Virgina:  6. – 11.03.1009

After over a year of planning, finally our big journey started on March 6th at 11:15am. 

Until the end we have been working like crazy to have it all ready. So we boarded British Airways from Zurich via London towards Washington DC quite a bit exhausted, but happy, and of course a bit wistful with. Here we wanted to relax a bit for 3 days before we could pick up Nisto on the 9th in Baltimore. We have been curious what to expect, because three days earlier it was still snowing in Washington.

After a 12 hour flight we touched down at 7:15pm on American soil with comfortable 17°C. From the snow was only the salt on the boardwalks left. A Shuttle Bus brought us to our Hotel, where we just fell into our bed for a well deserved dream, finally it has started.

The first morning we started our sightseeing tour through Washington DC with comfortable spring temperatures. Of course the first thing on our list was the White House. Unfortunately the door where closed for us. But we met interesting demonstrators. Just have a look at the pictures, but if they ever get heard, well, we have our doubts. Nevertheless, we continued to the mall, nope not a shopping center but a park, so to say the main road of the United States, it is about 2 miles long and hosts the most famous monuments, institutions, memorials and museums, that are, to our surprise, free. We mingled with the crowd and wandered from one corner to the other on some spots you could see the remains of snow and on others folks where wandering around in summer dresses and T-Shirts. We left that for the locals, for us the wind was still a bit too cold.

After what felt like we’ve seen every square meter, we returned to our Hotel, to relax a bit before we wanted to get dinner. At 8:30 we left to find a restaurant, but we just could not find a single restaurant that was still open at that time, so we had to settle for the only thing that we found, a Burger King.

The next day belonged to Georgetown and Theodore Roosevelt Island. In the afternoon we also visited the Air and Space Museum before we went to the Union Station at about 5:30pm, learned from the day before so we wanted to eat something and decided for the fast food circle down stairs and just after we ordered they begun cleaning; at 6pm it’s over, closed. We really started to ask ourselves; when do Americans eat?

In these two days we walked about 35 Kilometers (22 miles). Our feet are flat as a flounder, and we really look forward to get our own wheels. Tomorrow Markus will take off with Kurt for Baltimore to receive our Nisto. Because only one person is allowed into the port area, like in Hamburg, Sonja will remain in Washington. We are anxious to see if our third of the team made the journey across the big pond all right. Keep your fingers crossed, when you’ll hear from us again we moved to our 6.6 square meter two story apartment. What direction we’ll take is not sure yet. So do it like us, let the mood guide you and see what’s going to happen ;o)

Love

Sonja and Markus

Here it goes to the pictures...