Through Maryland to Washington DC

29.8.2010 by Inken.

Let’s pay our tribute to statistics…

Delaware - First State

Maryland - Old Line State

17 now!!!

If you leave Pennsylvania in order to get to Washington DC, you can either take the diretissima of an Interstate Highway, or you can stroll through the beautiful state of Maryland (and some of Delaware) on some of the scenic routes. We chose the Chesapeake Country Scenic Byway (see www.byways.org).

If you take a look at the pictures, you will find it hard to believe that Maryland has the highest median household income of any state, with a median income of $70,545. Maryland is a major center for life sciences research and development. With more than 350 biotechnology companies located there, Maryland is the third-largest nexus in this field in the United States.

But also Maryland is a state of great scenic beauty, huge parts of it are agriculturally used and the Chesapeake Bay kind of splits the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution in two halfs.

    

Probably this is a good time to recall, why and when this all started. In March of 2007 Augustin was asked, if he would like to work for his employer in the Newington – Rocky Hill locations for 2 to 3 years. Some of you will remember that we said, we couldn’t find a reason, not to do it. And this is how it all started.

The three years in Connecticut were wonderful and awful, exciting and boring, stressful and relaxed, sunny and snowstormy, hot and cold, dry and humid, welcoming and snobby, heartwarming and appalling, familiar and strange. And I wouldn’t want to miss a single day!

At a quite early date of these three years we thought of completing this part of our lives with a trip across the US. We just didn’t want to stop with the move and immediately start the next steps in Munich. The fact that Augustin didn’t have as many vacation days per year as he had in Germany limited our travelling time during those years. And we rather used those few days for lying in the sun and adopting donkeys on Aruba or for short trips to New York City, Maine or Chicago (I love Chicago!!!).

Being out in the South-West last year proved that there is a whole continent of exciting, unearthly beautiful places to see. And we were already here! No 8hour flight to come here in the first place. So again, there was no reason, not to do it.

We are delighted that everything worked out the way we planned it. I know that many of you would love to do the same thing and probably can’t for whatever reason. All I can do for you is to invite you to share our travel experience across this breathtaking continent. Maybe it will even serve as an inspiration for some of you to do it one day?

In case, and that case will happen, I get a little cynical from time to time about American habits…  Well, first of all, an author is supposed to judge, to utter his personal feelings. And second of all, I promise to always bear in mind what this country means to me. These were some of the best years of my life!

Now back to business, you sissies!

Add DC to our list, so the District of Columbia is #18!!! (DC is also called “The District”)

Everybody knows the most important buildings and sights of Washington DC. The Capitol, the White House and the Washington Monument first come to mind, if one thinks of the US capitol. I therefore was quite surprised about the cute three story buildings we passed when we entered the city.

 

It was already late when we arrived at our gorgeous hotel, so we decided to have some dinner and then call it a day.

The next day found us rested and ready for our favorite way to explore the basic sights of a city: on a double decker bus… Oh, on the way to the bus I found out that Prada obviously opened a new business branch…

13feet above the ground brought us pretty close to branches from time to time.

Our start of the tour (depends on where you hop on the bus) first hit Georgetown, an old and colorful part of the city. Cute little shops, cafes and restaurants, interesting people, artsy and multicultural.

 

Further up the hill the neighborhood becomes more upper class.

 

The top of the hill awaits visitors with the Cathedral, not the prettiest I ever saw, but certainly one of the biggest. I reckon, it is neo-neo-neo-gothicalisticallyish, but I am definitely no expert

 

Did I mention how high up we were?

On our way down we passed a couple of embassies. By the way, Winston Churchill has one foot on British ground and one in DC.

This is where Vice President Biden and Mrs Biden live. I can assure you, there is a house behind the trees, they don’t have to camp outdoors.

Back down we went to Georgetown, where we tried to get some late breakfast/early lunch.

 

The 24hour breakfast place was closed… But we found a solution, even though we increased our carbon footprint to an undesirable extent.

 

After we got back up on the bus, the tour proceeded to Arlington National Cemetary. This is the one with all those thousands of white crosses for veterans and military casualties from each of the nation’s wars ranging from the American Civil War through to the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

To reach it one has to cross the Potomac and enter Virginia. On the pillars of the Memorial Bridge four statues represent four virtues. The statues were a present from Italy. I can understand that, I would have been happy too to get rid of those four ugly pieces…

Back on the DC side of the bridge the hard core sight seeing started. There are some things you have to see in person to get an idea about their meaning. So we certainly left the bus at the National Mall to climb the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial.

 

No wonder, his footsteps were too big for some of his successors to walk in…

   

Probably one of the most touching sights is the Vietnam War Memorial. Listing thousands and thousands of names of fallen soldiers makes this war even more real and brings to mind how needless the death of so many people, Vietnamese and American, was. If only the lesson would have been learned.

Huge parks stretch along the left and the right of the National Mall.

 

The water in the Reflecting Pool was not inviting to jump in and swim into Forrest Gump’s arms. But it was clear in an instant, who the boss of this pond is…

Passing the National World War II Memorial we hiked up the hill to this incredibly huge pile of marble, the Washington Monument.

 

Not pretty, but big.

If you can wait a little longer, don’t use the public restrooms.

The next object In the line of sight is the Capitol.

It was too hot to walk all the way there, so we looked for the next bus stop and passed the probably busiest office in whole DC, thinking of the egg scandal.

The bus carried us along the Smithsonian Institution

to the National Museum of the American Indian

made a short photo stop in front of the Capitol

 

passed the National Gallery of Art (the promise to see Jackson Pollocks here was NOT KEPT!!!)

had to stop for the fire engine

and arrived at the hugest train station I ever saw.

Budget cuts?

Dinner in China Town. Oh, if you are female and have about the same passion for handbags like me, don’t miss LouLou’s!

The next day was dedicated to historical and art education. All museums in Washington DC are for free. The exhibitions are masterly arranged and visitor friendly.

Our first stop was at the National Space and Air Museum, a department of the Smithsonian Institution.

 

This was about the time when I was bored beyond belief.

 

Coffee in the park.

Then I was ready for the Jackson Pollocks…

 

This was the exact moment, when Augustin was bored beyond belief.

Great Musseum, great depressive Munch exhibition, wonderful Rothko, but NO POLLOCKS!!!

Our feet didn’t hurt enough yet, so we went to the Museum of the American Indian.

    

Washington DC is an extremely interesting place, everybody should visit at least once. I found it a little sterile, but the people are nice, the museums are breathtaking, the sights are at least huge (I just noticed that I don’t have a picture of the White House…, but you should be able to google it), and two days are definitely not enough time to see and sense everything that makes this city the capitol of the United States. What I liked was the fact that there was no nationalistic razzmatazz going on like in Philadelphia. Facts and dates are simply stated without judgment and everybody can feel free to let their brains work out the rest.

We had to end our visit to Washington DC here, because we still had to go to Front Royal that day. But this is a different story.

Good night for now!

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