USA Adventure: Famous Sights

 

In October and November 2006 I was lucky enough to go to the USA for work, so I took the opportunity to travel around while I was there. My travel emails were well received back home, so I’m posting them here for all to enjoy.

Original Date: 9 November 2006

Hi all,

Well, I'm now in Boston. Although once again, I've gotten in late at night so I haven't had a chance to see anything yet. I gotta stop doing that...

The rest of my time in DC was pretty amazing. It really is a picturesque city, I've got a couple of images that stick in my mind... the first is walking along the Reflection Pool and visualising the Vietnam and Civil Rights protests that happened there, then standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial and realising that I'm walking and standing in places that stood witness to some of the greatest events in the world's history.

 

 

The second is walking around The Mall, which is the big grassy area that most of the monuments and Smithsonian institutions are built around - bordered on one end by the Capitol Building, and the other by the Lincoln Memorial. It's just before sunset, and all the buildings are starting to be lit in orange. I'm walking between two long rows of trees, and a gentle breeze is sending clusters of orange leaves swirling down and onto the path in front of and all around me. Simply stunning.

 

I also took the time to check out some of the museum's and art galleries. I enjoyed the National Art Gallery the most, it had a lot of reneissance and dutch (ie Rembrant) work, as well as an exhibit by a New York school of photographers from when photography was a new medium. I have photos of a couple of really great paintings, ones that I want to remember later.

 

Oh, I also saw the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution - the actual documents, preserved and displayed. I didn't realise that the phrase "John Hancock" meaning signature comes from his signature on the Declaration of Independence - his was the first and largest signature, seeing as he had a rather large part in the American Revolution. There you go, Craig's history / trivia fact for the day.

Overall impression of DC, then, is that it's a really nice place to sight see. I didn't get a chance to check out the more exciting side of it, so I can't really comment on the night life. I would definitely go back there again, given the chance.

For a lot more photos from the trip, have a look at my Flickr set. I've geotagged them, so the map is pretty interesting too!