Day 42 Monday 29th September, Around Washington D.C.

Today we were rudely awoken by noise that Dale describes as an enormous woodpecker in the Hotel basement.  It started at just after 8am. I flew out of bed and rang reception to query the racket which was explained off as jack hammers and some hotel "garage renovations".  We let them know we were not impressed (at all).

Today we were taking the car back. The return office was located at Union Station which was only a few blocks away. The GPS took us to the address but it all seemed a bit confusing outside this massive station with no sign of the "National Car Hire Office" to be seen. With very few options we  followed a lane-way up a ramp that seemed to go into the back of the station and much to our surprise there were all the rental car companies.  A bit of confusion then occurred with about twice as many cars trying to fit in the required space but eventually we managed to hand the keys back after some very close inspection and we escaped back into the station.  A very impressive building built in the early to mid 1700's which now has in excess of 17 million visitors a year.

Union Station, Washington DC

Inside view of part of Union Station

We then got on the Hop On/ Hop Off tour bus which had been recommended by the Hotel. This proved to be an excellent tour and although we ran out of time we managed to tour around a lot of Washington and take a lot of photo’s. We still have tomorrow. Our tickets also included a Cruise on the Potomac River but the boat was booked so we had to miss that. Near the end of the day we also got caught in a traffic jam when a Motorcade closed several intersections, suspicions are that President Obama was going home for dinner.

Capitol Building

Traffic Jam when Motorcade went to the White House

Einstein' Statue, if you look closely you can see his polished nose, apparently it is good luck to rub his nose and the practice is encouraged

We had so much fun we decided to do the night tour as well which apart from seeing the city at night, took us to the Martin Luther King, Franklyn Roosevelt, Lincoln, Korean War, Vietnam War and Iwo Jima (Marine Corps) Memorials.

White House - South Lawn view

Original lock on the canal in Georgetown

Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial by night

White House at night