The National Mall

Monday 9 August

Lincoln Memorial

My plan was to walk the length of the National Mall so I walked down to the Lincoln Memorial - even at 10am it was already sweltering! The Memorial stands in a huge circle by the Potomac River and is in the form of a Greek temple with an enormous statue of Lincoln seated and looking out towards the Washington Monument. There was a sign saying that there would be a talk by a National Park ranger so I waited around for that. I had expected it to be 10-15 minutes long but it turned out to be 40 minutes of fascinating detail about Lincoln's life, the construction of the monument and events (such as Martin Luther King's "I have dream" speech) that have taken place since it was built.

Korean Memorial

I walked down to the left hand side of the Mall to look at the Vietnam Memorial which consists of black granite slabs with the names of thousands of soldiers who dies engraved in it. On the other side of the Mall I looked at the Korean War Memorial which has sculptures of soldiers struggling through the paddy fields.

Next stop was the WWII Memorial, which almost like a circular temple surrounding a big shallow pool. Since a number of others were dipping their feet in the water, I thought I would too. Bliss!

US Capitol

I walked past the Washington Memorial and the Capitol came into full view although still three quarters of a mile away. On either side of the Mall at this point there are a number of museums belonging to the Smithsonian Institution and I made my way to the Museum of American History. This was a huge place with displays about the development of transport in the US, the office of President and entertainment down the years. Bearing in mind this is only one of many Smithsonian museums it is mind-boggling to think what the rest of it must contain.

After a couple of hours in the museum I continued down to the Capitol to take some pictures and to find out where to go for my tour booked for tomorrow.

I went back to the hotel and after dinner went down to take some night-time shots of the White House.