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| Old police cars |
What a
difference 12hours and a good night’s sleep makes! Not only are we fully
refreshed and ready to go but it is sunny and warm outside. As we leave the
hotel we pass through about 20 police officers, has there been an incident? No they’re
all showing off their immaculate old police cars, it must be some sort of
convention.
We’ve decided
that for the next couple of days our mode of transport should be the Big Bus
Hop On Hop Off tour. It has 3 routes here in Washington, so tickets are
purchased on line and the email with bar code saved to my phone. Now, I’m a bit
of a dinosaur with this technology so I’m not convinced I’ve managed to do the
whole process correctly so I worry as we walk through Arlington, across Key
Bridge and into George Town. The bus arrives and smiling George looks at my
phone and prints off 2 tickets, the wonders of the internet and smart phones
will never cease to amaze me!
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| The Lincoln Memorial |
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| View from Lincoln Memorial to Washington Memorial |
The tour takes
us first to the Lincoln Memorial where we join the mothers’ day crowds to take
pictures of Lincoln, the memorial, the reflecting pool, the WW II memorial, and
the George Washington Memorial. At the bottom of the steps there’s a youth
orchestra playing the 1812 Overture, it’s all very inspirational but as Dave
wants to ask them to play Land of Hope and Glory next I move us swiftly on. The
walk takes us to the south side of The White House and I am so relieved we’ve
finally seen it as Dave has asked me every second question where the White
House is! Back to the bus tour which winds its way past the Treasury, DuPont
Circle, the area of AdamsMorgan, the national zoo (which is free to enter) and
finally Woodley Park where we stop to get some refreshments at The Open City. There
are a lot of family groups in the restaurant, I guess a lot of mothers are
being treated to lunch today for Mothers’ Day.
We complete our
tour with stops at the West wing of The White House, the world bank and
Constitution Avenue. We pass a Secret Service man being taken for a walk by his
alsatian, not so secret as it’s written on his jacket! We smile and comment to
him that the dog is in charge of the walk, no reply, no flicker of
acknowledgement, may be only the dog can hear anything! As we wait for the bus for
the final section of our tour we hear the blare of police sirens coming closer,
oh no, have the secret service ordered our arrest? No fortunately, it’s the old
police cars doing a tour of the capital and announcing their presence. Our bus
arrives and takes us past the Pentagon and Arlington Cemetery. The guide is
very concerned that we get off here as there is only 1 more bus tonight, don’t
worry we say we’ll walk from here, he looked shocked.
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| The White House |
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| Washington Memorial |
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| Big Bus Tours |
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| Iwo Jima Memorial |
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