Presidents and ducks.

Hello! We send greetings from Washington D.C. As the first thing today, we visited the International Spy Museum. It was a great decision to book in advance because it was completely sold out. It was pretty cool. We received identities (which we can't reveal to you because we are spies), but we can say that we were archaeologists from Rio de Janeiro who had to solve a tough case in Cairo. The entire museum was interactive and showed the complete history of espionage, with games about cracking codes, a Stasi department, and a large collection of videos and espionage tools. We even had to electronically disguise ourselves. Benny looked so funny that Marie couldn't concentrate. Time ran out and in the end, she only had blonde short hair. Benny, on the other hand, looked so handsome! See for yourself below! Towards the end, a Stasi officer looked at our wanted photos when we wanted to cross the border 😅. All in all, we solved the case and spent almost three hours becoming spies. It was a cool experience!

If the museum shop had at least one thing in German, we would have bought so many things. We always thought we spoke good English, but at times we reached our limits. Since we love to play escape rooms, the morning was a lot of fun!

But now, back to the seriousness of the situation! Today at 10:00 am, we tried to get tickets for the Washington Monument. But at 10:01 am, there were no more tickets available at any time. Marie accidentally clicked on 'Add to Cart' for only one ticket... so we managed to get one ticket somehow. One is better than none! So tomorrow, Benny will go up to the Washington Monument and capture all the impressions for us 🥰

It was forecasted to rain from 11:00 am to 2:00 am. At 12:15 pm, it was pouring rain at the Lincoln Memorial. We found shelter. Marie wrote the blog from yesterday, and Benny played games on his phone. Let us tell you this: after being here 24/7 for 13 days, there were 45 minutes where we had nothing to talk about. Occasionally, our glances crossed paths to roll our eyes at the people around us. At one point, a guy made a fortune selling 3 umbrellas for $60. And shortly after that, it only drizzled. In the following picture series, you will see the World War II Memorial, the Washington Monument from all perspectives (that tall pointy tower, in case you forgot), and the Lincoln Memorial for Abraham Lincoln. In between, there will be some pictures of ducks!

Did you know that Abraham Lincoln, with his height of 1.93 meters, was the tallest president of America? He also loved cats and was known for his sense of humor. Before the election, he received a letter from an 11-year-old girl asking him to grow a beard. The reason: women love beards, and then all women would vote for Abraham. As we can see today, Abraham Lincoln had a beard, even before his successful election 😃

We have seen most of the National Mall, and tomorrow the White House awaits us.

Now we will show you other American presidents who have received memorials. Since Marie needs regular breaks after 13 days of intense traveling, Benny got to hear funny facts about most of the memorials. Thankfully, the distances were particularly long today - otherwise, it would be boring! 

After the Lincoln Memorial, the next stop was the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

Right after that, we had the sausages stolen from the hotel breakfast this morning, along with a banana. All the benches were wet, so we ended up wet as well 😅

Next was the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial, which was conveniently located on the way.

After going around the entire lake, we reached Thomas Jefferson. We could have also shown you the National Archives since it looks almost the same from the outside 😋. 

Historical politics were done for the day. Now we wanted to see the Washington Harbor! Just before that, the fish market had just opened, and it looked delicious (for people who eat fish). They had everything, even at affordable prices. The crabs were still alive, everything was really fresh, and it didn't smell like dead fish guts. On the opposite side, they had cooked crabs and shrimps. Luckily, we were on foot because parking for one hour would cost €23.

Along the harbor, there were many restaurants, but also many construction sites. It looked like there is still a lot to be developed and built here. Especially residential buildings and office buildings. Considering the location, we thought everything would be already finished.

In between, Benny discovered a swing over the Potomac River. Finally, we could sit down! Unfortunately, our stomachs started grumbling, and the chosen restaurant was only the second stop. Before that, we saw the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge and the Yard Bridge. That's it for today! It didn't rain for the rest of the day, and despite the thick clouds, we have sunburn marks on our T-shirts 😅. We don't know how that works here.

The restaurant was only ten minutes away, and we already suspected that there was some event happening nearby. We passed by the baseball stadium, and the floodlights were on. And suddenly, we found ourselves in the main pedestrian street for all the fans on their way to the stadium. Washington Nationals: red and blue - people everywhere. By the way, they are playing against the Miami Marlins, for which we have tickets! On the sidewalk, someone had set up their drum set and was drumming non-stop. It was cool to watch. In the snack pizzeria, we sat by the window to observe all the people 😅

As if the day wasn't exhausting enough, today was also beauty day! Benny's hair needed to be cut, nails trimmed, and hair washed. As we just read, the baseball game was canceled today because of the weather! Just when we returned to the warm indoors, it started pouring rain! Thanks to everyone for keeping their fingers crossed for good weather 😘

We send them back! Kisses!

B ❤️ M