Washington DC

Washington DC felt different to any city in the USA that I had experienced hitherto. People say that everyone that you meet in DC is either involved in politics in some way, or wants to be. And to some extent, some of the people that I met there seemed to verify that notion.

It's also a very easy city to find your way around. Perhaps partly because I was staying near Columbia Heights Metro stop, I travelled around by Metro quite a lot. The Metro system is marvellous. If anything, it seemed a little underused.

DC is famous for it's Museums. There are many, and lots of them are free. I'm a great fan of free Museums. It was one policy that new labour brought in 1997 in the UK. I remember going to London Museums before that, and they were expensive. The thing that I like about free Museums - and apologies, if this is really obvious - is that you can just wander in and out of them at will. After an hours browsing you can take yourself off for a coffee. Office workers can spend 45 minutes of their lunch breaks in them.

With hindsight, given that I was in DC for a week, I wish that I had spent more time in Museums. But there we are. Two of the best that I went to were the Natural History Museum and the Museum of Flight. The highlight of the latter was joining Titus Auberon in a flight simulator. He was the pilot and I was the gunner in a military aircraft. Great fun, but as I said to him afterwards, I don't fancy getting into a car he's driving. The simulator seemed to be quite advanced and several times we appeared to be flying upside down. Exciting

Although it was quite cold when I was in DC, it was often sunny. and it's a great town to walk around, what with the large open streets and attractive buildings. Another nice thing about DC, is that in the centre, you hardly need a map to navigate (even if, like me you are hopeless at navigation). So when someone asks you to meet them at 22 and M (i.e. the corner of 22nd street and M Street), it's easy because the streets follow a 'grid iron' pattern with ascending numbers and letters, running perpendicular to one another. It does make life as a tourist easier. And you can concentrate on sightseeing rather than gawping at a map.

Half way through my time in DC. I said goodbye to Titus and Catherine after a morning spent at the Arlington cemetary and went to meet Benedict Alexander, Jean-Jacques and some others who had come down from New York on a bus. It was a strange juxtaposition, although I had plans to meet up with Titus and Catherine in Seattle, I'd been with them now on and off for ten days or so. They were heading north to Montreal and soon I would be heading south for Florida and some warm weather.