Day 26
The Marriott Hotel is our favorite Hotel chain; it’s always consistently excellent, from the world's most comfortable beds, to great breakfast buffets and room service, and the friendly professional staff. They also have a good loyalty program in the Marriott Rewards Program.
Today we changed our flight to Orlando from Friday to Saturday to give us another day in Washington to hopefully allow the storm to blow out in Florida. It actually ended up saving us money as we got a cheaper rate when we called up the Orlando Hilton to amend our booking.
TRAVEL TIP: Book your accommodation on the internet. We saved three thousand dollars overall on this trip by booking direct with the hotels on the internet over the quoted travel agent's price.
There is a Hop on- Hop off stop near the hotel, and we caught the tour bus to the President's home, The White House (Pictured above). Back on the bus we head through downtown Washington, through the neat ordered houses of the suburbs, (pictured right), around the Washington Cathedral, and along Embassy Row. No, we didn’t see the Australian Embassy. Then it was onto Georgetown, where after lunch our cruise on the Potomac River (pictured below)
A young black guy wearing jeans limped onto the boat leaning on a walking stick, when the captain asked "What happened to your leg buddy.... Did you bust it up?"
"I lost it in Iraq" he replied. On closer inspection it was obvious that the young man was still learning to walk on a prosthetic leg.
In the fifth year of the war in Iraq the US casualty figure has reached over 4,000 dead and 30,000 wounded. He wouldn’t have been any more than 25 years old, sadly for him, I guess, the war will never be over.
Cruising down the river is like going back in time. On the left just past the pier is the Watergate Building, the scene of the Watergate scandal, which led to the resignation of President Nixon. A little further on the right is Arlington Cemetery that also used to be the Confederate General Robert E Lee’s home.
There’s the Jefferson Memorial (pictured right), named after Thomas Jefferson who largely wrote the Declaration of Independence.
The Lincoln Memorial (pictured right), I hope to visit tomorrow, is for ‘honest Abe” Lincoln the President during the Civil War. Earlier, in the bus, we went past Forbes Theatre the scene of his assassination. The Capital is laid out on the river, because that was how it was envisaged how visitors would arrive, but the introduction of the railway changed all that, and that’s how we arrived to0, at Union Station.
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Defence Force (pictured above). On 11th of September, 2001 one of the hijacked jets crashed into the far side of the building. The fourth hijacked jet was headed either for the White House or Capitol building. A number of passengers on this flight, heroically fought back against the terrorists, as illustrated in the movie, Flight 93, almost certainly saving these buildings from destruction.
TRAVEL TIP: Take the river cruise available on the Open Sightseeing Bus Hop on Hop off Combo Option to see another side of Washington, the way it was intended to be seen. 48 hr ticket on the bus and a river cruise all for $42, great value!
On the bridge over Rock Creek on the way back from Georgetown to our hotel we saw the same friendly black homeless man we saw yesterday chatting to some tourists. They are everywhere in America, begging on nearly every corner, and I was surprised when I first arrived that such a rich country could have so many obviously poor people. I've heard the saying, "Don't feed the poor man, because you will ruin his attitude to hard work", but I often see them working pretty hard scrounging in rubbish bins. But, this guy is different he seems educated, reads books, and is also very funny.
Yesterday, he rattled his cup and said, "Gas money for my Ferrari." with a big smile on his face.
Tonight we had one of our best meals we’ve had on our trip from Famous Luigi’s on 19th Street, who delivered to the hotel. Luigi’s was opened in 1943, and was one of the first Italian restaurants in Washington, and is ‘famous’ for bringing pizza to the capital. I had a Rigatoni all’arabbiata that was just perfect, nice and spicy, and shared a cheese pizza with Louise. We highly recommend this restaurant, because after a while, like us with over three weeks on the road, you too will be craving a decent meal.
Tomorrow we plan on going to Arlington Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Memorial, you know the one where the marines are pushing up the American Flag, and the Lincoln Memorial I have previously mentioned.
We like Washington it has a relaxed Southern charm with a touch of a European sophistication, and with so many people here at University, it's also feels young (and fit, it seems everybody is jogging). I can here some of you saying, "It's like Canberra", sure it's a planned city, with unimaginative street labelling, like A St - Z St and 1st St - 30 St, boring but easy to follow.. It's hard to describe, but its definitely not Canberra. It's also warm, not humid, and produces pleasant summer evenings.
Well, we have found our first good restaurant outside Beverly Hills.
