The last three days of my trip were dedicated to the highlight at the end, Washington D.C. The first day, I took the MARC train from Baltimore-Washington International airport, which takes about half an hour to get to union station in Washington D.C. After dropping the luggage in the hotel, I did an exploration tour starting at the White House and “The Mall” including Washington Monument (where I got a ticket to go to the top, but visits were suspended due to heavy rain), the National Museum of American History, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Galllery.
The second day, I started at the Library of Congress, continueing with visits to the National Air and Space Museum, a guided tour of the United States Capitol, a successful second attempt to the top of Washington Monument, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the National Museum of the American Indian. I finished the day with a walking tour through Penn Quarter with a couple of interesting buildings such as the FBI building or Ford’s Theatre, where Abraham Lincoln was shot.
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- White House
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- National Museum of American History
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- National Gallery of Art
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- Library of Congress
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- National Air and Space Museum
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- US Capitol
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- View from Washington Monument
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- Hirshhorn Museum
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- Georgetown
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- Lincoln memorial
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- Arlington cemetary
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- Iwo Jima
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- View on Jefferson memorial and Washington monument
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- Statue in Kennedy centre
The third and last day was the only sunny day of my stay and I had spared the longer walks for good weather. I started in the morning with a walk from my travel guide book through Georgetown, a more historic and quiet quarter in the Western part of the city. From there I continued the toor directly to the part of the mall with all the memorials, starting with Lincoln memorial, Vietnam War memorial, World War II memorial, and Korean War memorial. From this area, I crossed the Potomac river on Arlington Memorial Bridge to Arlington national cemetery. There I went to the tomb of the unknown soldier and John F. Kennedy’s graveyard. While walking around the huge area, I witnessed several ceremonies. Before taking back the metro to the centre, I walked to the nearby US marines memorial, also known as Iwo Jima or “Flags of our fathers”. In the afternoon before my return flight, I completed the visit with short stops at the National Museum of Natural History, the Jefferson memorial, the Roosevelt memorial, and the Kennedy centre of performing arts.
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