Library of Congress.

We got up and headed to the metro stop at about 10.30am. Since it took about an hour to get to Downtown we arrived at about midday and headed to the Capitol which is where congress meets. This building also houses the senate and the Supreme court. After passing through security and being forced to throw away our body spray and raisins?? we then embarked on a free tour of the building. The 45 mins tour started with a short introductory video on the history of the building which was quite interesting, we then proceeded to follow the guide to the room where the supreme court meets, the rotunda where we were able to see a lovely Al-fresco however we weren't allowed to climb up to the balcony just below it much to Mae's disappointment and an amphitheatre like room filled with a cross section of important people in the history of the USA. This room is also impressive for the acoustics, you can stand in certain spots and talk quietly and someone the other side of the room can hear you as if they were stood next to each other! I have to say that the architecture was stunning and the tour is worth doing although very short. We then proceeded through an underground passage to the library of congress which is even more impressive. There were two main rooms in the building, the entrance hall which was entirely made of marble and had a balcony surrounding the ground floor level which was decorated by numerous pillars of pure white marble. The second room was the reading room which is octagonal and surrounded by 8 statues representing different branches of human endeavour. Each of these is flanked by 2 statues of people representing those fields, for example poetry was represented by Shakespeare and Homer. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos of the room or even enter it without a reading card which you need your passport to acquire, neither could we find a postcard which does it justice so you will have to go see it for yourselves. After the Capitol we walked round the National Botanic Gardens which included an Orchid room which was unbelievably beautiful, Mae has added this garden to her very long list of things she wants one day!! Our next stop was the Smithsonian castle where we learned about the Smithsonian museums which flank either side of the National Mall as well as including the national zoo all of which are free!! We then walked across to the museum of natural history which we spent an hour looking round at the dinosaur fossils, giant squid and various displays on evolution which I'm sure the god people take much offence to!! They also have areas where you can watch the research currently taking place. After being thrown out rather unceremoniously, of the museum at closing time we went to look at the Washington monument which due to recent earthquake damage we were not allowed to go inside and the white house which from the front was somewhat reminiscent of the house in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. We also got to witness the police shouting at some protester for no apparent reason. We then got back on the metro to go back to the rest stop for the night.