Sunday 7th October 2012

Sunday 7th October 2012 was a free day in Washington.  We were unlucky enough to get a cold showery day.  We had a choice of having a tour of the Congressional Golf Course at Maryland or to return to the Washington Centre for a tour of the city monuments and to view more of the Smithsonian Museums.  It was not a good day to view a golf course so we chose the latter option.

The bus tour took us to the Arlington National Cemetery which was very moving.  Acres and acres of grave sites of the Nations war heroes including the Kennedy Family Grave sites.  We went on to view more of the cities many monuments including the Korean and Vietnam memorials, the Lincoln Memorial, the Whitehouse and Capital Hill - all of which were very impressive. 

In the afternoon we viewed more of the Smithsonian Museums - those that we could fit in. We had a look through the Museum of Natural History which included some amazing things including the Hope Diamond which impressed me no end.  The Natural History Museum was well presented and full of interesting objects that would take days to sift through if one had the time.
The Museum of American History was also a very interesting Museum - again we could only see just a few of the main things of interest as these museums are huge.  There are nine museums among other things to view nearby such as the National Gallery of Art, the Whitehouse visitors centre, the National Zoo and of course all of the churches.  A week would not be long enough to view everything and then you would have a serious case of information overload.

Washington was a great city to visit and I would have liked to have had more time there so we did not have to rush through everything.  It was an exhausting day but worthwhile. The city is beautifully maintained with lovely parks and huge monuments and fountains.

Footnote:
Since we have returned home this area was lashed with the big storm that devastated New York.  I understand that only two of the soldier statues featured in the Korean War memorial were still standing after the deluge.