Together at the U.S. Capital

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12th November, 2017
Well, this should have been up long back. But, nevertheless doesn’t it feel good to revisit memories. Today is one of those days when I am feeling like going back in time a bit.

This was her first trip to my place at Baltimore, Maryland. It was a four day trip and we took out one day to visit Washington D.C. We had the wonderful company of our friends Karl and Wan Ting. It was a cold Saturday morning and we woke up early, dressed up in warm clothes to be ready for the breezy weather outside. We hopped on Karl’s car and drove to the College Park metro station where Wan Ting was waiting for us. On our way, we stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts outlet and had some breakfast. Once inside the station, we recharged our metro cards and walked to the platform and weathered the cold breeze for some more time while we waited for the train to arrive.

A 20 min train trip took us to the Union Station at D.C. Up the elevators and we were on the streets of  D.C.

First stop, the National Gallery of Art. (Interesting fact. While writing this, I found out that this building was designed by I.M. Pei, the same man behind the Louvre at Paris. Any folks remember the John Carpenter’s episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Haha! I wish we get to visit the Louvre together someday.)

Pope Innocent X
c. 1650
(Circle of Diego Velazquez)

The Tenth of the 13 saints named Innocent. Well does he look innocent? You decide.

Portrait of a Lady
(German 16th century)

Portrait of a Lady reminded me of Khushwant Singh’s short story Portrait of a Lady.

Portrait of a Man
c. 1507
(Hans Schauffelein)

 

Ill-Matched Lovers
(Quentin Massys)

 

 

Courtesy: Flickr

After being engrossed in art for almost an hour, we decided to take some rest and sat near the Mercury Fountain in the Rotunda. We waited there looking at all the tourists flocking together and waited for our friends.

We decided to leave and made a long walk across the field flanked by the U.S. Capitol on one side and the Washington Monument on the other.
Our next stop was the National Air and Space Museum. We spent some time out there looking at the model of the Hubble Telescope, reading about the first US satellite launches and stuff. They also had models of men’s and women’s space toilets. 😀
Next we went to the Smithsonian Castle but unfortunately it was being renovated. We spent some time in the garden surrounding the castle.
After another long walk we reached the Washington Monument. It seems like the monument has four pairs eyes on four sides if you look right at the top.
On our way to the Lincoln Memorial, we clicked some photos at the pillars of the National World War II memorial. Here’s Oindrila getting excited near the Texas Pillar and Karl at the pillar of Phillipines.

Here’s us at the Lincoln Memorial. Tired from all the day’s walking, we decided that it would be our last stop of the day. We sat on the steps for a while and soaked in the view of the Washington Monument. All of us were hungry and so we decided to have an early dinner at Vapiano, an Italian place.
We had soup, pizza and delicious pasta. I really liked the Pesto pasta Karl had ordered. After our sumptuous dinner, we took the train back to College Park. We bid goodbye to Wan Ting and Karl drove us back home.

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