GRANDEUR

Nothing I can write or any photos I've taken can come close to explaining what we have seen today.

Catching the Metro at Farragut West proved easier than we feared.  We exited at Capitol South and walked to the Capitol Building Visitors' Centre.

So today we have seen the Capitol Bulding, then crossed via the tunnel to the Jefferson Library of Congress, up one building to the US Supreme Court, then caught the Metro back to Smithsonian, to visit the United States Holocaust Museum. Below is a shot showing how you descend entrance to the Visitors' Centre, which is underground.  But look at the expanses of lawn and yet another large, imposing building in the background.  This is Washington.

The dome of Capitol Building is being renovated, to be finished in time for the January 2017 Inauguration.

These buildings are all marble and wood and large spaces and symbolism.  I can't come close to capturing it all.

This is a replica of the Freedom Statue on top of the Dome.  And me.

Frank, a volunteer, gave a tour of the Jefferson Library of Congress.  He was dour, but informative, but quite friendly and humorous with us after the tour.  There are so many symbols and meanings and historical references embedded here.  So much art and embellishment and soaring ceilings to bedazzle us.  

There are a lot of series in the decorations, like these below representing the four seasons.  But high ideals about knowledge, the arts, sciences, justice are all around in words, carvings and artistic representation.  All so grand and inspiring.

Rob looks up at the dome in the main reading room.  The Library of Congress, now houses in three buildings, plus a 150 acre storage facility in Maryland, houses 160 million items, from books, maps and artefacts. Much is now accessed online.  

Here are two of there most treasured and valuable books.  One is an unfinished handwritten copy of the Bible and ...

a Gutenberg Bible, conservatively valued at $50,000,000, a copy of the first ever printed book

Here is Rob climbing the stairs from the ground floor of the Supreme Court Building.  But we missed seeing the actual courtroom by only two days, as it is closed for its annual cleaning.  But we watched a short video which showed inside, with interesting interviews with the Chief Justice and other Justices.  

From all this magnificence and symbols of importance, we visited the Holocaust Museum, which brings the grand focus way down to individual horror.  The whole Museum is dimly lit, which creates a hushed, solemn atmosphere, so this photo is not clear.  It is a railway wagon, which I walked through, that so many were transported in.

All these photographs, which stretch both sides of the space up several storeys, were taken in one village in what is now Lithuania.  Ordinary men, women, children.  Family and individual shots.  Formal poses and casual moments.  They put a human face to those who were rounded up. Most moving was a video of survivors, old men and women, sharing individual moments from their stories.  

Another amazing day!