Today dawned beautifully sunny and bitterly cold.
We had pre-booked tickets for a tour of the US Capitol. It was only en-route that we read the small print advising us to allow 45 minutes beforehand to get through security. Fortunately it was a quiet day on Congress hill and arriving breathless five minutes before the start of the tour proved OK.
Things didn't get off to a very promising start when a the introductory film had a technical fault and we were left with subtitles, some very stirring music, and a completely blank screen. It was quite reassuring that in the legislative heart of an economic and military superpower stuff like that still happens!
Then off we went: looking around the stunning domed hall, visiting the old Supreme Court Chamber and admiring the statuary (two statues from each State). It was interesting that the people portrayed were often military generals or politicians - there were very few great scientists or artists commemorated - and to a piece the sculptures were lifelike rather than experimental.
The tour was great though and definitely to be recommended; and at the end we went off to sit in the gallery of the empty house of representatives and tried to picture the politicians in action there wrangling about some landmark piece of legislation.
Next was the Library of Congress. It's brilliant, if you're in DC with time on your hands definitely go! We saw the Guntenberg Bible and maps from the 15th Century, which are amazingly accurate if you overlook the complete omission of the pacific ocean.
The rest of the day was spent walking through DC trying to recover from some truly American portion sizes at lunch. We popped into the holocaust museum to see an exhibition on Nazi propaganda - something that the national socialists were chillingly adept at. We continued on, reaching the Jefferson Memorial just as the sun was going down, and followed that with a floodlit walk through the FDR memorial.
In the evening we joined Sam and Nina for some exotic Mexican food at Oyamel. My advice if you ever find yourself eating there? Don’t order the grasshoppers.
