It wasn’t a long drive from Charlottesville to Washington D.C. so we were checked into our hotel by 11.30am. Luckily they could give us a room straight away so we dropped our bags and headed straight down to the National Portrait Gallery, only a few blocks from the hotel. We barely scratched the surface here as we had a timed appointment at the Capitol for the afternoon but we managed to see some very famous American faces and portraits.
The very first one on display as we entered the gallery was definitely NOT an American ..
Ulysses S Grant 
Dwight D Eisenhower
The Gallery of American Presidents was very good, they had portraits from Washington to “He who I shall not name”! Joe Biden’s portrait has not been done yet.
We needed to get to the Capitol Building for our tour. The Capitol is a fair way away so we took the Metro down to Union Station which is a 12 minute walk from the capitol.
After a brisk walk down to the Capitol Building we went through fairly strict security before we entered the visitors centre and lined up for our tour.
The guided tour took us through the Rotunda with it’s spectacular ceiling and to the old Senate chamber and House of representatives chambers ( which is now the Statuary hall) We didn’t see the current house or senate as they were both in session. The Rotunda is a stunning space, the painting on the ceiling is called the “Apotheosis of Washington” and the ceiling is so high that the Statue of Liberty would fit under it with plenty of space to spare!
After the tour we were pretty hungry so we grabbed a bite to eat in the capitol cafe. I loved the look of the desserts!
As we walked back to Union Station, we passed by the Supreme Court Building.
ack at the hotel, neil and I enjoyed the Evening reception at the Embassy Suites as we waited for Liam to arrive, it was wonderful to see him! We stayed in the hotel for an easy dinner with him, catching up on his last few days at Disneyland with some American friends.
After a reasoably good night sleep we hit the streets for our day’s exploration of Washington. Our first stop was the national Archives to see the actual Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. UNfortunately you are not allowed to take any photos within the building to protect the documents. The Declaration of Independence is very badly faded, its difficult to make out many of the signatures but John Hancocks was easy to read. The other documents are in better condition.
We then set out for a marathon walk down and across the National Mall. Along the way we saw the Washington Monument, the White House and Jefferson memorial (both from a distance), the WWII memorial, the Lincoln memorial and the Vietnam veterans memorial. It was a glorious day for the walk, cool but sunny.
At the Lincoln memorial I wa skenn to reproduce the photo I took of Neil and Liam there 14 years ago in 2008!
From that end of the Mall we walked back up to the White House but the view as obscured by a large canopy for some function that was planned for the day. So we walked a little further and visited the White House Visitor Center, an excellent exhibit in a stunning space.
We stopped at Pret a manger for a bite of lunch before we headed down to the nearest Metro station for a ride down to Capitol South – we were going to tour the Library of Congress. This building was such a surprise! I have seen the library reading room feature in many TV shows and movies but hd no idea how stunning the entire building is! The ceilings are as beautidul as any of the grand cathedrals we had seen in Italy. We were blown away by the beauty of the place.
One of the exhibits in the Library is an incredible reconstruction of Thomas Jefferson’s library – In 1814 when the British burned the nation’s Capitol and the Library of Congress, Jefferson had acquired the largest personal collection of books in the United States. Jefferson offered to sell his library to Congress as a replacement for the collection destroyed by the British during the War of 1812. Congress purchased Jefferson’s library for $23,950 in 1815. A second fire on Christmas Eve of 1851, destroyed nearly two thirds of the 6,487 volumes Congress had purchased from Jefferson.The Library is currently working on restoring copies of all the original books.
We finally made tracks back to the hotel. My legs were burning by this stage, we had walked over 14km today! After a rest we enjoyed the eveing reception in the hotel bar before walking a couple of blocks to Capitol City Brewing Company for a really tasty dinner. Tomorrow we head to Pennsylvania!
