Michael didn't feel well in the morning and he didn't eat anything for breakfast, only had orange juice. After breakfast he vomited on the bed in the hotel room. After a good hour of rest and sleep he peed in the bed but felt much better and we could set off for Washington. Again, we were deeply impressed by the volume of traffic on the roads on the east coast. Sometimes, the freeway was 6 lanes in each direction and it was still crammed full of cars. The speed often came down to 20-30 mph or even came to a halt because of the overload of traffic. I ate a huge portion of paella from the doggy bag from Segovia's while driving. It was still delicious. When we arrived to the hot parking lot in front of our hotel Spring Hill Suites in Alexandria, I was quite tired. The hotel turned out to be very new and everything was in good condition and very modern. We decided to take it easy, get the vomit/pee laundry done and go to the gym. Washington would have to wait until the next day.
Monday 04.08.2014
Breakfast has been steadily declining in quality throughout our journey. In Franklin it was brilliant, in NY (Carlstadt) it was good but the breakfast area insufficient to the number of guests. Here in Washington (Alexandria) it was quite bad: too many people, all paper and plasticware.
The train from Eisenhower Ave. station took us via Pentagon station (cool, right?) to Smithsonian station. We exited on the National Mall, the immense stretch of grass which connects all the major monuments, museums and the White House in Washington. Crossing the Mall we found the National Natural History museum and went in. Security was quite strict with search of bags and entry through metal detectors, airport style. I had read that the museum could be very full - just like the Natural History museum in Kensington, London "they have dinosaurs and it's free" - but we went almost straight in and there was plenty of space to get around in the beautiful building. I must say that the quality was really outstanding. All the exhibits were incredibly well prepared and several small cinemas ran instructional and very clear explanations of the exhibitions. We spent time with the development of man (happy to see that everything was explained by Darwinist evolution), mammals, Egyptian mummies, gems (including the "Hope Diamond"), and the big hit: the insect zoo, which showed live insects.
In the Smithsonian Natural History museum: Neanderthal Man and modern (wo)Man. Spot the difference?
Michael being attacked by a T. Rex in the museum
Michael in front of live cockroaches in the Insect Zoo
From the Natural History museum, we walked the infinite National Mall up to Capitol. It was already very hot.
The boys in the sun in front of the Capitol.
We needed a cool break after the Capitol and found a nice air-conditioned Japanese restaurant, where we got some good Japanese found that we all enjoyed.
Michael concentrating on the chopsticks.
We worked our way back towards the White House and the Washington Memorial on the north city-side of the National Mall, sweating buckets on the way. We saw groups of homeless people on the street and strange, empty, incredibly wide roads. We had to pick up some iced coffee on the way to endure the hot weather. We finally reached the White House and took some photos along with all the other tourists. We crossed the enormous lawn towards the Washington Memorial. The obelisk is gigantic. You notice it when you see how small the flagpoles and people next to it is. Apparently, it was the world´s tallest building (169 m) when it was finalized in 1888, but surpassed by the Eiffel tower in 1889.
Michael and me in front of the enormous Washington Memorial.
We went on and walked the long way up to the WWII memorial and the reflecting pool (known from movies like Forrest Gump, where he runs to meet Jenny in the pool in front of a crowd). The kids were complaining a lot about going any further in the hot weather, but we continues along the pool. Its 618 meters seemed to never end. Finally reaching the Lincoln memorial (the super-sized statute of Lincoln sitting in a chair inside a Greek doric temple), we made the last effort up the stairs of the temple to see the statue.
The Washington obelisk seen from the Lincoln Memorial.
Finally, we crossed the Potomac river to the nearest train station and got back to our hotel - exhausted.
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