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Today was a travel day from New York to Washington DC. I really like the trains between major cities. So much better than the trains between cities in Australia. So much more room and they lean back so far. I think I may have gotten over my loathing for long haul train rides that I acquired training from Perth to Adelaide. We got into DC in the early afternoon. It was easy enough to find the hotel...and what a hotel it was! I have no idea how we managed to swing such a place. Rhonda (our travel agent) must be a miracle worker. The very large lobby was full of many (and I mean MANY) different themed Christmas trees. It looked so very decedent. Our room is nice and big, with enough room to spread out all our stuff. But after a little time resting up in our room we headed off to Union Station for our 'DC after dark' tour.
Turned out our 'tour guide' didn't show up so it was up to our bus driver to tell us all about the sites of DC. And he did a reasonable job. First stop...the DC Christmas tree. It was very pretty. And much to my surprise right behind us was the White House hiding behind a lot of trees. We were very lucky as the tree was a unscheduled stop. But our driver figured as it was only just lighted that night why not. Next stop was the Jefferson memorial. It was here that I realised both my camera batteries were flat and I had forgotten my gloves. Not the best start. But Siobhan got some good pictures. There was a lovely view across the water to the National Monument. I swear that thing looks like a giant snake with the red aeroplane lights at the top. It looks like it belongs in an Indianna Jones movie!Next stop was the Lincoln Memorial. It is huge. You don't realise just how monumental Lincoln is until you are there. And we also visited the Vietnam memorial. It was a giant wall mural with statues of what the soldiers would have looked like as they were marching along. I also had a look at the digital records from the war. Turns out three people with the surname Lee died during the Vietnam War on my birthday. Our last stop was the FTR memorial. This was quite spectacular. Nestled in some trees were statues and a number of waterfalls, each more magnificent than the last. You could tell it was cold though. There was ice everywhere. Some of the waterfalls even had icicles hanging down. We also had a great view of the National Monument and Jefferson Memorial across the water and Siobhan and Emma got some really nice pictures (damn flat batteries!). In between all this there were heaps of buildings and history, even a few jokes (although some of them went over my head I did get the 'Nixon Memorial' joke). And I had my little nerdy moments too, recognising places from episodes of Bones. Our driver was even nice enough to make an unscheduled stop near our hotel so we didn't have to go all the way back to Union station to catch the train to a stop two streets over. It was a great introduction to DC.
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