DC bound
Jeff and I parted ways at Raleigh-Durham airport, he jumped on a flight to London and I had a couple of hours wait until my short flight to Washington DC (Dulles airport).
It was a smallish Embraer 145 for the short hop, but at least it was still a jet.
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| Nice and cosy |
I arrived at Dulles at around 9pm. There was quite the walk, up and down escalators, and even a quick train ride to get to the baggage collection area and exits. This had the feel of an older airport, not the open modern style of newer ones. My bag eventually showed up on a carousel that didn’t list my flight.
I headed for the exit, following the signs to rental cars. Most airports where I’ve picked up cars they have the offices in the terminal building and then you head off to the cars. Here you found your bus (Avis) and hopped on for the 5 minutes ride to the office. Having Avis preferred I asked which bay my car was in (19) and headed out to it. Hmm, a Kia people mover. I don’t think so. I went back in to the office to check I’d heard the bay number right. Yep, 19, I pointed out the people mover parked there. She seemed upset and muttered something about people moving cars without telling her. She upgraded me (apparently) from the Hyundai Sonata I was going to get to a Chevy Impala. This was in the correct bay.
I’d asked for a GPS as it’s easier to have a mounted GPS that you can see than using your phone. I programmed the GPS for my hotel, selected no tolls and headed off. Five minutes later I took a very quick exit off the freeway as the large sign said ‘last exit before tolls.’ Stupid GPS. I pulled over to check my settings. Yep, definitely set to no tolls, so I used my phone to navigate me to the
Homewood Suites hotel. Great place to stay. Friendly staff, nice sized room and not too expensive.
I awoke early the next morning and headed down for breakfast. Today was tourist day. I drove to the local railway station and after figuring out the ticket machine I jumped on a train in to Washington DC. My first stop was a short walk from L’Enfant metro station was the
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I spent the next few hours enjoying looking at aircraft, spacecraft and balloon things.
Sights
Once I had my fill of all thing aeronautical I ventured outside on to the National Mall. First thing to look at was the Capitol building. A short walk on a beautiful day, with lots of people enjoying the grassy areas.
Up close it’s quite a building.
After admiring the building for a bit I started walking back along the Mall, passing by the United States Botanical Garden, which was humid, warm and full of interesting plants.
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| Smithsonian Institution |
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| Washington Monument |
I found a large house that someone important apparently lives in 🙂
There was also the World War II Memorial
I decided to head back to my hotel after this (I later worked out to have walked around 8km for the day) so I grabbed my phone and found the nearest Metro station and headed for that. For a Sunday the trains run fairly often, I didn’t have to wait very long to catch the next one heading my way. I used a DC Metro app on my phone to keep track of train times. After a long day I walked (thankfully not far) up the road to Mikes American restaurant for dinner. Great service and nice big steak kept me happy for the evening.
