Washington DC is an absolute geeks playground. You are in the land of The White House, FBI HQ, Arlington cemetery, The Pentagon, free museums covering every cultural, historical and artistic interest known to man. And all of that before you've even considered the astronomical National Mall and Tidal Basin area! If you have any interest at all in any American political TV dramas you will feel instantly at home when arriving in DC as it's all so amazingly familiar. The only thing that may cause you a problem is how to navigate it all effectively and do justice to the political, social and historical grandeur of this epic city. We only had a few days there and so we had to plan carefully. We had chosen not to take the car into the city as driving and parking in the centre was reputed to be a complete nightmare. Instead, while staying in the AirBnB ($91.30 AUD/69.41 USD) in Arlington, VA we got on the bus every morning into the city. This was by far our easiest and cheapest option and meant that twice a day we bused through the Pentagon as this also doubles up as a bus terminal. We didn't actually do the tour of the Pentagon but do know that there is an option to do a one hour tour taken by a trained volunteer. Luckily with our timeframe we found an amazing walking tour company in DC called 'DC on Foot' which catered to us perfectly for our first full day. They do a range of different free walking tours, all of which can be researched and booked on line through their website. The most conclusive of these tours when it comes to covering ground in the heart of DC is their 4-hour National Mall and Tidal Basin walk. This takes you right from the Washington Monument all the way to Jefferson Memorial via the whole of the National Mall and including all of the memorials and monuments along the way (The White House, National World War II Memorial, Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean Vets Memorial, MLK Jr. Memorial, FDR Memorial). Four hours does sound pretty heavy but there is a break in the middle at the Lincoln Memorial (after about two hours) and honestly at no point did we feel at all tired or overwhelmed with information...just a little hot considering on the day we did it it was about 35degrees. The guide was a trained historian who was amazingly knowledgable and also entertaining which only added to how brilliant this walk was. And the amount of information she provided was exactly what you would want from a tour like this. Enough for you to feel well informed without feeling overwhelmed. Honestly I cannot recommend this tour company enough. After we completed the tour we even had a little left over energy and so decided to visit the very moving US Holocaust Museum. On our second day in DC my darling wife indulged me in all the little geeky bits of DC that hadn't been covered on the walk that I wanted to explore. Like I said, DC has such a plethora of attractions covering such a range of interests that you would either have to spend months there seeing and doing them all or you need to do you research and be selective. I had carefully scoured the Internet and travel guides for all of my must-sees! We went to the U.S. Capitol building, both Sculpture Gardens, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, Folger Shakespeare Library and Globe Theater and walked around Capitol Hill (the closest city suburb). We did A LOT of walking while we were in DC. I was a geek in paradise. One of the best things about DC from a backpacker's point of view is the fact that almost everything is free. Visiting almost all of the museums or taking in the monuments and memorials is all free. One thing that I absolutely loved about DC was just walking around and looking at all the different architecture. DC is one of only four totally preplanned and constructed capital cities in the world (bonus points if you can name the other three J) and the continuity and organisation with which is has been done is wonderful to see. What really blew my mind was that in spite of this preplanned, regimented organisation, it doesn't look boring or sterile at all! And that was my short but very very sweet DC. Ideally we would have stayed longer but by this stage we were right at the end of the road trip and had to get the car back. That's certainly not to say we won't be back. I've scratched the surface but there's a whole other level of geekdom I could reach given the time and the opportunity!
0 Comments
|
Follow us on Instagram or send us a messageArchives
November 2018
Categories
All
|