Up
and out just after 8am, taxi at 8.10 – out to the airport in under 30 minutes.
We were checked in and security checked and at the gate by 8.30ish ready for
our 10am US Airways flight. Managed to get a blog completed and uploaded before
we left.
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| View from the plane window. |
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| Flying over the Boston Harbour. |
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| Crossing the coastline. |
Flight
was good, quick and easy, only 90 minutes or so. We opted for a shuttle to
town, which turned out to be very disorganised, but we got to Hotel Harrington
very quickly once we had a few to share the shuttle.
The Hotel Harrington is celebrating its 100th
year this year, and is tourist hotel, very central and totally functional, with
its old look and a few old features and quirks eg. A really old telephone,
which I forgot to take a close up of. The hotel also incorporates Harry’s
Diner, which seems popular with the local businessmen and Harriet’s Restaurant.
We tried Harry’s Diner for lunch, Lyn had a good burger and I had a delicious
Rueben Sandwich.
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| Hotel Harrington, two big beds. |
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| Bathroom, cute tiling. |
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| Pretty squeezy, but clean and comfortable. |
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| Harry's Diner for lunch. |
After
lunch we ventured out to the Spy Museum, which was a bit cheesy in some
respects, but very interesting – all about the history of the spy game
throughout the ages, from Troy and English Queen’s through to Ninjas, use of
pigeons during the war to James Bond. There was examples of heaps of old spy
equipment and even Bond’s souped up Aston Martin.
On the way we saw the FBI building, pretty plain and ugly.
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| FBI building. |
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| Here's the proof. |
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| Entering the Spy Museum. |
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| Bond Aston Martn |
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| The Spy homing pigeon, with surveillance camera. |
Then
to the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum, it was
another beautiful building and housed some great art. I very much enjoyed his
one. The layout was logical and easy to follow.
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| George Washington and $100 dollar bill. |
We
also enjoyed a cuppa in the atrium area a huge covered in courtyard, with
lovely orchids and water flowing over stone floor.
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| The amazing covered courtyard. The darker floor to left, was wet with a thin sheen of water running over it. |
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| Beautifully coloured orchids. |
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| Preamble - Mike Wilkins. This collection of the number plates of all 52 states, also reads the Preamble of the constitution... We the people of the United States of America... |
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| a small statue of the Statue. |
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The Great Hall
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| The Great Hall Skylight. |
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| View out to the street, through art deco window of The Great Hall |
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| Katherine Hepburn Painting and four of her Oscars. |
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| Melinda and Bill Gates |
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| A horse crafted from driftwood |
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| Another work with TV's by Nam June Paik (she was also at the Whitney). |
It
began raining whilst we were in the museum, and I had not brought brolly or
coat. So we got wet, very wet, walking to Union Station to catch our Monuments
by Moonlight Trolley Tour – we had hoped to purchase an umbrella, but we passed
no stalls or stores at all.
A
quick shared meal at Roti – nice chicken salady thing, then a Starbucks Hot
Chocolate to warm us up, only to have to queue in the rain for the tour. Not a
great night for it.
It
was a bit chaotic, quite long lines and at least 3 Trolley’s worth of people
lined up, but they only filled one Trolley at a time and very slowly at that.
The windows had clear blinds, but we all rolled these up in order to see, so it
was a bit wet, breezy and cool on wet clothes when we got going.
Thankfully we
were able to purchase poncho’s at the Concession stand at Lincoln Memorial,
which saved the day, at least is stopped the wind and rain.
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| Poncho clad in front of the Reflecting pool and Washington Monument |
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| In front of Lincoln memorial. |
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| The words of Martin Luther King - I have a dream, mark the spot he delivered that famous speech. |
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| Lincoln's imposing marble statue. |
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| Lyn and Abraham. |
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| Abe and I |
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| All the detail in the marble was incredible, look at the button and his hair and beard. |
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| Nice surrounds too. |
We
saw some great sights and the buildings all look pretty cool lit up for the
night. Unfortunately the Capitol Building is undergoing a major renovation of
its iron dome (900 tons of it?) a four year project. Still looked OK
considering the scaffolding and covering.
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| Washington monument reflected in the Reflecting Pool |
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| Vietnam Memorial. These statues look to a large wall containing the names of all those lost. |
Also saw Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting pool, Iwo
Jima Marine Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Martin Luther King Memorial,
Roosevelt Memorial, Arlington Cemetery plus others.
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| Martin Luther King Memorial |
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| Jefferson Memorial |
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| Washington Monument. |
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| FDR - Franklin Roosevelt. |
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| Washington Monument with flags at base. |
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| Capitol Building undergoing reno's |
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| Capitol Building |
Cab
home to bed. Ready for further look tomorrow.
The
Pope arrives tomorrow, and the City is chaotic with preparations, there are
fences and barriers everywhere, the Vatican flag is flying alongside the US and
Washington? Flags all over town. God help them all when he parades through town
on Wednesday.
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