did however see the bedroom of the house across the street where America's greatest ever President died, some 8 hours after he was shot. Doctors carried him across from the theatre after the shooting, but he never regained consciousness. "Now he belongs to the ages" said Secretary of War Edwin M Stanton, after Lincoln passed away.

Feeling somewhat footsore, we called it a day after this. Tomorrow will be our last day in Washington - we plan to see the National Archives, where the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution are kept, as well as the Museum of National History. We're going to try and get out a bit earlier though, as we need to do some driving tomorrow afternoon, and trust me, you don't want to drive on Washington freeways during rush hour. It has been a fascinating part of our trip though. I've mentioned this to a few people I've spoken to back in Australia - visting this city, one is struck by the tremendous sense of pomp and grandeur when walking around. You feel as though you're in the presence of greatness and history wherever you step. Tremendous old buildings cover the city, and scenes and artifacts of titanic historical importance can be found everywhere. It is, essentially, a true capital city. You are left in no doubt that this is the spiritual heart of the United States.

As opposed to Canberra, where you're left in doubt this is the place to buy porn and fireworks.

At least we have our priorities right in Australia.

Ok, now for the photos. I apologise for the marathon blog, but I'm trying to fit 2 days into one here, so bear with me. First of all, pictures from the first day.


A uniform worn by George Washington. It's in pretty good condition, which probably indicates he wore it as his pyjamas or something like that.


Needless to say, this exhibit at the Segregation exposition is definitely southern in origin.


Aren't you forgetting the ruby slippers? Sorry about the bad colour of this photo, but I couldn't get a flash photo without it lighting up all the glass surrounding these and ruining it even more.


A Berlin Wall display - the real wall is in the brown display cases on the right.


This flag flew at the Pentagon in the aftermath of the attack there on September 11th 2001. You can still see the dirt marks and whatnot on it, from where it was scuffed hanging down the side of the building.


Another remnant from September 11th, these are girders from the World Trade Center.


Bork, Bork, Bork!


Hold still Georgey boy, whilst I take aim....with my camera that is. Try and look for the 2 guys standing upright to the left of the flagpole, while there is also a sniper to the right of the flagpole. Might be a bit difficult though with the smaller res image.


Dad about to commit an act of terrorism.


I don't know how they lifted this 300 ton behemoth into the Smithsonian but it's incredible. The size of this locomotive is astonishing. Flat strap it's producing 3000hp and can travel at 80mph.


Standing the shadow of the great Emancipator.


An epitaph to greatness.

Now, for the photos from the second day.


The command module used on the Apollo 11 Mission. You can see the scarring and scorching that it underwent as it plunged back into the earth's atmosphere.

A dogfight between a German R-Class Bomber and a British Sopwith Camel.


I saw this little guy outside the Air Museum. He was probably blind by this stage, since this was my third attempt to try and get a good photo, with the flash going off every time.


A Messerschmidt 109, mainstay fighter of Germany during World War 2. Unfortunately this is the best photo I could get.

A V-2 Rocket, the first rocket ever built. These were packed with high explosive and launched at London in the last months of the war as a new terror weapon.


Finally, the last German aircraft I saw - a Messerschmidt 262, the most advanced jet fighter of World War 2.


This is the X-15 - a rocket propelled plane that still holds the record for fastest flight speed by an aircraft (as opposed to a spaceship.) In the 1960's it flew faster than 7,700 km/h.


The Wright Brother's Flyer.

And finally, the bed in which Abraham Lincoln breathed his last.

Cheerio all, will update when I can.