4th of November – Going to the capital

At a bit to 0700 we got picked up a bus to go on a day tour to Washington. We had one bus, but filling the available spaces for the tour didn’t fill out the bus so it was comfortably full, not stuffed. I appreciated that quite a bit considering how much time we ended up spending in it.

It was an almost 4½ hour drive south with a 15 minute break to stretch our legs (and get a very delicious and heavily glazed, and therefore probably very unhealthy, cinnamon bun) before arriving at the Arlington Cemetery. This large cemetery with app. 400.000 buried and room for maybe 100.000 more has mostly military personnel buried, but also some diplomats, senators, high-ranking politicians and several presidents lie here. The most famous from the latter group is John F. Kennedy which we unfortunately spent the entire 40-minute visit on. Our guide spent the time on going thought the history of the cemetery and that of Kennedy and his family, and then we returned to the bus. I know that Kennedy is fairly loved by all but I felt it was overkill to spend the entire visit on his grave – we (tourists) likely don’t have the same connection to him. I would have preferred that we got time to walk around by ourselves (having the choice between that or follow the guide), that way we could have had a chance to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A bit bummed about missing that.

JF Kennedy's grave and Arlington House in the background.

The gaves just keep going into the distance.

From there we took the bus on a short drive to get to the Iwo Jima memorial – the statue with the group of soldiers erecting the flag pole. Yes, that one. We drove on to the Vietnam Veterans memorial – the long wall with the names of every single person who has died from the Vietnam War. The names are put on the wall in chronological order by when the soldier died during the war. There are still names added to the list if it is determined that the death of the veteran is due to injuries during the war, and it that case the name it put – as close as possible – on the timeline for when they were injured. From there it was a short walk to the Lincoln memorial from where we also saw the Washington Monument. Pretty much what you’d expect; a very large statue of Lincoln looking towards a very tall column. The weather was amazing and we were let free for some time so that was a really nice 20 minutes we had strolling around there. Form there we walked to the nearby Korean War Veterans memorial and walked around before returning once again to the bus.

Iwo Jima memorial.

Vietnam Veterans memorial.

Lincoln memorial.

Washington Monument in the distance.

Korean War Veterans memorial.

From here we drove to the White House, something I was very much looking forward to. We came driving on Constitution Avenue, a fair bit form the rear side of the building but so you could still see it (but driving by you never got a good look due to the trees lining the street). Normally you could get onto a street that is closer but not today due to an event on the rear lawn. So set us off near by so we at least get a view, albeit far one, of the building before continuing? No, apparently not. We were instead brought to the front which was pretty uninteresting, and we even got 15-20 minutes to walk around. And when asking if it wasn’t possible to see it from the rear the answer was “Yes, of course! I assume you have access to the event that’s going on on the lawn?”. Apparently seeing it from afar was not an option. C’mon, you might have seen it plenty of times and can’t be bothered seeing it again unless you get a good view of it as you can afford skipping it now an again, but the rest of us who might not be back again, if ever, might end up feeling a bit cheated. What a disappointment.

The only flash we got of the rear of the White House.

The front of the White House.

The Capitol.

From there we drove to the Capitol where we actually were allowed to get out and get a good view of the building before getting back in and heading north back towards New York. On the way home we had a break at the same place we stopped at going south, but this time for 45 minutes so that there was enough time to have dinner. The choices were fast food 1, 2 or 3 or kiosk 1 or 2. Such a waste of time as the goal was to be back in New York before 2100 (and we arrived at 2030). We didn’t even break down before entering the Lincoln tunnel like last time! I skipped dinner during the break, and on arrival at the hotel I went out to have a pizza at a highly recommended place nearby.

Overall it was a nice day, despite all the time spent on driving (which was expected). The weather was great. Personally I think the break on the way back was a waste of time, we could easily have left an hour earlier in the morning (and I’m saying that as a massive b-person), which together would have given us more time, making it feel less rushed. And the experience around the White House was just…. So disappointing.