The weekend after NYC I visited Washington DC. Yeah!! I am on a kinda travel spree. As things stand at work chances are that I may have to pack my stuff and head home by June. So I thought better to get all those tick marks against the must see places in the U.S.
Though I could just spend half a day in the nation's capital, it sure had me captivated. While NYC is full of verve, energy and that throbbing, Washington DC is more sedate, infact noble and 'monumental'. I am sure even Washington DC would have its share of a happening 'nightlife' but then that does not exactly define the character of a city in my opinion.
For a weekend tourist, DC can be clearly divided into two 'must sees' - The Monuments and The Museums. Because I had only about a day to spare I chose to see the Monuments. The monuments essentially are the memorials built in the honor and memory of 1) Thomas Jefferson, 2) Theodore Roosevelt 3) Martin Luther King Jr 4) Abraham Lincoln. The monuments are the Washington Monument, Capitol and ofcourse the most powerful house on the planet - 'The White House'
The weekend I visited, the cherry blossoms were at their peak and so was the 'Cherry Blossom Festival'. There was a bit more crowd than on an average weekend I presumed because of these festivities. Needless to say I got myself quite a few clicks in and around those 'pink' flowers :) . Also the grounds around the Washington Monument were hosting the yearly Kite Festival and it was fun to watch all those kites vying for place in the sky. I was reminded of Makar Sankranti looking at all those kites crowd the blue sky. The Washington Monument still remains close to the public after the earthquake shook it quite a bit.
Each memorial I visited gave me an eerie feeling. Even with the crowd around me my mind couldnt help but thing of how this all would have been say a century or two back. What would have it been like to somehow be among 'these men' when they were still alive and were shaping the destiny of America. It is the same feeling I get whenever I visit any historical place even in India. More often than not I feel like hopping into that 'time machine' and going back into that time, into that era when things were not as easy as they seem to be now, when the foundation of all the future generations was been laid. But alas!!!
Off all the memorials, I found the Martin Luther King Jr memorial to be the best as the concept of the memorial really appealed to me. There was a stone craving of the great social leader on the side of which were engraved the words 'I am the rock of Hope from the Mountain of Despair' and that stone craving was actually cut out of a mountain a few feet behind. Maybe the image below will better make you realize what I am talking about
I must confess though it was a lot to walk and unlike NYC you dont really have anything around where you can sit and have something to munch on at anytime, atleast not around the memorials.
Before I forget we capped off the Washington DC visited with a pretty fabulous Indian fare at Rasika . It had pretty rave reviews and after waiting for 45 mins the food didnt really disappoint us.
Though I could just spend half a day in the nation's capital, it sure had me captivated. While NYC is full of verve, energy and that throbbing, Washington DC is more sedate, infact noble and 'monumental'. I am sure even Washington DC would have its share of a happening 'nightlife' but then that does not exactly define the character of a city in my opinion.
For a weekend tourist, DC can be clearly divided into two 'must sees' - The Monuments and The Museums. Because I had only about a day to spare I chose to see the Monuments. The monuments essentially are the memorials built in the honor and memory of 1) Thomas Jefferson, 2) Theodore Roosevelt 3) Martin Luther King Jr 4) Abraham Lincoln. The monuments are the Washington Monument, Capitol and ofcourse the most powerful house on the planet - 'The White House'
The weekend I visited, the cherry blossoms were at their peak and so was the 'Cherry Blossom Festival'. There was a bit more crowd than on an average weekend I presumed because of these festivities. Needless to say I got myself quite a few clicks in and around those 'pink' flowers :) . Also the grounds around the Washington Monument were hosting the yearly Kite Festival and it was fun to watch all those kites vying for place in the sky. I was reminded of Makar Sankranti looking at all those kites crowd the blue sky. The Washington Monument still remains close to the public after the earthquake shook it quite a bit.
Each memorial I visited gave me an eerie feeling. Even with the crowd around me my mind couldnt help but thing of how this all would have been say a century or two back. What would have it been like to somehow be among 'these men' when they were still alive and were shaping the destiny of America. It is the same feeling I get whenever I visit any historical place even in India. More often than not I feel like hopping into that 'time machine' and going back into that time, into that era when things were not as easy as they seem to be now, when the foundation of all the future generations was been laid. But alas!!!
Off all the memorials, I found the Martin Luther King Jr memorial to be the best as the concept of the memorial really appealed to me. There was a stone craving of the great social leader on the side of which were engraved the words 'I am the rock of Hope from the Mountain of Despair' and that stone craving was actually cut out of a mountain a few feet behind. Maybe the image below will better make you realize what I am talking about
I must confess though it was a lot to walk and unlike NYC you dont really have anything around where you can sit and have something to munch on at anytime, atleast not around the memorials.
Before I forget we capped off the Washington DC visited with a pretty fabulous Indian fare at Rasika . It had pretty rave reviews and after waiting for 45 mins the food didnt really disappoint us.
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