First Stop – 72 Hours In Washington D.C.

On 21 April, after both testing negative for COVID-19 (thank god) we made the journey down to Heathrow and stayed in an airport hotel overnight.

We were up at the crack of dawn the next day ready to catch our flight at 11:15 direct from Heathrow to Washington with British Airways. There were, of course, tears shed saying goodbye to our families. I owe my Mum a big thanks for giving us a lift down.

The flight lasted just over seven hours and we touched down at Dulles International Airport at 14:15 EDT local time (-5 hours behind the U.K. – GMT+1)

I hadn’t considered what would happen when we got to Border Force Control on arrival, but we were interrogated. It was quite a surreal experience, almost as if we would be deported if we said anything wrong.

We were questioned as to the purpose of why we wanted to come to America; where we were planning on going and staying; how we had funded everything; how Emily and I were related; who we lived with at home and why we weren’t working. Everything we answered with was scrutinised!

I’m led to believe security has become much more tightened since the tragedy of 9/11. Eventually, the Border Force officer let us both through.

We paid $10 to get the Silverline transfer bus, which dropped us off at the nearest Metro station.

After a great deal of confusion, we eventually found ourself on a train direct into the City Centre. We got off one stop too early and had a two-mile walk ahead of us to get to our hotel.

As we were only in Washington for a couple of days, we wasted no time and went to see if the president was in at The White House before sitting on the hill at the Washington Monument.

We then ambled back to the hotel stopping for a bite to eat on the way. It’s going to take me a while asking for the cheque instead of the bill!

We made an early start on Saturday knowing we had a lot of sights to cram in. We visited the United States Capitol and a plethora of memorials including the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial, World War II memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and Martin Luther King Memorial just to name a few.

After a jam packed day of sightseeing, in the evening, I dragged Emily along to an MLS match. I promise she was happy to go! It was a home win with D.C. United beating New England Revolution 3-2.

On our final day, we had a much-needed lie in before visiting the Arlington National Cemetery and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

55,000 steps later, our time in Washington has now come to an end. We’re now in The Big Apple, New York City – where we’ll be spending five nights. Follow this link to read more of our USA adventures.