14.-17.8.2008: Washington D.C. - Baltimore We queued up at the temporary visitor centre at the Capitol and got on a 12-15 tour. The tours take 1.5 hours and go every 15 minutes. The tours are well organized and you get headsets and an actual tour guide once inside the building. The various sections of the Capitol were built between 1793 and 1807. There are 100 statues inside, 2 from each state. In the old hall the inside of the dome was painted in 1865 and there are murals and paintings that depict various events in American history on the walls. The previous green wooden dome was "capped" in 1863 by a much more impressive dome weighing 9 million pounds. There were also models and drawings of the new visitor centre which will be very impressive when it is finished but until then we have to put up with all the construction work going on. The Library of Congress has been featured in the "National Treasure" films starring Nicholas Cage. It was founded in 1800 and is the largest library in the world. It contains more than 128 million items and can only be used for research - no borrowing. There are more than 500 miles of shelves. The Great Hall is quite impressive and the library also houses the remainder of Thomas Jefferson's collection of books that he sold to the library for $23,950 after the library was burned down in 1814. Unfortunately another fire destroyed two thirds of this collection. We weren't allowed to see too much of the Supreme Court but the spiral staircase was worth taking a look at. Union Station is also well worth a visit to see the impressive ceiling and walkways. There is also a very decent food hall! An absolute must-see is the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. What a mouth full!! But inside it gets a big WOW! It is impossible to adequately describe it so please look at the photos! After the Basilica, the National Cathedral was a bit of a let down so take a look at this first and leave the Basilica till last. The Cathedral was built between 1907 and 1990 - no I haven't typed that incorrectly, it took 83 years! This was mainly due to the 2 world wars and lack of funding. You will need to take a metro and then a bus to get here. The next day we went to the National Building Museum to see the courtyard where we also had coffee and cake! Then we spent about 2 hours in the large National Air and Space Museum. We saw an unused lunar space module similar to the one that landed on the moon and we went into the old space lab, the predecessor to the ISS. There is a great deal to see and read here. Next stop was the National Archives to see the originals of the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. There was also one of the last remaining 4 copies of the Magna Carta from 1215. It was easier to read the Magna Carta than the other documents which have faded considerably. There was also a huge queue to get in and a long waiting time, so be prepared. Then Helen gave the famous George "Broccoli" Bush speech at the Presidential podium. We'd read the famous line at the Presidents Park in South Dakota 4 years ago and have never actually heard the speech, so Helen couldn't resist doing a mime. Although we were getting exhausted we walked to the Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt memorials and didn't get back until after 9pm. A very long day. On Saturday, after we searched for a garage to take a look at our transmission fluid leak and kept being sent from one place to another that for various reasons couldn't deal with us, we drove to Baltimore and walked along the harbour.