Washington D.C.

Sunday 06.06. - Washington D.C.

After breakfast in our room, we set off and first buy a ticket for the Hop-on-Hop-Off bus for $35 and then walk to the Old Post Office. There you can go up to the 12th floor and look out over the city from the tower. Unfortunately, there is construction work on the tower and the best view towards the White House etc. can only be seen by contorting through the scaffolding. It is getting cloudy and very hot, and it looks like a thunderstorm is coming.

After taking some joke photos on the ground floor of the old building, where there are now shops, we then take our Hop-On-Hop-Off bus and start driving around a bit.

The buses are double-decker and you sit in the open air on the upper deck. After walking in the heat for over an hour, a bit of a breeze is very welcome.

52% of Washingtonians are Black. The city's metropolitan area has around 5 million inhabitants, but the city itself only has 550,000. While the average American is 25 years old (they all have at least 3 children...), the average resident of Washington is 29 years old.

In the far north of the city, we get off at Washington Cathedral. This is where Martin Luther King preached. His funeral was also held here. The cathedral looks like Westminster Abbey, but it is Catholic. Despite it being Sunday, you can visit it.

During the bus ride, we already saw not only embassies on Embassy Row (there are 170 here!) but also magnificent residential houses and the Islamic Center.

We continue on the bus to Georgetown. As soon as we get off and secure a window seat in a small restaurant, the sky opens up and it starts raining heavily. So after the salad, we have a relaxed coffee and keep an eye on the weather. No need to rush...

At 3:00 PM, we go to a shopping center in the neighborhood of the restaurant, but it's not very good. We stroll through the streets of Georgetown and enjoy the beautiful houses. There is one where Kennedy used to live as well.

On a street corner, we see a lot of people waiting in line. The line in front of the shop surprises us, before we realize what they were selling there. And even after we know, it still surprises us. A woman said that the best cupcakes in the world are sold here, so we also join the line...

I have one with strawberry and one carrot. But that's too much. Since I don't want to carry these delicate things in my backpack, we sit in a small park and each eat two cupcakes. Those were the first and last cupcakes in my life. So sweet, so heavy. That's not my thing, but now I know what cupcakes taste like.

We continue driving towards the Lincoln Memorial and take photos not only of that, but also of the countless groups of students sitting on the steps, mostly dressed in matching t-shirts.

Our path then leads to the Mall, the promenade that practically connects the Lincoln Memorial with the Washington Monument and the White House. On both sides of the Mall are the many large museums of the Smithsonian Institute.

We first pass the War Memorial for the 58,000 American war dead from the Vietnam War. A park ranger is currently explaining to the children that all the people commemorated there are dead and they - the children - are the hope, and she sincerely hopes that they will not engage in wars. Given the powerlessness of the individual in the face of strange decisions made by presidents, this will remain a wish. As long as Americans also believe that they have to wage wars everywhere to create peace, it will probably be difficult to raise people with different thinking here.

We walk to our hotel at the fork of 21st Street and Virginia Avenue, which is only a 15-minute walk from the Lincoln Memorial. The hotel is really conveniently located.

We take a quick shower, have Reggie, the hotel's handyman, fetch our car and drive to the White House.

After the thunderstorm and rain, the air is clear and noticeably cooler (around 25°C), and the sky looks amazing. We park on the side of the road, which is easy on a Sunday, and approach the front of the White House across the lawn, but today we can go all the way to the fence.

Pictures taken, we turn around and take more photos of the Washington Monument, the tall obelisk.

The light is amazing. We drive east on Pennsylvania Avenue and then continue to the Capitol.

The light keeps getting better and we keep taking photos like crazy. The Washington Monument is also clearly visible from here in the clear evening air.

As dusk falls, we drive to the harbor. At first, we get lost, but then we find a free parking space under the freeway and now go down to the water. This area also belongs to Georgetown, where we were in the afternoon.

We walk along the river (the Potomac) and look at the illuminated Kennedy Center. We sit on empty chairs in front of a restaurant/pub, have a beer, and people-watch.

Afterwards, we take the car and make another detour to the Lincoln Memorial, which is now beautifully lit up in the dark. More photos, photos, photos, and then from there towards the Washington Monument and Capitol.

We drive back to the hotel and don't get to bed until after midnight. Since our bus ticket is also valid tomorrow, we will drive around again tomorrow, but we also want to see the Jefferson Memorial and the Air & Space Museum, visit the Capitol, and go to Arlington...