Washington DC the American Experience or is it?

  

Like the Vatican, Washington, District of Columbia is in one country but operates independently. It has an international flavour and appears un American with its numerous Italian and Greek monuments Yes, another of those second best overall places to live in the US, after Salt Lake City. Washington is an ideal vacation destination for a partner who refuses to go on cruises or sightsee. Just give them a copy of The Smithsonian Associate Magazine.  www.ResdentAssociates.org and enrol them in ‘Campus on the Mall’ with its many profound lectures and seminars. 

I learnt that in  1791 George Washington appointed   Frenchman Pierre Charles L'Enfant to develop a plan for the city. It has a impressive metro system which makes getting  around easy. Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle and L'Enfant Plaza become familiar station stops. Any city with a metro system promotes musical buskers and a fashion consciousness. I could not pin down a Washington accent or speech pattern. Possibly the neighbouring states of Maryland and Virginia stifle such individualism. Washington residents have no vote in Congress or as the bumper stickers read "Taxation without Representation. " At the weekends, Washingtonians read the Sunday edition of the New York Times and visit the Delaware Beaches or the Royalist area of Annapolis. 

 There are two rivers and three airports to know about depending on your mode of transportation. The  Potomac and Anacosta Rivers, Ronald Regan Washington National Airport, and Washington Dulles International Airport, Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI). 

Most cities have a cathedral and a train station. Both of which along with the local art gallery are worth reconnoitring. The train station is first on my list to scout   even if it is closed as in Whitehorse.  “I went down to the station with no suitcase in hand” might wail a blues singer up on Shaw-U Street. Going to the station gives me a purpose plus I can say “where is the station” in five languages. It is so romantic to gaze at the city names on the departure boards     Jacksonville   Charlotte  Raleigh      Tampa    Orland and watch  lovers meet or family bid their adieus. One quickly observes that railway travellers are usually nationals of any country and not foreigners.  Union Station is modeled after the Roman Baths of Diocletian. With  96-foot barrel-vaulted ceilings and 22-karat gold inlaid coffered ceiling with  three concourses. Perfect film sitting for one of those 1920 gangster shootouts! 

When I arrive in a new city I try to obtain the travel information items as soon as possible. Within minutes at an airport, bus, or boat terminal I am rummaging for “Best Bets” and free maps. I then seek the Visitor’s Information Centre usually located in the heart of the city  - downtown.   The DC Chamber of Commerce Official Visitor Information Centre is in the Ronald Reagan International Trade Centre (ITC). Here one of the Historical Societies Members may give you a two for one walking tour ticket. Within 20 minutes of being in Washington one learns the names of the monuments to visit however at the information centre there are pamphlets and maps on Beyond the Monuments. Places such as, Lafayette Square Adams Morgan and Southwest. The one Monument I enjoyed was the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial, on an island of the same name. Reminds me of Ottawa River and the Parkway. Lafayette Square is pleasant prologue before visiting the White House. I learnt on train to Galway that the architect of the White House was James Hoban,(1762-1832) an Irishman, who studied architecture in Dublin. It is claimed that Leinster House, in Dublin was a dry run for the White House.

The title of the thesis would be  “sight seeing by trolley bus”.  For years I have sat on theses lunging  amphibious looking buses  with hair blowing and  Hungarian being spoken loudly around me. For Washington I suggest not to use them but visit most the attractions by walking, regular bus or metro. Getting around by bus is difficult with any city served by a metro. Just try it.  Locals deny the buses exist and always point you to the metro for any destination. The bus numbers, routes, and times are closely   guarded secrets, placed in an envelope at your christening.

 I did the  Historic Downtown DC Walking Tour that leaves from Discovery Channel Store  MCI Center. 7^th and F Streets.  It illuminated the importance of the US Patent Office and primed an interest in architecture. Windows and roofs are the clues!  The old post office will soon be a hotel but meanwhile its 315 foot tower gives the city view. Without this tour I would have missed  the Great Hall in the National Building Museum  all in the Pension Building. A place for a quiet sandwich at 2:10pm? The subject of the Civil War naturally comes up on such a walking tour. The story line is this “ Washington was in North but with very strong ties with the South” The largest single span Chinese arch in the world at 7^th and H street welcomes visitors to Chinatown. I learnt that Washington was another of the cities that Charles Dickens visited. After the walking tour a fun logistic exercise is to get to Georgetown by more walking or city bus. I used the   Chesapeake and Ohio Canal or the C & O Canal as a destination in Georgetown. Now we all know that rivers are for rowing and fishing but canals are for skating on, running along and thinking where to eat that evening.

 Georgetown was originally a tobacco port but now is one of those places that people could live in for a time. Georgetown is trendy.  These residents are famous Americans or visiting Oxford professors   writing books on  semantics at Georgetown University. Everyone probably has season tickets to the Kennedy Centre. Washington Harbour is a five minute walk down a hill and you can always detour by the famous Old Stone House. Does anyone do real work around a river harbour?  Maybe the rowers out there training on the Potomac River?  It was at the harbour I saw the President’s helicopter swooning by. 

It is said by the wise that being able to talk local sport and music covers 70% of all conversations when travelling.  The gentleman at the hotel front desk told me that The  Capitals  are the hockey team for Washington DC and the   Red Skins are the  football team. The basketball teams are the Wizards and Mystics. Most sporting activities play at the  MCI Centre which has a free sports gallery. I learnt later that  Duke Ellington, Fats Waller  Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Areta Franklin all have strong associations with Washington. U Street is the area to migrate to for more jazz and Duke Ellington.  Smithsonian exhibits included Piano 300, celebrating 300^th  anniversary of the piano  and one on Woody Guthery.  I now see why   Bob Dylan first imitated him.

 A saxophonist busker played Paul Desmond’s Take Five on Connecticut Avenue and again near Union Station. Other musical associations that Washington prompted were; Magic Bus The Who, Love In Vain,  Rolling Stones,  FBI, The   Shadows  Take the A Train with  Duke Ellington, Pawn in the game,  Bob Dylan  and  Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

  Connecticut and Massachusetts  are  the Embassy Row section. The Canadian Embassy is interestingly missing from Embassy Row, but prestigiously located 501  Pennsylvania Avenue. Arthur Erickson was the architect, and it features the Rotunda of the Provinces temple, type echo chamber. The Washington Monument seems a bit of a graven image to me, which I am sure is not the right thing to say at a Maui tennis club. It has a documented history, which helps and does get a lot of postcard coverage. It would be a great start finishing spot for a 10k fun run. The Ellipse home of the US national Christmas tree, would make a great  fair ground or with its  chunky grass a practice field for  the touring Harlequins or Spring Bok Rugby Clubs. 

 While out  boating, your upward mobile friends might chime “We could have spent two weeks in D.C. visiting the art galleries and museums.” They are correct. The Smithsonian’s 16 museums and galleries are the world’s largest museum complex in the. The National Air and Space Museum is the most visited centre  in the world or so I read. It has excellent free tours and IMAX movie theatre for grumpy relations.  I preferred The National Gallery of Art with its stupendous collection of Picasso, Matisse and Jackson Pollack. Highbrow Europeans must voice, “How did these yanks get to buy so much good stuff?”  Outside on the Mall there are manicured gardens such as Ripley and  Folger Rose Garden with  silent  sculptures standing by.  Even in a rush it is difficult to ignore these works which include Rodins and Henry Moore. The Mall reminded me of Hampton Court. Besides the Smithsonian art galleries there are private exhibitions such as the Phillips Collection up at Dupont Circle and the Corcoran Gallery of Art had Norman Rockwell - pictures for the American People.

Here is the show off list that one can spout off while waiting to clear customs at Heathrow or at an open house during Christmas and new Years. Anthony Williams, the mayor, Smithsonian Castle, Golden Triangle, Washington Circle, Theodore Roosevelt Monument, Washington Flyer, and  Maryland. 

The one more day syndrome! Well actually it is more like three days Next visit to Washington I will rent a bicycle and visit the monuments. I even have a route worked out. Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway then along Ohio Drive, cross over the Potomac River by Arlington Memorial Bridge, then north on George Washington Memorial Parkway then scoot over to Theodore Roosevelt Island. At 6:10am I would like to run around the Ellipse. I would visit George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon and Old Town-Alexandria. Get to the  National Geography Magazine Building, listen to live Jazz, have  a game of chess at Dupont Circle, near Daniel Chester French's fountain.  Yes I admit it. I would also find a way of getting to the Delaware Beaches.