Thursday 26^th October

We had to wake at 4.30am and caught the airport shuttle from the hotel around 5am. We had an uneventful check in and caught our connecting flight in Houston without any hassle. Once at BWI we took a supershuttle (shared minicab) to the Fairmont. It took over an hour but we weren’t in any hurry and it was quite an interesting ride although the driver was very uncommunicative. Once at the hotel, in a very nice room, we showered and changed, and went down to the restaurant for dinner, which was excellent, if a bit pricey!

Friday 27^th October

We overslept and didn’t wake up until after 9am. We missed breakfast but did my emails whilst having coffee in the public lounge where there is free internet. We could have got internet in our room but it would have involved filling in a long questionnaire to register so I didn’t bother.

We then walked for about ten minutes to the metro stop at Foggy Bottom (we loved the name!) and sussed out how to get a ten-dollar metro card each, before taking the metro to the stop nearest to the National Gallery of Modern Art. We spent several hours enjoying the Gallery and having a bite of lunch in their cafeteria. They were exhibiting some interesting early Picasso’s as well as a good selection of other modern and contemporary painters, such as Giacometti, Braeck, Fenniger, Pollock, Calder and others. The sun was still shining, so we wandered along the green areas between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial and sat for a while in the sunshine. We decided against visiting the Museum of the American Indian and instead returned on the metro and walked through the ‘historic’ part of Georgetown. It was an interesting place, with a number of art deco building, restaurants and shops. We wandered down past a dry canal that they are obviously renovating and then to the Potomac River. Here we found an area reminiscent of the South Bank in London where we sat in comfy seats, chatted to a few people and enjoyed a couple of drinks in the sun before they came and lit a trough of pebbles in front of us to keep away the evening chill, which it did very effectively. We then retraced our steps a little and had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant we had passed before. The food was good and I was able to have a very nice, smooth glass of grappa before walking back to the hotel.

Saturday 28^th October

We were late getting up again! As Ryan was busy revising for an exam we had decided to make our way to Baltimore and meet him at the flat. Our metro cards were sufficient to get us to Union Station where we found there was over an hour to wait for the MARC so we caught the Amtrak which was more expensive but quicker. We took a taxi to 8 North Howard Street from Penn Station but then were unable to get into the building! We tried entering the number of the flat and Ryan’s name on the keypad, all without any effect. After about five minutes luckily someone exited the building and we snuck in! The lady in the office rang Ryan and we eventually made contact. After a welcome cup of cof,fee we walked around the corner to Lexington Market where we had amazingly good lump Maryland crab cakes for lunch, from Fraidley’s. Apparently, this market stall (or stalls for they take up a whole corner of the market hall) is famous for serving the best crab cakes in town and it was certainly doing a roaring trade.

We then returned to the flat before driving out to Fort McHenry. This is the site where the Americans repulsed the dastardly English from invading Baltimore, and the Star-Spangled Banner poem was written. We had a pleasant walk along the river and I sat and enjoyed the sunshine whilst Iain and Ryan did the museum bits.

Having re-parked Ryan’s car back at the flat, we walked down to the harbour and sat outside, having a drink. When it got a bit cool we took an uber to a little cocktail bar around the corner from the Helmund, where we intended to eat. We had visited this bar when we were with Lizzy and Ryan last year; the cocktails were different but no less delicious. Unfortunately, the Helmund had no tables, so Ryan took us to a Food Hall where he recommended the food as being very good. It was certainly a different experience but the Korean dishes we had were excellent and there were seats at the tables (unlike where we had been for lunch). It was also a great deal cheaper! Ryan got us an uber and we caught the 9.15 MARC train back to Washington. For some reason it was unable to complete its journey and we all had to detrain and take the metro to Union Station. This involved a change to another line partway along and by then Iain had realised that we were actually on the line that went to Foggy Bottom, so we stayed on and argued the toss when we arrived. Another couple had done the same and after a phone call they allowed us out! We got back to the hotel about 11.30pm so a late night for us!