Arlington

It was our last full day of holiday so there was lots we wanted to see today. We decided to start at the Library of Congress. It's the research library of the United States Congress, the de facto national library of the United States of America, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. It has a beautiful interior with stunning painted walls and ceilings that made it look more European in styling. I had not expected it to look so impressive and it took a while to take it all in whilst also visiting some of the other exhibitions in the building.

We then carried on down the road to the Supreme Court to have some lunch and have a look around. The lunch was dreadful which we were surprised by given the building we were in but it was interesting to see one of the court rooms and the famous spiral staircase. We then crossed over to see the Capitol Building. As it was Memorial Day weekend there were loads of school groups around so there was a large queue to get in. We got to the security checkpoint and the guard stopped our backpack to then rescan. There was a queue starting to form behind us as the guard asked me to take some more things out of the bag before rescanning again. She then asked if we had a pocket knife in the bag which of course we didn't but you should have seen the look on the people behind us faces! She then realised it was the mental strip of my sunglasses case and I was rather relieved to be able leave the area. We managed to get on a short tour of the Rotunda which was impressive but we would have liked to see the Senate and House of Representatives but we were too late.

We then jumped in a cab over to Arlington National Cemetery. The weather had turned colder which added to the solemn atmosphere as we walked to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We got there in time to see the changing of the guard and I felt moved by the respect the soldiers gave to it and everything it represented. I was overwhelmed by the scale of the Cemetery and the volume of graves for each person for had given their life for their country. We walked to the grave of John F Kennedy and his family which was low-key and just had a flame continually burning. It certainly made me reflect on a number of things and how sad the concept of war is to lose so many lives around the world.

It was been a busy day so we decided to have room service and get out bags packed as we will be flying home tomorrow.


Arlington National Cemetery, Memorial Dr, Arlington, Virginia