Washington DC

After a seamless airport transfer I arrived at DC Lofty - my first experience of a hostel dorm - which I'm pleased to report is very good. I am sharing with 3 other girls and the Hostel is lovely clean, comfy and within walking distance of the centre of Washington.

Having collected my tickets from the station ready for tomorrow I made my way to the Old Post Office to join my guided tour of the Capitol.

Washington is low rise as none of the buildings can be higher than the statue on top of the Dome of the Capitol building - by  law.

                                        
The tour covered all the expected sites including the Capitol Mall, White House, Lincoln Memorial,  Martin Luther King memorial, Korea War memorial, Vietnam memorial as well as the wellington monument and reflecting pool.

Passages from MLK's speeches are set out on the walls surrounding his memorial and they are still very moving and inspirational.

The memorial for the war in Korea is of 19 life size statues of servicemen which are reflected on the black granite memorial wall, which has the faces of all the support personnel lost in the war etched into it - thus creating the illusion of the 38 soldiers that the designer initially envisaged in the garden of remembrance.

Right opposite the White House is a lone Nuclear protester. To protest in the park opposite you need a dated permit, issued by the government.  when this lady applied for her permit no expiry date was stamped on the permit so she has been there ever since!!  She originally set up camp in 1983.

My favourite of the day was the Lincoln memorial - looking  the 3 miles over the reflection pool and past the Washington monument up to the Capitol Building.   Martin Luther King gave his famous 'I have a Dream' speech from the steps here and I took this photograph from the inscribed spot where he stood.

The other memorial that I found pretty impressive was the one for Franklin D Roosevelt who served his country for 4 terms and saw them through some of  their roughest times from the Great Depression through  to the Second World War. He is the only President to be honoured along with his wife and dog!

He also coined the phrase 'on the bread line' which comes from men having to queue for rations of bread during the Depression.

We ended the day with the Thomas Jefferson memorial  which was of interest as I will be visiting his home town of Charlottesville later in my trip.

One other highlight of my day was meeting a lovely family from Ohio who took me under their wing.  When I explained to the youngest, a little boy called Evan, that I came from England he looked a little bemused so I explained further saying I came from the Town where Robin Hood lived.  His Mum told me later that he had exclaimed that he wasn't sure who Robin Hood was but did  I come from the same country as Harry Potter - showing my age obviously!!!