a whistlestop tour of Washington DC and Alexandria, Virginia
Are you all Sexed and the Citied out? Want an alternative to long weekends in NYC?
Then put Washington DC and old town Alexandria on your travel wish list. Steven Short shares his six top tips for east coast heaven…
The Hotel Monaco. Situated in the heart of old town Alexandria – George Washington’s hometown – the boutique hotel was recently refurbed and has eco-friendly credentials coming out of its ears (water-efficient installations, printed matter all uses recycled materials and soy based inks, champion of local charities etc). It’s also a lovely place to get married thanks to a sunny terrace and marriage licence.
The Monaco is located in the middle of King Street, Alexandria’s main drag. Turn right out of the hotel and walk a few blocks and you will reach the Potomac river. Pretty riverside paths are home to exotic red sparrows and are ideal for early morning runs (or anytime strolls).
Turn left out of the hotel and after some 15 blocks (about 20 minutes stroll) you reach King Street Metro. Both the yellow and blue lines will take you wherever you want to go (see below for details of how to use the system). If you don’t fancy the walk, and are willing to risk missing all the area’s antique, interiors and bric-a-brac shops, a free tram runs up and down King Street. (See Fabric magazine June issue for full review of The Monaco)
The Metro system: Cheap and easy to use. Listen out for announcements welcoming ‘first timers’ onto the Metro and offering advice. Buy yourself a Farecard from the machines. The fare value starts at $20, you press the minus button until you have your desired fare. The easiest thing is to put $10 on and keep using it until you’ve run out of funds (you’ll get a stamp each time you leave the station telling you how much is left). Top it up at the machines when you get close to zero. (I kept on buying them, rounding up my fare, and throwing them away after each trip, not realising you just added more value to them). Eating, drinking and playing loud music are all prohibited on the system, which makes for very civilised travel. As does the fact that people actually let you off before they try and board.
The National Mall. As yellow taxis and steamy roads are to New York, so Capitol Hill, the White House and the Washington and Abraham Lincoln memorials, all of which are located here, are to Washington DC. You’ve seen them hundreds of times in films but they are still mightily impressive in real life. Catch a cab or train to Smithsonian Metro and you will find yourself slap bang in the middle of everything you want to see. The Capitol building – the hub of government – stands at one end while the Lincoln Memorial resides at the other. Between are various museums including the Smithsonian and the Natural History and American History museums. (I was struck by the sense of space that DC enjoys – unusual for a large US city. I later found out that there is a law that means that no building can be higher than Capitol Hill, which explains the lack of hemming-you-in skyscapers.)
The Washington Memorial soars pointedly into the sky and is well worth a climb. I was blown away by the Abraham Lincoln memorial. Imposing and humbling, it towers over the tourists snapping happily away at its feet and shouldn’t be missed. The White House must also be taken in, if only for the obligatory snapshot. I was surprised by how small it was.
The other mall. Want to take advantage of the weak dollar? Of course you do. Visit Fashion Center mall (directly outside Pentagon City – just four stops from King Street Metro), where you’ll find a Macy’s (ask about tax free shopping), a Nordstrum and lots of fashion outlets. I got a pair of can’t-get-here Levi’s that fit like a glove for $36 and some running shoes for $60 that would cost me more than that in pounds.
Arlington National Cemetery: OK, so visiting a load of dead people may not be your idea of holiday fun but trust me, Arlington is well worth the couple of hours you need to take it in. A quick cab ride (or six Metro stops) away from King Street, the rolling green hills of the military cemetery are the final resting place of around 290,000 people who lost their lives defending the US. It’s extremely humbling to stand and look at line upon line of white gravestones. JFK and Jackie O are also buried here (JFK was laid to rest in 1967) as is Robert F Kennedy, who gets a simple white cross rather than the eternal flame that marks his brother’s spot. Other noteworthy sites are the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Marine Corps War Memorial (based on the iconic photo of soldiers putting up a flag at the battle of Iwo Jima).
Georgetown. Take a river taxi from Alexandria to the lovely Washington suburb of Georgetown (no river taxis on Mondays). The neighbourhood started life as a tobacco port and is now a must-visit for fans of architecture and shopping alike – lots of fashion boutiques are housed in quaint red and white brick buildings not unlike the Rocks area of Sydney. (My best buy was a big rusty S, which I bought at upmarket stationer Paper Source). George Washington’s house also gives you a taste of what life was like way back when – let’s just say, luxury it wasn’t. There’s also a wall chart of presidential heights. Surprised to learn that Georgie boy was an impressive 6 ft 2in? Me too.
