How can one visit the United States of America and not make a trip to Washington, D.C, the capital? The capital of U.S., Washington, D.C., is a beautiful city which is situated on the Potomac River and borders the states of Maryland and Virginia. It has magnificent monuments and buildings including the ones that house the federal government’s 3 branches – the Capitol, White House, and Supreme Court. Here is what my experience was like when I got a chance to visit this wonderful city.
Starting at Boyds, Maryland
I went to visit my friend in Washington DC, who lives in Boyds, Maryland. It is all very green, a big forest with a sprinkling of houses here and there. Boyds is around fifty kilometres from Washington. I decided to enjoy the serenity around there before I hit the main attractions of the city and also catch up with my friend who I met after a long time. Next morning, we took the commuter train from Boyds to Washington DC. Our destination was the National Mall.
National Mall and surrounding attractions
This is the main attraction of the capital city of the USA. It’s a huge landscaped park which extends from the Lincoln Memorial near the bank of the Potomac River to the United States Capitol Building, with the Washington Monument about halfway between them. The main sights of Washington DC are all located in this area. It contains a number of museums, art galleries, memorials, statues and cultural institutions.
A peek at the White House
As we walked from downtown Washington towards the National Monument, the White House appeared first in our sights. We took pictures from outside its fenced off lawns and saw many policemen around there. We asked one of them if tours of the inside are available and he said you have to apply six months in advance, and only US citizens are allowed inside. So we walked on, to the various places we could manage before our legs gave out. It’s better to take a paid tour that combines walking and a car because the place is too big to see everything in one day on foot.
Checking all the tourist spots on my trip to Washington, D.C.
We visited the Washington Monument, a tall tower. It’s been shown in so many movies, like the Lincoln Memorial. We did not go inside as we had no time since I was only staying for a day there. We managed to see the Lincoln Memorial, The National Museum of Natural History, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution Building, walked beside the reflecting pool, in the Constitution Gardens, saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and stood on the bank of the Potomac River. And there was so much more for which we had run out of time. But the places we did manage to visit left me with a very nice memory of the wonderful architecture in Washington.
The Smithsonian is one among the must-see museums in the world.
We had a nice lunch and let me tell you it was quite a task for me to choose one place as there were dozens of cafes there which were flooded with tourists as it was July. Life fills to the brim if you just stand there and take it all in.
It all ended too soon and we walked back to the train Station and took the train to Boyds, Maryland. Even though a short trip but I still managed to see many of the places and crossed them off my list of must visit places!
