Washington DC

Back in November 2010 my colleague Runar and I went to DC for a conference and to meet with some people at The National Library of Medicine. We also had some time to explore the city though.

The thing that struck me about DC is that everywhere you look there is an iconic building, park or monument. For a guy like me who likes American movies, there’s a place from a movie almost everywhere! We did the walk around The National Mall of course with all the landmarks:

Capito Hill from the Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Our hotel was close to Capitol Hill and we walked all the way from there to Georgetown and back. As you can see from the shots, the weather was absolutely beautiful.

Georgetown

Georgetown

Another one of the truly great attractions of DC are the museums. We visited quite a few, but my favorites were The Air and Space Museum and The National Gallery of Art.

Air and Space Museum

National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art

I found it interesting that the National Gallery of Art had an exhibition of paintings by the famous Norwegian artist Edvard Munch while we were there. I’ve seen his pictures many times in museums and galleries back home, but this exhibition was one of the best. They had several versions of each painting and had interesting comments that put Munch’s work in a new perspective for me.

Last but not least on this trip; I met my “cousin” David. I’m not sure what the correct name for our relation would be. His mother is my second cousin.  He’s a student at Georgtown and he met with us for dinner on my birthday! David turned out to be a great guy and if you’re curious about him; I suggest you visit his blog:
http://notjustwandering.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/edu-shmay-tion-or-what-i-never-thought-i-would-say/

That’s it for now. I know I don’t write much here, but I’ll try to be a bit better this year – promise! The way it looks now, I’ll be travelling to USA, China, Turkey and UK this year. I also hope to have time for some trips around Norway to visit family and friends.