Washington DC // 18 July
Our second day in Washington DC involved more indoor sightseeing which was a relief as the weather was still warm and humid. We headed first to the Supreme Court. As Court was not in session, each hour they have a public viewing of the Courtroom. We made sure to join the line early as it’s a pretty rare opportunity. Once in the courtroom we were seated to admire the room and then told about the history, layout and proceedings. It was very interesting and beautiful.
Union Station
Supreme Court (no photos allowed in the Courtroom unfortunately)
After the Supreme Court we headed to the Capitol Building. The whole basement level is dedicated to visitors and it was super busy. We got our timed tickets and grabbed a snack in the restaurant (yum). Our timed tour was a little while off so we went to see the House of Representatives. There were Members presenting their meters to the House (allowed 2mins each) and after a long line which snaked through the building we were able to sit and watch. Afterwards it was time for our tour. The tour took us to three different floors in the building, and we learnt about the history of the building as well as the formation of the government. We visited the Crypt, the Rotunda and the National Statuary Hall. Each State is allowed to donate two statues for display at The Capitol, which must be either marble or bronze, so there are 100 statues. Our guide pointed out the different statues of states that people in our group where from (he has a pretty amazing memory!). The artworks in the Rotunda were amazing, huge canvases depicting points in US history. After the tour we didn’t have time to visit the Senate (knowing how long the line for the House of Representatives took) as we needed to head to the Library of Congress.
The Capitol
The Library of Congress is linked by an underground corridor from the Capitol Building so we opted for this route. We got to the Library of Congress just in time to join the line of people viewing the Reading Room. The Reading Room is only open for viewing at certain times so we didn’t want to miss it. It was an huge, ornate, circular room, it would have been amazing to be in their reading the huge books! We files through silently in our line taking in everything we could. Afterwards we wandered through the rest of the building which was also incredibly opulent.
Library of Congress
