Arriving in Washington

 We stayed last night close to the Manassas Historic Battlefield. So this morning we decided to have a look around. The visitor centre had an excellent film detailing both the battles at Manassas and looking at some of the individual soldiers stories.

Stonewall Jackson got his nickname at the first battle and the large statue of him near the visitor centre was a requirement for the National park Service getting the land from the Confederate families who had bought it. Pimple is thoughtfully providing a sense of scale for you.

We went on a ranger guided talk which also visited the statue. Here the apparently 12 year old park range is providing the sense of scale.

Some ladies raised money for a Confederate Cemetery at the battlefield. They weren't able to identify more than two individual soldiers so they are buried in mass graves grouped by which state they were from. The Union soldiers were mainly moved to Arlington National Cemetery.

We then drove to Washington. It wasn't as bad as I think Charlie was fearing. Today a lot of people are on holiday so the roads weren't too busy. We did miss the turning the first time but managed it on the second go. We are staying about half an hours walk from The White House and about seven minutes from the nearest metro.