Max and the city: Washington D.C.

Good evening, ladies, how’re you doin’, bros?

I’m back from Washington D.C., let me tell you about my experiences there...

We took a double-decker from „megabus“ (the second largest bus-company in the U.S.), and 4 ½ hours and 20$ later, we arrived at the capital of this peaceful country.
For those who want to learn something: Washington D.C. lays in the District of Columbia, between Maryland and Virginia (that’s what „D.C.“ means, because in 1871 the city and the district were merged to a single entity). It’s population has nearly reached the 590000...but you know what...
=> wikipedia

After having handled the difference between the a.c. in the bus and the outside’s temperature (90°F), we met Stefan, a friend of Hannes, who works as a practicioneer here for 6 weeks. He could show us some of the most important sights as you can see on the pictures below. D.C. is a very clean and, compared to NYC, silent city. I wondered about the load of homeless everywhere, later I learned that many of them are veterans and because of that they are allowed to stay.

White house

The government's men...

The Washington-monument’s hight is 170m (don’t ask how many feet, metrical system rules!!!), you can see it from every part of the city...so i took pictures of it from every part of the city, too.
Another place to see are the United States Navy Memorial and the "Mall", a long park with the Capitol on one end, the Washington monument on the other, and on it's sides most of the important museums.

The Mall

Navy Memorial (stupid car driver!)

Capitol

We also went into the National Archives where we could see the famous Bill of rights, which should protect freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep arms(just for protection!!!), the freedom of assembly, and the freedom to petition.

Bill of rights

In the evening, we went to Stefan’s apartment by Metro and searched for a liqueur-store. They had no beer, but wine...a LOT of wine! We decided to take an Australian and a Californian one and ordered some Chinese food.
We had something to drink, something to eat, so we could plan for the next days...Christoph and I wanted to get out early to get tickets for going upstairs onto the monument, but it was raining too much. I think we were both glad about it, 2 hours more sleeping felt like heaven!

After Donuts and Coffee at „Dunkin’ Donuts“ we visited the famous Arlington-cementary...it’s a strange feeling to stand between 300000 graves of members of the U.S.-army or the marines...
this is also the place where the Iwo Jima memorial is. Iwo Jima is an Japanese island on which the US could achieve an important victory in World War II.

Arlington

Iwo Jima

Our next stop was at the Union Station, the main train-station of D.C., to be concrete: „Alamo-cars“, a car rental service...we needed some wheels for a roadtrip. Our choice fell onto a Toyota RAV 4, Birgit and Stefan were chosen as drivers because they are the oldest.

Union station

More power!!!

The last thing we watched in D.C. was the reflecting pool...do you know the scene in „Forrest Gump“, when he runs into the water to hug the girl (forgot her name)? Yes, that’s the reflecting pool.

Reflecting Pool

Abraham Lincoln

This is also the place, where Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. Actually, I liked this and the Lincoln-memorial in front of it most.