Saturday 27th September
We drove into The Mall – it is home to the Smithsonian Institute e.g. the Air & Space Museum, American Indian Museum, Natural History Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Castle, Museum of African Art, Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery to name just some of them. At one end of Mall is the Capitol Building (houses the US Congress) and at the other end is the Washington Monument. What is not obvious to the naked eye from the Mall is the Lincoln Memorial, it lines up the the other 2 buildings. The White House (where the President lives) is off to one side, but lines up with the Washington Monument as well.
I spent a little time exploring the American Indian Museum, the Botanical Gardens and the Capitol Building. It was an attempt to scratch the surface on all there is to see, however I would need at least a week and would then still only see some of what is on offer.
After dinner at Carmine’s (great Italian restaurant) we took a night tour of the Washington monuments. There are some really spectacular buildings. Stopped off at the JFK Centre for Performing Arts and took a walk through. Also took a wander around the World War 11 Memorial and the last stop was at the Lincoln Memorial. I stood on the very spot where Martin Luther King made his “I have a dream” speech. I also had the chance to read the address made by Lincoln in Gettysburg in 1863 where it concluded with those famous words “that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.”
