Emm in London: Washington DC

Friday, December 04, 2009

DC: The Capitol and going home

It was getting on in time and soon I would be catching a coach back to New York. I took one last look behind me to remind myself just how far I had travelled that day.

There was a big event happening at the Capitol that day so I was disappointed at first to not be able to get a photo of the buildings without a big, white marquee in the way! But I was son lucky enough to get a clear shot.

I began to walk up Pennsylvania Avenue North West just as the sun began to set. Washington, DC really is a beautiful city and I would love to visit again one day.

I walked past the Newseum which is quite a new attraction and somewhere I will definitely visit on my next visit to DC.

The Newseum is a news museum and I was there at a very historic time as it was the day after Michael Jackson died.

I walked past the US National Archives and the United States Navy Memorial.

I was quite excited to stumble upon the The J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building too and you’ll be pleased to know that your intrepid South African / English expat wasn’t arrested for spying as she happily snapped away at the building.

The Old Post Office Pavilion was as picturesque as I’d always imagined.

I took five minutes to look at Petersen House where Abraham Lincoln was taken after he was shot. He died there after being shot at the Ford’s Theatre which was located across the street.

My last stop before boarding the coach was the souvenir store where I bought a nice, thick FBI jersey for the ride home. The air conditioning was so high on the coach that I had frozen on the way in that morning!!

The ride home seemed to go a lot quicker than the one in but my iPod ran out of battery about 90 minutes from New York. Tragedy!! I then got speaking to two lovely people from Ohio and that passed the time. The man amused me as he had once dated an Afrikaans girl in Ohio and he repeated some things that really, really made me blush. The Afrikaans culture is generally more conservative than English culture in South Africa but what he repeated to me was absolutely outrageous! Seriously, I could repeat it here in the knowledge that none of you would know what I mean but it is that bad that I won’t!

We passed Baltimore on the way back which was exciting for me because my favourite TV show ever was based there: Homicide: Life on the Street.

Later on once the sun had set, we passed over a massive water way. It was either the Memorial Bridge at Delaware or maybe even the Susquehanna Bridge. Probably the former? I don’t know. All I remember is that the bridge seemed to go on forever over the water and I had never seen a river that wide in my life before. It was dark and eerie too and just fascinating. Reason #264 to go back to DC next time I visit New York!!! Actually, judging from this video, I think it was the Susquehanna River that I was crossing. It was amazing.

I got home that night at about midnight I think. Having left at some ungodly predawn time that morning, I have to say that I have never been that tired before and I don’t think I’ll ever be that tired again. After dutifully putting my beloved iPod on to charge, I collapsed into bed and slept through my second last night in America.

DC: National Air and Space Museum

My dear blogging friend Kathy of Hometown Tourist and Bridges to London enquired on my last DC post about whether I managed to visit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The answer is a resounding yes! I would not have missed it for the world.

I think out of all my time in the United States, this was the time when I missed Stephen the most as I think he would have really liked it here. I’m not trying to gloat but it was kind of awesome.

I’m trying to piece together my memories, photographs and notes so if I make any mistakes here, don’t be shy to jump up and down and correct me. Here goes…

Click on any of the photos for enlargements

Milestones of Flight

In the corner there you can see the Ryan NYP “Spirit of St. Louis” in which Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo transatlantic flight on 21 May 1927.

SpaceShipOne is centre and was the first privately developed, piloted vehicle to reach space. The flight took place in 2004 and arced into space but didn’t actually orbit the Earth.

The gorgeous, retro plane in on the right is the Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis" which was the first aircraft to officially exceed the speed of sound in controlled, level flight in 1947.

Space Race

Here you can see a replica of Sputnik 1 which was the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite back in 1957. The success of the Sputnik programme triggered the Sputnik crisis and launched the Space Race.

The sleek and magnificent plane taking up the rest of the photograph is the North American X-15 which is the world’s fastest and highest flying aircraft. Thirteen X-15 flights went higher than altitudes of 50 miles thus achieving astronaut wings for the pilots and in 1967 Pete Knight achieved a speed of 6.72 mach.

The Apollo–Soyuz Test Project was the last mission in the Apollo space programme and represented the first joint US and Soviet flight. Two manned spacecraft left from Florida and Kazakstan respectively in July 1975 and they rendezvoused in orbit.

The V2 Missile was the world’s first ballistic missile (which sort of means it was shot into the air and then subject to the laws of gravity and physics thereafter). It was also the first manmade object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight. In the end though, it was a terrible bomb used toward the end of World War II by the Germans and many prisoners worked to their death to create them in Mittelbau-Dora. The bombs were mainly used in Antwerp and the Blitz over London.

The history of the Skylab Space Station is fascinating but I won’t bore you with the details. This is the backup Skylab orbital workshop but it wasn’t actually used because the Skylab programme was abandoned after the first mission to make way for the Shuttle programme.

America by Air

I’ll let most of these magnificent planes speak for themselves. This whole section put me in mind of films like Casablanca or tales of the war and the race to reach the skies. Oh, I can't put it into words but it was a very romantic, retro section.

The Ford 5-AT Trimotor (1928) with the glorious Douglas S DC-3 (1936) peeking out from underneath.

The wonderfully retro Boeing 247-D (1934) is at the left of the photo above with the gorgeous Northrop Alpha (1930) peaking out above the nose of the Boeing Jumbo Jet.

The Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny" biplane (1916). How beautiful is that?

The Pitcairn PA-5 Mailwing (1927).

On the way out, I decided I just had to get a decent photo of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. It took me about ten minutes to get this photo!! It is in such an awkward position!

It is unfortunate that you can’t see what a spectacular aircraft this is. This was the first US jet fighter to fly twice the speed of sound. This particular plane was in service with NASA for 19 years and was donated to the museum after it flew its last flight in 1975.

All too quickly my time at the National Air and Space Museum came to an end and it was time to walk on up to the Capitol.

To access all my posts in DC, click on the "Washington, DC" tag below and to access all posts from my trip to the US, click on the "New York 2009" tab.

DC: The Holocaust Museum and Smithsonian

After hours of walking in the hot sun, it was an absolute pleasure to arrive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. There was a long queue to get in and heightened security too as it was shortly after the fatal and tragic shooting that took place there on June 10th. The employees were friendly though and the queue went quickly so I was inside in no time.

It was free to get into the museum but I wasn’t able to get into the main exhibit The Holocaust. About 1.7 million people visit the Holocaust Museum each year and to get into the main exhibit between March and August, you need to either get there first thing in the morning to book a slot or there are a limited number of passes that you can book online before your visit. Advanced passes are not required between September and February.
I was not disappointed though as I was able to go to the From Memory to Action: Meeting the Challenge of Genocide exhibition on the second floor. You may know that I am interested in the topic of genocide and run another blog too where I post about topics such as war, genocide and humanitarian crises. You can find my blog at A Passion to Understand.
As always, click on any of the photos for enlargements

I found the exhibit to be fascinating. As you walk in, there is a display running right along the wall that chronicles and describes the situations in Rwanda, Bosnia and Sudan. There are also screens and other interactive devices giving eye witness accounts of these conflicts. It was a chilling but very rewarding visit and made me even more determined to carry on blogging about and researching these events.

In what seemed like no time at all, I made my way back out into the sun and I made my way towards the Smithsonian Institute which is "an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States" according to Wikipedia. Quite apart from the fact that all of the museums are free, I’d say that the Smithsonian is worth visiting just to see all the beautiful buildings!
There was the Freer Gallery of Art and the National Museum of Natural History across on the other side.

The building that most captured my imagination was the Smithsonian Castle which houses the Institution’s administrative offices and the information centre.

I also loved the High Victorian styling of the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building.

Look at that exquisite brick, glass and metal work!

My final stop before reaching my destination was the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

I didn’t go inside but I did walk around the stunning sculpture garden.

I was quite taken with Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree for Washington, DC, 2007. This is a lovely idea where people can write out their wishes and attach it to the tree. I was just too satisfied to wish for any at that moment. “Satisfied” isn’t the right word but it comes close. I was already at peace.

There were two other pieces I quite liked too and they were Barry Flanagan’s The Drummer and Henry Moore’s King and Queen, 1952-1953.

Such lovely art! It makes me quite keen to rush off and visit an art gallery again soon!
I visited the USA in June 2009 and I absolutely fell in love. I visited New York and Washinton, DC and hope to go back for Christmas 2010. To see other posts from my trip, click on the tags below.