The Two-Day Tourist in Washington DC

There wasn’t much not to love about the Meridian Manor Bed & Breakfast. It was clean, cosy, spacious, in a great location and we were treated to a warm and very informative welcome.

One of the owners met us at the house after we’d phoned ahead letting him know that we were en route from the airport. About a 10 minute walk from U-Street / Cardozo metro station, the house was also only


The house was a mix of old and new. Deep red and brown brick on the outside, the interior of our room was decorated in brighter blue/grey and beige tones with modern as well as traditional furnishings and accents. Before ascending the grand staircase to our room we were shown the kitchen, dining room and lounge area stocked with newspapers, magazines, tourist leaflets and city maps. We were invited to store perishables in the fridge but asked not to use most other appliances, which were reserved for breakfast preparation purposes only.



By happy accident, we were "upgraded" to a bedroom with en suite bathroom. The bed was high but big and comfortable and there was a small lounge by the windows with a sofa, television and fireplace. The bathroom was also a good size and came with an assortment of soaps, towels and a hairdryer. In addition, the B&B offers free Wi-Fi so in some ways it’s also quite well set up for business travelers.



The only complaint I did have was that the door to our bedroom was a thin frame with glass panels and the curtains covering the glass obviously didn’t do much in the way of sound insulation. On Sunday morning we were awoken earlier than we would have liked by a rather loud group having breakfast in the kitchen. I imagine that if your room is on one of the upper floors then this is less of an issue but it was quite apparent that glass doors are not the best option if you want total peace and quiet.



The breakfast served was simple but healthy with an assortment of tea, coffee, fruit, yogurt and cereal and you could help yourself to toast and jam.



The house we stayed in is one of two bed and breakfast properties in the area run by the owners. The prices of all their rooms are quite reasonable, especially when compared to some of the more centrally located hotels and if you opt for a room with shared bathroom the price is cheaper still.

www.ustreetbandbdc.com

Opened in 1976, the National Mall Building reveals only a fraction of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s collection. To see the other 90% you need to venture out to Washington Dulles Airport and tour the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. I would hardly classify myself as an aviation fanatic but even I was impressed by this museum’s exciting mix of air and spacecraft.



Our main reason for visiting was to view the temporary exhibition of the 150 objects from the National Museum of American History on view whilst that museum undergoes renovation. We shuffled along, viewing a variety of entertaining items ranging from Kermit the Frog and Muhammed Ali’s boxing gloves to Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and Edison’s light bulb.

We then ventured next door to Gallery 210 and the "Apollo to the Moon" exhibition where the ingenious display of an F-1 engine is mirrored in a way to show the configuration of the actual five engines that sat at the base of the Saturn 5 rocket. The Saturn 5 was the largest rocket in the world and the F-1 was the most powerful rocket engine, enabling the rocket to reach speeds of 6,000 miles per hour shortly after launch.



On to the next gallery and we toured the striking Wright Brothers exhibition. Boards and illustrative displays tell of their family life and lead on to their work in the early 1900s that led to the invention of the first powered airplane. In the centre of the gallery is their masterpiece, the 1903 Wright Flyer. The exhibition then continues, looking at the fast development of flight in the decade that followed.



In the main galleries, planes and spacecrafts are impossibly suspended overhead, including the Spirit of St. Louis, the aircraft piloted by Charles A. Lindbergh in 1927 from New York to Paris in the first solo transatlantic flight.



The National Air and Space Museum at the National Mall could easily occupy a full day and we barely scratched the surface, sadly missing out on many galleries including World War Two aviation, Flight Simulators and the Planetarium. (I can’t imagine how much time you would need at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center though!) It also seemed to cater well to children although I was sad to see that they’ve allowed a McDonald’s branch a berth in their food court on the first floor.



www.nasm.si.edu

The National Gallery of Art is an enormous museum, encompassing two buildings - the original West Building and the more contemporary East Building - as well as an exterior Sculpture Garden. We entered the West Building on the Madison Drive side and checked our bag in at the cloakroom next to the magnificent Rotunda. Thick columns surround the fountain centerpiece, crowned with a statue of Mercury who looks lost under the vast dome that rises over his head.

At the time of its completion, the West Building was the largest marble structure in the world and even from the outside it towers above its subjects, impressing in the same way that London’s British Museum does.

Feeling a little intimidated by the size of the gallery, we picked up a very handy leaflet that identifies West Building highlights that can be covered in under an hour. Normally I wouldn’t want to rush through such a spectacular collection but we still had the East Building to consider and wanted to squeeze in a visit to the National Air and Space Museum across the way before closing time at 5.30pm.

The leaflet highlighted twelve must-see works, including pieces by da Vinci, Raphael, Rubens, Vermeer, Monet and Cezanne. Audio tours are available for $5 and guided tours run throughout the day focussing on particular collections.

Opened 37 years later in 1978, the East Building is home to the gallery’s modern art and sculpture collections. Here you can find permanent installations of work by Henri Matisse, Alexander Calder and Sol LeWitt. Connecting the two buildings is a cavernous underground concourse level where the busy gallery café and bookshop are located.

The East Building has an obvious modern and brighter feel to it and is also quite a bit busier than the West side. The temporary Edward Hopper exhibition was clearly a big draw and the queue to get in was particularly long. It’s worth checking ahead of time on permanent and temporary exhibitions as some of them have limited opening times or may require passes.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that if you check in your bag in the West Building as we did, it’s quite a long walk back to retrieve it after visiting the East Building. If you only want to do a similar "Highlights" tour you still need about a minimum of two hours to visit both buildings. If you have more time though, it would be easy to dedicate an entire day to the National Gallery and adjacent Sculpture Garden.

www.nga.gov

Travelling out to Arlington Cemetery on the Blue metro line I braced myself for a somber experience, filled with moments of reflection and nostalgia. Arlington is the resting place of the Kennedy family and many US service men and women. However I had forgotten that Arlington attracts four million visitors per year, so my visit would not allow for much silent or solitary contemplation.



We walked from the metro station to the visitors centre where you can pick up a map and other information to help you decide on the best course of action – tour on foot or buy a bus ticket. A quick look at the location of some of the "sights" showed us that the main points of interest were fairly well spread out over the 200 acres and opting for the bus tour appeared to be the better way to go. We paid $7 for a ticket that allows you to get on and off the bus at leisure and takes you to the Kennedy gravesite, The Tomb of the Unknowns and Arlington House. The drive between stops is actually quite brief and being part of the crowds piling on and off the bus made me feel more lazy and disrespectful than reverent. Despite signs requesting that cell phones should not be used, I spotted a few people sneaking in conversations and I started to feel like a reluctant tour group member on a side trip from a cruise ship.



Given the short driving distances, the on-board narrations were brief and consequently not overly informative. The first stop is the Kennedy site, where John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and two of their children are interred. Besides Kennedy, the only other US president to be buried at Arlington is William Howard Taft, who was president from 1909-1913. A short walk away is the solitary white cross marking the gravesite of Robert F. Kennedy whose funeral at Arlington is the only one to have been conducted at night.



After another short drive, the bus pulls up near The Tomb of the Unknowns. As with all the major stops on the bus route, the location of the Tomb offers impressive views over Washington DC. The large white marble sarcophagus has simple sculpted panels and is closely monitored by the Third United States Infantry Regiment, also known as "The Old Guard". We witnessed first hand what happens to any visitor that strays too close to a barrier. One poor photographer got a very loud and curt reprimand from a faceless soldier with a rifle perched on his shoulder, which rattled more than a few people in the crowd.



The last stop is Arlington House, owned by the first president's adopted grandson, George Washington Parke Custis. Now a museum, its walls contain a fascinating history, as it was never intended to be a part of the cemetery or military reservation that now surrounds it.

We arrived at the cleverly named Grill from Ipanema around 8pm on a Saturday night and immediately regretted the fact that we hadn’t made a reservation. There were only two of us but the restaurant was packed out, mostly with lively groups so I fully expected a long wait.

In the midst of the Adams Morgan area, Ipanema was full of life and evidently a popular place. By some miracle we were seated immediately and didn’t waste any time ordering Caipirinhas and Mojitos. When I arrived, I wasn’t particularly hungry and started looking for just a salad or appetizer to order. I was quickly diverted by the long list of seafood and chicken dishes, in particular the Moqueca à Baiana, not a dish I was at all familiar with. This stew is prepared in a blend of palm oil and coconut milk with fresh cilantro, tomato, onions and green pepper. You then choose how spicy you would like it and decide on an addition of either fish, shrimp, mixed seafood, squid, mussels or scallops. The stew is served in a clay pot with rice and fish broth and besides sounding absolutely wonderful, I’m a bit of a sucker for anything served in a clay pot!

We were seated by the window alongside a few other couples. Being that it is more a place for groups and parties I wouldn’t recommend Ipanema if you’re looking for a romantic night out. In addition the tables are placed very close together, which doesn’t allow for any privacy. That said, this all adds to the lively Latin party atmosphere.

Surprisingly the Mojitos weren’t that impressive but fortunately we had no complaints with the Caipirinhas and stuck to them for the rest of the night. They also went really well with the hearty Moqueca a Capixaba stew and the Frango a Copacabana, which my husband ordered. This was grilled chicken breast served with farofa (grounded yuca roasted with garlic and butter), rice, black beans, vegetables and a fresh vinaigrette sauce.

The restaurant is very long and narrow, with the bar taking up most of one wall decorated with retro Brazilian pictures and fairy lights. The service is slow at times but with so many customers to serve, you have to give up and go with the flow. Besides it’s worth it for the wonderful food.

My stew was $20.95 and the Frango a Copacabana was $16.95. Prices in Washington DC overall seemed to be higher than elsewhere in the US but again I felt that it was well worth the time and expense for a taste of two very excellent Brazilian dishes.

For a look at their full menu, go to: www.thegrillfromipanema.com

To look at it from the outside, you would think that the Capitol City Brewing Company would be as impressive on the inside and initially it is. The food and the service here however is sadly lacking when compared to appearances. Located on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue across from the stunning Union Station, you will find the bar and restaurant inside the historic Postal Square Building. Originally built in 1911, the building has the appearance of a library or museum rather than that of the premises of a brewing company.

Capitol City Brewing has two other locations, one in Arlington and the other one in downtown DC, which in 1992 was the first brew pub established since Prohibition.

We went in for lunch and the immense bar was mostly empty. We took a booth seat downstairs and craned our necks around to take in what felt like a cathedral dedicated to beer drinking. Tall copper beer vats soared high behind the bar like fat church organ pipes, their tops almost reaching those of the railings of the gallery seating area upstairs.

After a short wait, a server came to take our drinks order. As we enquired about the current list of beers on tap, we were puzzled by the fact that the server was unable to address us directly and instead seemed more comfortable looking off to the left and into the distance. When he left we realized that he’d been reading off the list of ales from a blackboard located above the entrance. We wondered how educated the Brewery staff actually are in the pints they serve. Strangely enough when the same guy returned to take our food order he still had a tendency to look off in another direction. We both ordered fish and chips and thought perhaps he was new and shy, or had an unfortunate crick in his neck.

We had a fairly long wait until our meals arrived and when they did, we were struck by the mediocrity of the food. I’ve tried a variety of fish and chips in my time and generally would expect the dish to be capably prepared at pubs and breweries but at Capitol City the fish and chips were so bland that I didn’t even clear the plate. It was also at this point that the service took a complete nosedive and we had to wait an interminable amount of time to get the bill.

If you want to check out the local DC brews, then by all means come to Capitol City and spend some time at their bar. I would, however, strongly recommend that you don’t waste any time eating here as there are many other restaurants in the city that are far more worthy of your time and attention.

www.capcitybrew.com

After a full day of walking The Mall, we took a final hike up to Georgetown for dinner. We walked up and down M Street reading all the menus posted outside. Completely exhausted and with tired legs, I was craving a big bowl of tasty pasta and a glass of red wine. Peering through the window of the News Café and seeing a slightly empty bar, I wasn’t initially convinced that I would get an authentic Italian meal. In addition, once we got inside, the ornate mosaic tilework and cushioned benches made me wonder if I’d accidentally entered a Moroccan restaurant by mistake.

We took a candlelit seat opposite the aptly named mosaic room and ordered a Peroni and a glass of Pinot Noir. After a quick scan of the menu I immediately settled on the Spaghetti Con Salsiccia, a no-nonsense dish of spaghetti, Italian sausage and peppers in tomato sauce. My husband also ordered a house salad, which our waiter kindly split onto two plates for us to share.

The restaurant was busy but in the low lit back rooms it somehow worked for couples on a romantic night out, for larger groups of friends, and for the pair of us who after walking the length and breadth of Washington DC that day, looked a little worse for wear and not particularly well dressed for dinner. I can therefore testify that the following quote on the News Café website is incredibly accurate:
"News Café's cuisine and atmosphere are perfect for casual meals, but are also easily accompanied by candlelight and wine for evening dining. Our M-Street Restaurant includes a full bar, Mediterranean room for private parties, as well as a variety of perfect tables for families, couples and friends."

The spaghetti arrived in good time and I finished off every last bite, savouring the rich tomato sauce, crunchy peppers and chunky sausage.

News Café also offers Linguine, Lasagne, Penne and Ravioli dishes as well as a variety of pizzas and other Secondi dishes and the full menu can be viewed on their website: www.newscafedc.com

Going to Bar Rouge is something of a surreal experience, especially if you go on a Sunday. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that you go on a Sunday night. If you want to check out the real night scene then I’d imagine that Friday and Saturday nights are livelier. If you want to relax with a cocktail, possibly watch a film and not be disturbed then Sunday night is the night to go.



On our way back to Dupont Circle, we stopped in for a couple of after dinner cocktails and literally had our pick of seats. The place itself isn’t that big but the range of furniture is and I felt not unlike Goldilocks, moving three times to find a seat that was not too hard, not too soft, not too narrow, but just right. As it was we ended up sinking into a sofa close to the bar and ended up watching the Mark Wahlberg film "Shooter" with the bar staff, who were having a very quiet night at work.



Bar Rouge is part of the Kimpton run Hotel Rouge and as the name suggests, the place is heavy on the colour red. Even the toilet rooms are painted top to toe in a bright scarlet hue. The décor overall lends a distinct dark boudoir aura to the bar. Opposite the bathrooms we discovered a couple of cosy dens which we assumed to be extensions of the bar area on busier nights.



The entrance to Bar Rouge attempts to bring the risqué outside but struggles against the bland, office block hotel façade. Graced with a line of faux marble Venus statues, the bar gained some infamy in 2007 when someone managed to steal one of the nine statues. There’s a decent reward on offer for information leading to her return!



Back inside, we enjoyed a few champagne cocktails and martinis. Sadly we missed out on the weekday "Red Hot Happy Hour" which runs from 5-7pm with the offer of half-priced margaritas and half-priced quesadillas. We weren’t at all hungry but had we been, the menu offered a decent list of bar snacks, including Chicken Wings, a Mini Po’ Boy Sampler, three different varieties of grilled cheese sandwich and a couple of desserts.



The real attraction at Bar Rouge is the cocktail menu and with names like "Down and Dirty" and "The Adultress" it’s worth stopping by for at least one naughty nightcap.

www.loungedc.com/dcbrge/menu.html