Arrived Washington

We have just arrived at our Washington DC hotel - the highly eccentric Tabard Inn, a collection of old houses with highly individual rooms, old sofas and fireplaces etc, named after the Chaucer one. Our trip here on Greyhound was great, even better for only costing $17 dollars each. Our final day in New York was as wonderful as the others, the weather even better, bright blue sky and cooling breeze and we spent the morning at MoMA - a knockout collection and building, then walked down Firth Avenue a bit to look at the Public Library and the Rockefeller Centre before catching a bus down to the Village - where Washington Square, the main outdoor area, was heaving with humanity in every shape and activity. We wandered about before treating ourselves to the full burger experience, the first in the week we have been here. Finally in the early evening we visited Grand Central Station, which was even more spectacular than its reputation suggests and all so clean and polished, a huge hall all strangely hushed for a busy train station. Brian New York was so much more interesting than I had imagined, loads of people-watching to be done - beautiful people at the museums and art galleries, scruffy , scabby, sad people on the streets, always someone asleep on the grids just out side the subway station we used and a small group, usually three, sleeping in a quiet corner of the Starbucks we went to to get on line and have an early morning hot beverage. This morning as we had a wait at the bus station for our Greyhound bus to Washington I gave my subway ticket (three days remaining) to an old guy with numerous plastic bags and a cold coffee in front of him and he took it so graciously I felt he had done me a good deed! On a sartorial note ladies, New York women wear ballet flats or trainers only people of uncertain gender seem to wear very high heels and most of those don't seem to be in control of forward motion. Mostly New Yorkers seem fairly ordinary, verging on scruffy in their dress with one or two notable exceptions. Lots of lace or net dresses and skirts and lots of see through or gauzy stuff with solid under garments under. Lots of dresses with dropped hems at the back, lots of very tightly fitting things. People seemed very friendly though, trip on a pavement and someone asks if you are OK, a woman is always Miss no matter her age. If you stand still and look even slightly bemused, someone will ask if you need help or direction and even the guys at Central Park showing off their street dance were full of bonhomie and seemed to be delighted to be photographed and did not seem to want money. Today the bus journey was fab, quiet, comfortable almost no holdups and got to Washington right on time, the only scary thing was the on board 'rest room' the scariest chemical toilet with the most huge, yawning view down to the sea of blue stuff beneath. We also had a charming driver named Todd, who welcomed us all aboard. Now a beer and then a little look round the near bits of Washington. Tess