24 July Washington D.C

Morning!

We were told last night that the hotel didn't have any more double rooms left with two beds so we had to have a lovely roll up camp bed for the evening. The lady at the front desk said that she would sort out getting our room changed this morning....but low and behold nothing was left for the new member of staff.  I managed to talk sweetly to the lady and eventually we were moved to another room later this afternoon.

So the first part of the day was spent wrapped up in a towel in bed as I received a message that my bag would be arriving today. Finally, I could take a shower and get some clean clothes! Yay! Andy was a gem and went out to get me a couple of toiletries just in case it didn't arrive and also a pain au chocolat for breakfast. Bless, he's a good 'un. My bag arrived around 2pm so we could actually start our day.

We got on the metro and decided to head over to Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon. The metro stations were quite nice and seemed to go down for years.

First stop was the Pentagon Memorial for September 11th 2001.

It looks a little like waves representing those that died. They are arranged in lines depending on the year that they were born in. It was quite a moving piece, actually. There was flowing water under each raised piece and a persons' name carved at the end of it too.

You can actually see the newer part of the Pentagon where they had to rebuild after Sept 11th, it looks paler than the other stone used but other than that it fits in really well.

 Next stop was Arlington Cemetery, a national cemetery situated on land that was once owned by the great grandson of George Washington. There are also memorials outside of the cemetery but are looked after by the state e.g. Iwo Jima. It is the final resting place of over 400,000 people and over 3,000 services take place each year on this 200 acre property.

We made a stop at the grave of JFK. He is buried next to Jackie and his two brothers under the view of Arlington house. His grave is surrounded by a grey low stone wall which features one of his most famous speeches. Apparently, he saw the place and said that he could stay there forever, so his place of rest became that very place.

The tomb of unknown soldiers has a guard of honour that is changed every half hour. It is made up of soldiers from the local battalion (£rd US Infantry) that borders the cemetery and are a ceremonial unit. It includes the remains of unknown service members from WWI, WW2 and the Korean War.

When leaving the cemetery, it was nice to see the back of the Lincoln memorial in the distance.

 We hadn't eaten all day so thought that it was time to eat something. We went to a place called Afterworks which is a huge bookstore with a bar and grill at the back. You can just stay at the side of the store for dessert or sit down  in the back for a full restaurant meal. The food was lovely and it was a lively atmosphere, a cool place to go to give yourself a little sustenance after perusing the shelves of literature.

We had a little walk around Dupont Circle where our hotel is before heading back. For a big roundabout, it is used as a park with people sitting near the fountain in the middle, sheltering under a tree, practising sports skills etc.

There was even a small band playing New Orleans style blues and bluegrass music. It was cool to see and so we stood for a while and had a listen.

It was really cute that the small boy just wanted to be like his dad and so joined in on his plastic trombone.

We then had a walk down Embassy Row and saw this lovely statue outside the Indonesian Embassy.

 There were some lovely building along the route and some beautiful statues, including one of Ghandi - "My life is my message".

We went back to the hotel with leftover dessert from Afterworks when I spotted this quote on the wall that I liked.

Last stop of the day was to head up to the rooftop terrace of the hotel for a nice view over Washington D.C. There is a pool there and also plenty of loungers etc. where you can partake in the BBQ up there every night as well as the bar. Andy and I have said that we will give it a go one night before leaving for home. A nice little surprise that you don't get with a lot of hotels.

So now that the blogging is done it's bedtime as I foresee a really busy day sightseeing tomorrow. Considering the day didn't start out so well with no baggage etc, it turned into a nice day in the end.

Night night!!