Days 27 & 28. 9th & 10th May. Arlington cemetery, Capitol Hill, etc. Then on to texas

Day 27 -
Today we decided to get the loan bicycles from the hotel and cycle into town and over to the Arlington Cemetery. It was a beautiful, balmy perfect clear sky day - no wind and just perfect for cycling. We went down towards the Captitol, stopped at the Needle and wondered at its massive height! Then we rode past the Lincoln Memorial and the impressive parks, over the Potomac river bridge and along to Arlington - it is H.U.G.E. You have no idea how many military men and women have been bureid there since the first american wars.....400,000 in total! It is very humbling.

We purchased the train tour they offer there for $13.50 each which was well worth it as they take you areound  on open train carriages, telling you what and who is where and you get off at the stops. We went to the Kennedy graves, the tomb of the unknown soldier and watched the changing of the guard that happens every half an hour. So much pride, it is great to see.

We also went over to the giant statue from the battle of Iwo Jima, now that is impressive! And I think the blue sky added to how grand it looked. There is a giant statue with a bell in it nearby that rings and plays a tune - this is from the Dutch to thank the americans for their support.

Photos in the hall in the entrance to Arlington Cemetery

Then we rode  back into town and visited the Lincoln memorial, just to see that there wasnt an apes head on his shoulders like they portrayed in Planet of the Apes!!!! Then we cycled down Pennslyvannia Ave. It was a little surreal cos we arent used to cycling without a helmet, so biked on the footpaths as they are so wide here (and thats what all the other cyclists do) but in Pennsylvnia Ave they have a really wide double lanes that you can bike down that is not accessible to cars, so we meandered up this magnificent road with grand old buildings, cycling towards the domed Capitol - it was awesome!

 
Stopped for an upmarket lunch, sitting outside under the trees on our way back!

We got back and decided we were feeling those 20+ kms we had just cycled!, packed our suitcases up and went and got a pret-a-manger  salad and sandwich for dinner.  The into bed, write the blog, upload the photos and sleep!

Day 28-
Up and out to the supershuttle at 7.45am, they guy was very nice but he didnt seem to have calculated what time he had to get us to the airport, so consequently we were 25 mins late for chck in but it was quiet as, so we were able to work straight up to the counter. We then were told we were 11lbs overweight on Graemes suitcase which was weird as we have been through quite a few airports since arriving and we have not been overweight and havent bought anything extra??! But taking out Graemes camera bag and shuffling some more into mine we were ok and managed to avoid the extra $1000 US D charge !! Through Dulles airport no issues and flew out to Charlotte on a smaller plane which was really comfortable. We had seating in different rows on this leg and I ended up talking to a older lady beside  me, Lee who was very interesting and we talked the 1 1/2 hour  trip. Then  off the plane and power walked through a verrrry long terminal to catch our next leg to Houston. We got there just as they started boarding - man it was a tight turn around and if you couldnt walk very fast, you would have missed the connection!! Fine for us though.

We flew the 2 1/2 hour flight fine but didnt appreciate the middle aged couple in front of us who instantly reclined their seats back all the way which was considerable,  while reading bible verses....obviously their faith and respect didnt extend to the people jammed in like sardines behind them.  But after  about an hour the wife put hers up - guess my knees being jammed into her seat was annoying! But we didnt put ours back on the people behind as this plane was so  tight a space.  Anyhow, we got there fine and through to the luggage no problems, where Tony and Connie  picked us up an took us to their very lovely home. We had all met in 2015 on a coach tour, so is great to see them again.

We went out to the Tin Roof BBQ restaurant for some authentic chicken fried seak and ribs - was lovely, then into bed after a long day!