Biking round Washington DC

While picking our bikes up from the bike hire place at the station we saw the Vice President, Joe Bidon, being collected from the train he commutes into work on. There were out-riders, gleaming cars with fluttering flags all that stuff! We took our bikes off for a day of site seeing, cycling round the big green space that has all the huge monuments in it, seeing the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King and the F.D. Roosevelt Monument. America certainly does a grand monument very well indeed, they were all very imposing and the Martin Luther King and F.D.R. monuments very wonderful indeed. We also saw the Capitol (very large) and the White House (surprisingly small in comparison)and many other grand buildings flanking the very wide and imposing avenues. After riding round and looking at the monuments we went to Museums and Art Galleries, all free and all we went to really terrific art galleries, mostly modern. We intend to spend this evening as we spent yesterday evening - a cheap meal at a nearby noodle place and then a very expensive drink (Tess is getting into cocktails) at the bar here at the hotel. We can't bring ourselves to spend the very large amount of money it would take to eat here, this is Washington's oldest hotel with a good reputation for its food, so apart from the breakfast we get anyway those of us not on expenses will have to pass. Still its interesting watching Caroline the barmaid mix those complex cocktails while we act like a pair of sophisticates who spend all their time in cocktail bars. It is a wonderful place for ear-wigging, I have heard people being interviewed, people talking very earnestly about the oil spillage in the gulf, things to do with energy and conservation, there are all sorts of people staying, eating or drinking here. Tomorrow we hire a car and drive north past Baltimore, Philly, and New York back up to New England. We have a B&B near New Haven which sounds good, check out the Kelsey House Bed and Breakfast on Google and see the picture of the old Victorian house standing right on the shoreline of Long Island Sound. Lets hope the journey (which is long) goes well. Brian and Tess