Day 11, August 17th, New York to Washington

DC - I've been here twice before and hugely enjoyed it and so it's great to be back here. It's such a contrast to New York. Everything is so orderly and quiet in comparison to New York, and the place seems almost deserted as you drive through the streets. Still it's not like that everywhere of course and I am looking forward to getting round the various things I want to see and do. A bonus surely is that the weather here is a fair bit hotter than anywhere else so far.

The train ride was again fine but indistinguished. It can be interesting seeing the backside of the various twons you go through as no-one cares what it looks like from a train. From that vantage point, the US seems a bit old and rundown - lots of old deserted-looking buildings. The recession is still a major factor here of course and the main reason I think for Obama;s continuing unpopularity.

Washington itself is very unpopular too. An article in Vanity Fair concludes the city is broken and unfixable. Perhaps. It puts some of the blame on the growing influence of non-mainstream media. There are some interesting stats such as 39 percent think Obama wasn't born in the US... 24 percent think he could be the anti-Christ! I find this sort of stat very hard to swallow - can there be that many gullible people?

I think I haven't written enough about Americans. I love them and am finding myself drawn to African-Americans in particular. The accent is wonderful... sadly they don't seem to think much of my accent...

So a travelling day. But the hotel is possibly the best I've been at. And yes it includes a bath! I must go and see if I can get it to turn on and off properly.

Hoping to see the Newseum today but my sleep patterns are really screwed up and I slept very little last night.... Still I have only four days here so I don't want to waste them.