Exploring Washington

Back to the station by 9am where we caught another Amtrak train, heading south for Washington DC. Arrived at the station around midday and we'd hoped to be able to check in to drop our stuff off, but unfortunately the host had issues with the previous guests and had a lot of cleaning to do. So we sat around the station for an hour or so, before she messaged again and said the dryer had broken and it was going to take longer! We negotiated that she'd come and pick up our luggage and store it at her (separate) place, and that we'd just check ourselves in late afternoon.

So we set off walking away from the 30th Street Station which was absolutely colossal and grand. First stop was the Capitol building which we wandered around and enjoyed. Then walked down the National Mall, which stretches for a couple of miles to the Washington Monument. That's currently closed for visitors, so we turned northwards along the lawns and headed for the White House. Not much to see from this side, but we walked around the block where you can get fairly close to it (a couple of hundred metres). According to his schedule the orange dementia grandpa was at home, but he was probably busy watching TV and being a racist so we headed away.

By now it was about 5pm (it was a seriously long walk!) and we got the bus to our apartment. Everything was ready, and it was nice to have the space to ourselves rather than sharing someone's apartment.Read more