After dinner on our first evening in Washington, we had an evening tour to a number of memorials which was led by a local guide, Susan, who had been a schoolteacher in her previous life. There was no doubt that she could have kept a classroom of 10 year olds under firm control. We visited the memorials to Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, WW2 and the Iwo Jima campaign.
Yesterday morning we went on a much longer city tour. Washington, like Canberra is a designed city. It is designed around two axes – The White House to the north and Lincoln Memorial to the South. The Capitol is to the east and the Thomas Jefferson memorial to the west. we visited all these places along with the Vietnam Memorial. The newly opened Korean Memorial is stunning and shows the figures of 19 soldiers on patrol in a wooded area.
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington. It had a very beautiful floral atrium on the ground floor and it had a very relaxed feel to it. Not only that, the bed was very comfortable.
We had a free afternoon so we spent some time at the Smithsonian Aerospace Museum. This is a superb museum with hundreds of aircraft. missiles and space exhibits. I would describe it as a museum of ‘firsts’ as al of the exhibits are original.
It has the original space craft in which John Glenn first orbited the earth. Nearby us the Apollo 11 Moon landing module. The first plane to fly – the Wright Brothers flyer hangs from the ceiling. Tw of the newer exhibits since my previous visit include the first plane t o fly around the world without refuelling, and the Gossamer aircraft – the first human powered aircraft to fly. If you are any sort of airplane nerd, like me, this museum is certainly an exciting and interesting place.
