Smithsonian Gets Us In To Training

We don't mind public transport.  Just mastering it in a new city can be a challenge sometimes.
Washington has a quite good and modern Metro rail system so we gave it a go.
The staff were helpful and got us going.

We soon arrived at Smithsonian station and only a couple of blocks from the Air and Space Museum.

On the way, a great garden and castle

Obviously some SPOT user passed by here

19 museums in the area.  Too much.

Perhaps my favourite, the actual Apollo 11 Command module.  Inset is the burnt underside.

Great exhibit of Armstrong and Aldrin using an actual spare craft.

The practice Hubble telescope

The real SR71 is elsewhere.

A beaut model of the Enterprise, the most decorated ship of the fleet.
This model took 12,000 hours work to complete

Large crowds on the day before their big holiday.

We spent seven hours in this museum.  What a great place.  Just bulk information and very well presented.  All about flight and space exploration and plenty to learn.

Next we decided to wander about the Mall, a large grassy area between two blocks of museums.  There was lots of setting up going on for big celebrations tomorrow when USA celebrates 239 years of Independence.  Good on 'em.
Some of the buildings in this area are quite huge.

Art museum (with me dwarfed on the steps), capitol building and some kind of Hall.

Monument is undergoing repairs

This little fella was quite unperturbed by our close presence.

We wandered up towards the Whitehouse and got fairly close to one side but at 6pm, they were closing down the area. The Not-so-Secret Service Police were turning everyone away.  But we were able to all go around to the front if we wanted.  So back we all walked and around the large block.

Hotel Washington with its ornate frieze work.

Not-so-Secret Service Police.

Front view of the Whitehouse.  Quite a walk to get there.

So I decided to take a break and sit on some nice white steps.

Then it was time to go "home" but we were a long way from the Smithsonian metro station so it was quite a walk back.  Half an hour later we arrived at the station, went down in and while waiting to catch the first of two trains, we looked at the map and saw the Whitehouse was only half a block away from a station that was quite close to our digs.  Damn.
We were so confused by now that we took the second train the wrong direction and didn't realise until we were three stops down the line.  So off, change platforms, and back seven stops to ours.  Well we got our money's worth.
Picked up some beer and subs on the way back to the hotel and now putting our feet up.

Big day and nowhere near the bike.