On the way to NYC

After spending a long time inside the Udvar Hazy Center I wanted to leave to get back downtown. While grabbing some food, a guy working as a guide approached me and told me that there is an Airbus A380 scheduled to fly by soon. Of course, I didn't want to miss that so I waited. Unfortunately, the Airbus did not come, but we saw a couple of planes coming in to the nearby airport. That was interesting, too, especially since they came in quite low.

It took me a while to get back since I missed a bus (why should the connection bus wait for a minute if he can leave everyone behind for another hour?!). Trying to get into the National Archives failed because they were already closing. Well, maybe I come back one day...

The next morning I wandered around with my backpack trying to kill the time until my bus leaves. So I went to the Martin Luther King Memorial. I expected YAM (yet another memorial) but was quite surprised by it, it's one of the few that seems to have a deeper meaning (at least to me).

It is a half round with quotes by MLK:

I really liked many of the quotes but I don't want to bother anyone with those, you can find them here.

The half round leads to this stone ensemble:


The inscriptions say "Out of the mountain of despair, A stone of hope."

... and "I Was a Drum Major for Justice, Peace, and Righteousness,". The latter was criticized because King did not put it that way. The inscription is therefore meant to be removed this year. For me, this is one of those useless discussions of nitpickers that you find in many places...

On the way to the bus I came along Washington Monument and saw a crowd of people standing there taking pictures. I ran with my heavy backpack to see what is going on and got a shot of what I believe was Marine One taking off from the garden of the White House.

At one of the Smithsonian museums along the National Mall:

Since the bus station is right next to Union Station, I had a chance to look at how a train station looks like in the US. Basically, it is like an airport with gates that let you in when your train is ready to be boarded:

It says: "All MARC passengers must remain inside the station and wait at the assigned gate behind the glass doors until a track has been posted for your train.
For safety and crowd control, passengers are not permitted to wait on the platform area or in the Metro hallway." Look how far we have come...

So I boarded the bus and finally go to New York City after a 3h ride:

Next up: finally some pictures from NYC :)