Lancaster & UK

The Holocaust Museum

The museum is done very nicely… though the content of the museum is though. The bottom floor focuses on the Olympics in Germany during Hitlers time. It was very strange looking at the press reports of the time. There were some words of boycott, voices that pointed at the Antisemitism at the time in Germany (and also how well they covered all  up). I couldn’t help comparing it with the Opening of the Olympic Games (that just happened to be a couple of days ago). The “good” impression China left after the games (very similar indeed).  I know, basic human rights for all are  dreams for the idealist.

Well then you go up to the first floor the exhibition guides you through material that shows the various stage of the pre-second world war up to the foundation of the state of Israel. Though material that helps to understand how 'it' could happen; (actually that one feels really scary as it could happen time and again... and humans are not famous for learning from the errors of others)...  Also America doesn’t look that good in the  museum. In order to get Asylum to America (as a Jewish person) you had to go through a ridiculous amount of paper work (they had economical difficulties and feared for their jobs due to new immigrants)… well getting out of Germany  was really difficult no country granted asylum… as I said, you won’t feel very happy after that visit; but still worth going there.
(image source: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News/register/Nov5_01/images/holocaust.jpg)
This shoes: The last witness of the victims (before going to the gas chamber)…

Monuments by night!

Getting up on Saturday is clearly a heroic act (especially if some party was the previous day). Being the early bird has advantages, you can pick up the free cards for some attraction. Today we got some cards for the Monument in the Morning, went then straight to the Thomas Jefferson Monument and the FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) Memorial.

For the rest of the day, we just chilled out and went then on 8.30pm to the Monument. We had a fantastic view over the city. The only downside of the Washington Monument is that you cannot take any reasonable pictures from the tiny windows up there. We tried hard though :)

We couldn't help thinking that the monument looks a little bit like a robot (with two red eyes on each side) surveilling the city. Clearly, SciFi has some influence on the imagination.

National Gallery of Art: Afghanistan's Hidden Treasure

[Image from www.nga.gov ]This is a truly amazing exhibition showing bits and pieces of Afghanistan's history. For those who have read/seen the kite Runner (or even better, A thousand splendid suns [Khaled Hosseini]) this exibition gives an image to many places you have read about.

The treasures are truly amazing. I found a video on national graphic [Video]. giving some background information about the treasures. I found another video that shows more the items of the treasure. Just click on this Youtube Video (and ignore the voices).

The gallery has other famous works as well, just to mention a few artists: Picasso, Matisse, Giacometti, Lichtenstein, Miro. My favorite picture of this museum is a work from Picasso: La Tragedy.
A nice little place is the coffee on the ground floor: there is a little artificial waterfall. You can see it very close through a glass wall. Looks amazing.

US Capitol

I put myself up to go to the US Capitol this morning. Just before 8am, I arrived at the kiosk. There was already a little queue of about 50 people waiting there. Within half an hour, the queue grew bigger and bigger (and I was actually quite happy having been there :) ... My tour was scheduled for 9.30 am (much too early to grap a coffee from somewhere as everything opens at 10am).

The capitol itself is a cool place. The rotunda (dome) is really impressive. 'lying in state' happens to president (so basically one day Bush's coffin will 'lay in state') and people can come in for condolences... if you have not been president of America, but you have done something extraordinary, then you can 'lay in honor' (so your coffin will also be put in the rotonda). The first women that 'lay in honor' was Miss Rosa Park.

You can take photos inside and get a nice tour that explains the meaning of the images, pictures and statues. Unfortunately, on Saturdays the galleries are closed. The Americans seem to love the Greek ideals. There were plenty of them on the pictures.

My Group is on YouTube

Yesterday, we found the video my working group here produced on the last christmas party. You have to check this one out. The cool thing is that even my mentor is in it. Imagine your boss or prof would be part of it!
YouTube Link

Eating out in DC

Eating out here is much better than anticipated. In DC you have a huge choice in food: just on my corner, there is an Afghan restaurant, an Indian and a Lebanese restaurant. Unfortunately, all need still to be tried. For the friends of spicy food: there is a lot of Mexican food around. And hearing Spanish (pardon Mexican) in the street is quite common. Adam-Morgans (just a little walk away) has a choice of everything and the African food places there are recommended by many. Italian is very 'in' here (hence is far more in the expensive food region). In my guide list, there is even a German restaurant :)

The supermarket offer a good choice. And with a little effort you can eat your traditional food
So far, i have tried some Mexican food (nice) [trying out some grilled cactus leaves], Persian food (also very nice) and looking forward to many good dishes.

There is one thing that is quite nice here too: most of the portions are quite big (and there is now way that I can finish them) ... but you can ask for getting the food boxed without earning any of these special looks. So eating out once is most of the time two meals.

A huge monument tour...

The day started not that great. We wanted to go to the Washington Monument but the tickets for the day were all gone :(.

However,from the monument you have still a nice view to the Capitol. Walking  towards the reflective Basin, we passed by the World War II Memorial (finished in 2004). The Memorial is truly impressive, especially the concave wall that hosts 4 000 gold stars standing for the 400 000 soldiers that lost their life there. And the inscription 'Here we mark the price of freedom'.

Two more memorials before arriving to the famous Lincoln Memorial. The Washington DC Memorial (for all the people from Washington DC who died in WWI and then the Korean War Memorial. Especially the later  is again quite impressive with its black granit and the sculptures showing soldiers.

From there, we arrived at the Lincoln Memorial. He sits there in Greek looking temple  (a magnet for many people). From there  you have a fantastic view to the Washington Monument and the Capitol. Walking back, on the other side there is the Vietnam Veteran Memorial. That one was probably the most moving: on the granit blocks you see all the names engraved of those who  lost their lives... and relatives come to look for the name, leaving often a flower or a note.

In the evening, we went to the Iwo Jima Statue which is based on a picture that showed four soldiers after hissing the american flag on a rocky mountain on Iwo Jima (in Japan). Of the 21,000 Japanese soldiers present at the beginning of the battle, over 20,000 were killed. We were there in the evening; you have  quite a stunning view to the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Museum and the Capitol.

 

The National Air and Space Museum

Apparently, If you have only time for one museum, this should be your choice. I have no comparison yet but it was quite impressive. you can touch some real moon rocket there!

And there are plenty of the 'real' machines, for instance Hidenburgs machine who did the first transatlantic flight from America to Paris. The magnet of the Museum is clearly the space race. You see the moon car, some of the space ships, all the astronauts, old video material of the time, plenty of turbines and mechanical details of the air crafts. And if you take some time to look around, you will see plenty of young boys with sparkling eyes (dreaming of being either an astronaut or a jet pilot). The museum is huge and also a good magnet and surely worth a visit.