Honeymoon Wrap Up

Items off the tourist check list:

Washington DC

-       The White house

-       Washington monument

-       Capitol building

-       WWII memorial

-       Lincoln memorial

-       US marine memorial

-       Arlington cemetery

-       Museum of American History

-       Union Station

New York

-       Madison square garden

-       Brooklyn bridge

-       9/11 memorial

-       Freedom Tower

-       Battery Park

-       Central Park

-       Natural History Museum

-       Statue of liberty / Statton Island Ferry

-       Radio City

-       Rockafella centre

-       Times Square

Boston

-       Prudential centre observation deck

-       Boston common

-       New England Aquarium

Vermont

-       snow

-       Simon Pearce Glass Factory

Photos taken: 700

Distance Travelled:

Taxi:

Train:

Foot:

Bus:

Day 22 and 23 - New York to Durham

Day 22 – New York to London to Durham

Today has been a loooooong day.

Smiti had to do some work at 9am, so we got up about 8 o’clock.

Honestly, we were shattered from such a long action packed day yesterday. We took our time to get ready and we’d started to put everything together to go back into our suitcases.

Bags packed, how will we get through the airport with these?!?

Taxi to Airport, went through Brooklyn. Quite intersting but traffic was really bad. Went passed new stadium.

The last photo of the holiday!

Security took a little while to get through.

Flight was delayed.

Busy for take off.

Night flight was very boring. Stayed up for whole flight.

Arrived in London, cold frosty morning.

Bags arrived amazingly ok, went through customs and immigration ok.

Arrived at about 8am, went to Pret A Manger to kill time.

Got tube to Kings Cross. crowded in central london but ok.

Killed more time in Kings Cross first class lounge, about another 2 horus until our train left at 13:30.

First class travel was ok.

Arrived in Durham and Eddie picked us up.

Day 21 - New York

Day 20 - Washington DC to New York

We got up and headed for the Paul bakery which was just around the corner to pick up breakfast. We tried to use the subway to get the to station but after asking a really unhelpful attendant we just went back to the street and hailed a cab.

The train was on time, and it was still really grey and wet.

From top left, clockwise, boardining train and Union Station, breakfast on train, inside carriage and view from window

We got back and went back to the apartment.

ghkghu

Day 19 - Washington DC

Day 19 – Washington

Predictably we had another slow start to the day. We were both quite tired after doing so much yesterday.

The weather was had turned terrible after being totally amazing the day before. It was wet and cold today. It was promising to clear later in the day so I had booked us onto a tour for the evening. In the intervening team we decided to look at a few of the museums in the afternoon, then take an early dinner before going on the tour.

Washington DC street

We went down to the American History Museum which was the closests. We actually spent quite a long time here and were quite interested to look at the exhibits detailing the modern history of American culture, but also some of the exhibits on the fight for independence and civil war. It was quite a new museum and was actually one of the better ones I thought that we have been to. The exhibits were nicely written with sufficient details, and there was plenty to look at in terms of displays, models, diagrams and articles.

One of the Smithsonian museums

By the time we had gone round most of the museum, oncluded the star spankgled banner, we went back to the hotel to have a quick rest and then go out for dinner.

The lady we had met the previous evening had recommended a restaurant around the corner called the Old Ebbitt Grill. It was on the next block, so took about a minute to walk to! We were seated immediately in a booth by the window. I was struck by home busy the place was for 4pm in the evening, with most tables full and a bustling type of atmosphere.

 

Old Ebbitt Grill

The menu had a lot of variety and was reasonably priced so we decided to go for three courses. I had a chilli with melted cheese to start. We shared a chocolate cake for dessert. We were so stuffed we had a quick lie down before hauling ourselves back out to goto the tour bus which was about 5 blocks away.

Unfortunately it was still raining by the time we needed to leave for the tour, but not too heavy, although Kathryn got wet feet fairly quickly! We found the little white bus sitting where it should have been and boarded. There was about 8 people in total. We met our tour guide Dwayne for the evening and he was really enthusiastic and friendly.

Inside of tour bus!

After a brief introduction from everyone in the group about where they were from and what we wanted to see, we set off for the Capitol building straight away. Dwayne said he had arranged for the rain, the alternative was snow which was not good for the bus wheels, and he said that it would mean there wouldn’t be anyone else around. I suppose he was right about that. The first stop we got to go out of the bus and get a quick photo of the Capitol building.

Capital building with scaffolding

We then went round the various monuments and I had a lot of practice at night photography! Thankfully my little camera wasn't too bad. We learnt quite a bit as Dwayne was really knowledgeable. Unfortunately in the latter stages Kathryn's feet (as were mine) were totally soaked so she didn't get out at the last couple of stops. On the positive side, we had the monuments totally to ourselves, and they did look spectacular at night so it was a real treat for us.

Above are all shots of the World War 2 memorial

 Above are all of the Lincoln memorial

Final shot of the wet streets