Washington DC; Monday, 27 August, 2018

After checking out of the hotel I headed down the road a couple of blocks to the interestingly named Foggy Bottom metro station and caught the metro over to the Smithsonian Museums.

I had intended on spending part of the previous day looking round them, but with the security alert having put paid to that I now had only half a day to try and do as much as possible. Thankfully the museums are all free, so I wasn’t having to worry about wasting entrance fees.

First stop, after a quick wander round the grounds of the Smithsonian Castle, was the Hirsshorn modern art gallery to take in their collection and from there it was a short walk to the neighbouring Air and Space museum.

This is one of the more impressive, and busier of the Smithsonian Museums, housing models of lunar modules, the nose cone of a 747 and various other exhibits – perhaps some of the most important being the Spirit of St Louis and the Wright Flyer – the machine that made the first powered flight.

Whilst the museums are free to look around they clearly recoup much of their costs through the horrifically expensive and not particularly pleasant food available for purchase in the cafes. I had a particularly unappetising lunch and then headed down the road to the neighbouring museum of American Indians.

This museum traces the history and culture of the different indigenous tribes that called the Americas home before the Europeans marched in and colonised their land. The museum has a rotating display focusing on only a couple of tribes at a time, as well as a general overview on the various nations.

Having looked round the museum I crossed over the road and visited the Botanic Garden and the National Conservatory to have a look at some of the native species of plants that exist across the states. It was also an opportunity, in an increasingly muggy day, to go and sit in a couple of cooler greenhouses for a little while – the arid desert and Hawaiian being the most pleasant.

With time starting to run out I had just enough time left to head back down the National Mall and have a brief look round the Natural History museum – including their impressive Dinosaur exhibition and their even more impressive Hope Diamond – before heading back to the metro and onto the hotel to pick up my luggage.

From the hotel I timed it just right to pick up the Circulator up to the metro station, which saved a 10-minute walk in quite oppressive conditions. I arrived at Union station with about 20 minutes to spare before the train to Baltimore Washington International Airport station left so I had enough time to get a ticket and get a seat on the train before it headed out of the city.

The station itself is nowhere near the airport so I had to change onto the free shuttle bus that took anther 10 minutes or so to finally reach the correct part of the terminal building for my flight, but that did mean by the time I entered the terminal British Airways already had check-in open and I was able to check-in, clear security and wait for my flight back to London.