I woke up a little stiff from my stroll around Washington yesterday so I took it a bit easier and caught a couple of cabs. First stop was Arlington National Cemetery which, even though it is just across the Potomac, is in Virginia. Then I made it to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.
The plan was to witness the changing of the guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and in an unnecessary bit of completionist sightseeing, visit the grave site of JFK. Arlington is quite hilly so if you are a little infirm and elderley it is not easy to get around. The site itself is over 250 hectares and there are essentially no vehicles unless you take a trolley tour, which I did and which I wish I didn't. It was only twelve bucks but it was next to pointless. I should have taken the walking tour, which I essentially did in the end anyway.
First stop on the Trolley tour is JFK's gravesite along with much of the rest of the Kennedy clan. Here you view the eternal flame and jostle with tourists trying to capture a suitably sombre photo with their enormous tablets. There are five acres devoted to his grave and if you were above ground the views of Washington would be quite spectacular.
From the Kennedy's I headed towards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I have taken part in services at a similar tomb in our own nation's capital. They are often deeply affecting. Here the tomb is under 24 hour armed guard by 3rd US Army Infantry Regiment, also known as The Old Guard. These guys do all the ceremonial work you see when dignitaries visit Washington. They provide the horse drawn carriages for presidential funerals and all the impressive precision drilling. They are unique in many ways. Depending on the role they will be in a blue colonial army uniform included triangular hat with white powdered whig. They wear red waiscoasts for the fife and drum work they do. They are the only unit allowed to drill with fixed bayonets and the drum major is the only person in the US military who is allowed to salute with his left hand.
Anyway I witnessed the guarding of the tomb and the changing of the guard, all very impressive. The guard takes 21 steps down the mat then faces east for 21 seconds, then faces north for a further 21 seconds, the returns along the mat taking 21 steps. At each turn he shoulders arms with the weapon furthest from the tomb, signifying that the threat will come from the outside. It is all based on the 21 gun salute and the significance of the number has been worked into the ceremony accordingly. They have been doing this since 6 April of 1948. Depending on the time of year and the time of day the guard will be changed every 30 minutes, 60 minutes or 120 minutes.
The Smithsonian National Air & Sapce Museum was something else altogether. I ended up walking to the Lincoln Memorial and catching a cab from there. It is the most popular of the Smithsonians and there is a procession of tour buses belching tourists into it at an unseemly pace. I literally walked through the door and if there hadn't been a fence there I would have run into the Apollo 11 command module. Five metres away was the X-1, the aircraft that Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in. You look up and there is the Spirit of St Louis, the plane Charles Lindberg made the first crossing of the Atlantic in. I was still less than two metres inside the buidling at this time.
Now this place just has it all. There is ICBMs that had been dismantled as part of nuclear treaties. They had the Soviet and American ones on display. There was a German V2 rocket from World War II. They had a predator drone for all the world to see and of course signature aircraft from both world wars including the Spitfire, Mustang, Zero and Messerschmitt. The concept build of the Hubble Space Telescope was there. The piece de resistance however was the actual first plane to achieve controlled, powered flight - the Wright Flyer. Now the other things on display were copious and impressive but whenever Americans thump their chest it is hard to argue with them when you see a museum such as this. The first aircraft to actually fly in 1903 to the aircraft that put man and the moon in 1969, just 66 years. It is pretty damn amazing.
So tomorrow I leave DC and head towards Niagara Falls. I wont do it in a day. The plan is to go through Gettysburg, then end up for the night in Harrisburg. The following day I will quite literally shuffle off to Buffalo. That's the American side of Niagara Falls. So the next few days are kind of planned. I haven't checked the weather but it can't be as bad as a hurricane. Who knows maybe it will snow.
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