Washington DC

The Capitol

Cherry blossom and panoramic vistas with striking monuments will be my abiding impression of Washington.  It’s not what I had expected.

On Easter Sunday we watched people rushing to church, young and old, all dressed in their Sunday best.  The neighbourhood we wandered through looked surprisingly English with Victorian type houses and neat front gardens.  

Downtown was different.  Here you felt the hustle and bustle of city life.  The roads were still wide and the buildings not overly tall so you weren’t hemmed in.  The pavements were busy though and I nearly went flying when I got between a lady and her lunch venue. She yelled "excuse me Ma'am," as she walked into me.

Food is important.  It came in different varieties and sizes to fit all budgets.  There were eateries everywhere, fast food vans, salads, sushi, Mexican, lobster and of course hamburgers. Each morning we went for breakfast at The Corner Café Bakery.  We thought this would be straightforward, but we were always bewildered by the choice. Making ourselves understood was difficult and we never understood their replies.  In the end, I ordered the same thing every morning - a fresh berry yoghurt parfait, which was delicious.   We would sit in the same seats at the window and watch people hurrying from Union Station to work with their take-out coffee.  The homeless would scurry in, furtively looking over their shoulder as they helped themselves to drinks, filling up whatever receptacles they had to last them through the day.   The managers of the establishment turned a blind eye, which seemed the charitable thing to do.  

The Washington Monument

It's a very walkable city and on our first day we walked about twenty miles.  We started from Capitol Hill and walked down The National Mall, taking in The Washington Monument, a towering 555ft pinnacle stark white against the blue sky.  The World War II Memorial had a huge water feature and was a popular place to sit.

The Lincoln Memorial in the distance

The Lincoln Memorial was crowded, but provided a good view of the Mall and the Reflecting Pool.  The Vietnam Memorial seemed understated yet extremely moving.  The volunteers answered questions with patience and sensitivity. We walked across the border to Virginia and wandered around Arlington Cemetery, which was so vast that we missed J F Kennedy's grave with its eternal flame.  We walked to Georgetown – a lovely neighbourhood with Victorian houses and a happening vibe.  Then it was on to the White House, where we joined the crowds gazing across the rear lawn while a security man with a gun patrolled the roof.  I was sure the President was going to appear, but our feet ached so we didn’t wait. 

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Reynolds Centre, which houses the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, was one of my favourite places - paintings by David Hockney, Picasso and an Andy Warhol, all set in an historic building with cosy nooks where one could sit and contemplate.  In its centre is a vast atrium where I tucked into a delicious mandarin cheesecake.

The Smithsonian group of museums are all free.  There are so many that it could keep you occupied for days.  We went to the American Indian Museum, The Air and Space museum, The National Gallery of Art – both East and West Buildings.  The East Building is undergoing renovations, but even so, the space was full of light and felt exactly right for the modern art on display.  There is a moving walkway with twinkling lights linking the old building to the new. 

Alexander Calder's incredible mobile in the East Building

I spent a happy hour sitting in the Sculpture Garden in the sun, under the watchful gaze of one of Louise Bourgeois’s giant spiders.   

The Kennedy Centre hosts free concerts each day from 6pm.  We walked there – not to be recommended as we ended up on a freeway!  We eventually arrived just in time to see The Howard Gospel Choir.  It was standing room only and we happened to be standing next to a lovely lady who couldn’t believe we had arrived on foot.  She told us how lucky we were to be seeing such a good choir.  She also told us about the free shuttle bus running between the Centre and Foggy Bottom metro station - my feet breathed a sigh of relief! Part way through the concert some seats became free and we ended up in the second row so we were indeed lucky.  It was an experience I’ll never forget and one of the highlights of our stay. We went back to The Kennedy Centre on our last evening to see The National Symphony Orchestra with a solo performance of Brahms Violin Concerto by Nikolaj Znaider - a stellar performance in a stunning environment.    

Howard Gospel Choir

The cherry trees along the Tidal Basin were beautiful, (it was the National Cherry Blossom Festival) and the banks were packed with visitors posing for their cherry blossom photo.  The Martin Luther King Jr Memorial is located here among the cherry trees with the water sparkling in the distance.  It is the newest memorial on the Mall and the first one to honour an African American.

We took a tour of The Capitol – the Rotunda was undergoing renovations, but this didn’t detract from our experience made all the more interesting by our enthusiastic guide.  Afterwards we wandered through the botanical gardens admiring the exotic orchid exhibition.

Opposite The Capitol is The Library of Congress.  It is a spectacular building and I chose a quiet time to visit, which meant I didn’t need to queue to see the reading room – setting for the film All The Presidents Men apparently.

The Reading Room at The Library of Congress

Sadly we weren’t able to do a tour of the White House as it is necessary to book tours weeks, if not months, in advance.

Lunch on our last day was at Rosa Mexicana where they prepared guacamole at our table - delicious! After lunch we wandered through the cherry trees on the Mall.   They were past their best and we felt lucky to have seen them a week earlier.

Start of the week

End of the week

    

A Walk of Contrasts

Serra Segaria with Montgo in the distance

The instructions in the book were clear – head to the second square at the village of Benimeli for the start of the walk.  Having done two complete circuits of the village and tried our Spanish out on a young girl we were none the wiser as to where the walk started.  Luckily a local bar owner, seeing us for a second time, took pity on us and pointed out the route.  The walk followed an old mule track as it twisted its way up the hillside, through squat bushes of rosemary and lavender.  It was a steep ascent and we had 400 metres to climb.  We were heading for phone and aerial masts high on the ridge above us – ugly, but a necessity in this modern age.  I was amazed to arrive at a small car park and road, which was disappointing after all the effort.  Still, at least we had the satisfaction of arriving there on foot.  Soon we were overlooking the summit towers of the Serra Segaria.  This was the point where the book said we must turn back as to continue along the ridge needed climbing skills, so we sat for a while drinking in the view before retracing our steps. We followed the road downhill before picking up the path.  The northern side of the mountain was verdant, very different from the arid southern side.  Cutting through a col back to the southern side we saw the plain stretched out below us, a giant chequerboard of orange groves.  

Overlooking the coastal plain and rice-growing marshes

We headed back to the bar and rewarded ourselves with a Carajillo (strong coffee with brandy).  The bar tender seemed surprised to see us so soon - I’m guessing he thought we would get lost!  

The book must be wrong!

Today’s walk started in the town of Gata de Gorgos, which must be famous for basket-ware judging by the number of shops selling rattan products.  We seem to have adjusted to Spanish time so we didn’t start the walk until 1.30pm, which allowed us no spare time if we went wrong!  It was a 12km walk with a long haul up to just over 400 metres and then down again.  The walk took us over a dry riverbed and then through terraces of ancient olive groves.  The sound of barking dogs followed us, but it wasn’t long before we left it behind.  At one point the path bore no resemblance to the descriptions in the book and, as I said, we had no spare time for mistakes.  After much pondering and retracing of footsteps we decided to follow the main drag only realising at the end we had missed out one of the minor peaks, which was just as well as we didn’t get back until it was almost dark!  

There's green in them there hills!

Here on the Costa Blanca everyone wants to be by the sea and who can blame them with gorgeous seascapes and the mild climate.  But all these people need somewhere to live.  With all the urbanisation there doesn’t seem to be much green, but look more closely and seemingly remote footpaths can be found.  Today we did walk number 7 in the Cicerone Walking on The Costa Blanca book – Castell de Granadella.  And what a gem of a walk it was.   Rated easy to moderate we weren’t expecting to scramble or cling onto chains embedded into the cliff and to feel so far from civilisation.  Thank goodness this hidden valley remains protected by Javea Council from the pernicious onslaught of urbanisation. 

          

Five Miles From Home And Hopelessly Lost!

Magic mushrooms?

This weekend we visited the church at the small hamlet of Salvetat-des-Carts for a Concert de Noel.  The church was full and everyone sang with gusto.  There was mulled wine and cake afterwards.  Whilst parking the car we had noticed a footpath sign so we went back today to investigate.  We had the Najac IGN map, which showed a route past the church, down into the valley and which seemed to link back to the footpath we had seen.  I like a circular walk always hating retracing my footsteps.  Unfortunately the path soon petered out.  The views from here were so different from normal and we soon felt disorientated.  Several barbed wire fences and gates later we found ourselves on the wrong side of the fence in a field full of cows.  Not wanting to disturb them we spotted the road in the distance and decided to head for it.  This was easier said than done as we stumbled down slopes, through brambles and over and under barbed wire fences.  We even had to ford a stream, well we would have done if it hadn't been dry.  Eventually we stumbled onto the road looking like we had been dragged through a hedge backwards - well we had!  We followed the road uphill for half a mile where we were rewarded with a view of Najac - one that we had never seen before. And from there we took a well signed footpath back to Salvetat-des-Carts without having to climb over any more barbed wire fences.

The way was blocked!

Najac

Castanet PR1

It is always special walking from our own front door.  We bought this book from the library at Varen and yesterday we did our first walk from it.  We were looking for a new walk we could do without getting in the car.

It was a beautiful day, more like summer than autumn so, we packed a picnic and headed up the Mazerolles footpath to join the route.  It is a three hour circular walk.  We were astounded to find that, although we thought we knew the area well, most of the walk was along footpaths new to us.  We stopped for lunch at the charming hamlet of La Piale.  We didn’t see a soul, apart from a lone hunter who assured us that it was safe to continue and, towards the end, about 30 motorcyclists!  This being France, we all respected each other’s enjoyment of the environment, which meant we didn’t get shot at or run over!  It was a delightful walk, enhanced by the golden autumn colours and the fact that we were on new territory.

On Pech Maurel the highest point at 504m

Lunch spot at La Piale

LA ROCHELLE

A spare night en route to the UK late September meant we had time for a quick stopover at La Rochelle, which has been on our list of places to visit for a long time.  Everyone we spoke to said how much they loved La Rochelle so we were pleased to find that it lived up to the hype.  We arrived on a busy Saturday afternoon and struggled to find our way through the maze of one way systems.   We stayed at the Entre Hotes, which was located in a tranquil street, but just a short walk to the centre of things.  

On Sunday we did the historic town walk recommended on the map from the tourist office, ending up at Restaurant Andre where we ate the best fish meal we had eaten in a long time.  It was a shame the visit was so short, but at least we’ve still got lots to discover next time!