Guus Bosman

Sunday we went for a long walk and we've visited the Roosevelt island. For a long time I've been wanting to see it, but I could never find out how to get there, even though it's very close to my work.

A few weeks ago I was making a phone call outside, when somebody asked me: "excuse me, how do we get to Roosevelt island?" I told him that I didn't know, but I recognized something in his accent and when I replied in Dutch the man was very surprised that we spoke the same language.

It was a very pleasant Sunday, with this two hour walk and a nice dinner.

Last Saturday we visited the National History Museum. Friday we for some drinks in an Irish bar so it took some time to get up. We took the metro the Mall, the five of us.

We visited the museum of Natural History. It was very busy and the rooms with the most popular attractions such as the Hope Diamond were really crowded. We spent about two hours in the museum. I really enjoyed the collection of skeletons of prehistorics animals, and the sea-life collection.

After a long sunny period it rained all day on Tuesday but around 18.00 o'clock the sky cleared. I met Jaap and Mieke at the Iwo Jima memorial after work, and we saw a the Sunset Review Parade.

This is an event organized by the U.S. Marine Corps, and includes performances by the Drum and Bugle Corp and the Silent Drill Team. I especially enjoyed the Drum and Bugle Corps -- a very entertaining show with great music, marches and military music.

A few minutes after the show started we were invited to fill in some empty seats in a special area so we had comfortable places and a great view.

Certainly worth visiting again.

Sunday we went to Manassas, a town 25 miles from Washington. We went to the historical site of the Civil War. Near Manassas are the fields where two bloody battles were fought.

Many battles in the Civil War, the largest war in American history, were fought in Virginia. The first large battle took place in Manassas, and the bloody result and heavy losses at both sites gave that battle the name 'the loss of innocence'.

Visiting historical places like that always make me want to read more on the history of United States, and specifically of the area here.

Friday night we had dinner on the balcony together. My father cooked; sausages with a lot of vegetables and fruits. We made a plan for the weekend, and we decided to rent a car to leave the city and visit places in Virginia.

Saturday morning we took the car from Avis near Clarendon. It took a few minutes to get used to the automatic gear but then we were on our way to our first Virginia visit: the Great Falls.

These waterfalls in the Potomac river, about 20 miles upstream from Arlington make for a magnificent view.

In the 1800s traders created a canal with five locks to by-pass the waterfalls and improve commercial relations. The canal worked only for 30 years and was replaced by a canal at the other side of the river, the Chesapeake & Ohio canal. Remains of the original canal and its locks are still visible though. There were also ruins of some buildings of the village that existed next to the canal. We went for an 90 minutes walk to see the terrain, and watched a movie on the history of the canals and waterfalls.

It is great to be in Virginia again. I was home late yesterday; the plane landed around 21:45 o'clock and it took a long time to get my luggage and to get home. I traveled together with Mike, a colleague, and although we checked in fairly on time, we kind of forgot the time when we had lunch.

Even though it was late I wanted to get some coffee from the Starbucks at the other end of the terminal, and he left for the gate. Just when I was ordering he told me that they announced my name for "immediate boarding please". I made it on time but spilled quite some coffee on the airport floor.

This afternoon Sasha and I went for a walk. We went to Rosslyn, where my work is, and visited the Freedom Park. This is a small outdoor exhibition with items of freedom related events, such as a replica of the cell door of Marten Luther King, and a statue of Tianamen square in Beijing. An impressive element in the park is a part of the Berlin Wall that they brought over from Germany.

The weather is great here -- it's very warm and sunny, sometimes even too much! But, no compliants, I like it a lot. I'm typing this article on the balcony while having a Heineken. The Grolsch I found a few weeks ago in Wholefoods is over and they don't have it anymore, unfortunately. The next time I find Grolsch somewhere I will get us a large supply. More critical is the lack of Grimbergen... haven't had a Grimbergen Triple in more than half year.

An event that attracts a lot of tourists in the spring is the blooming of the cherry blossom trees. In a period of about a week, all the cherry blossoms downtown are blooming, which makes for a beautiful Washington D.C. The area around the Jefferson memorial is especially popular.

Sasha and I went to see this event after work. Because of the day-light savings time it was light till late -- very nice.

Yesterday I was home extremely late from work, there's an important event for our customer this weekend.

Sunday afternoon I made a walk to the Marine Corps Memorial.

This is a memorial for the U.S. Marine Corps, and all their actions since the 18th century.

The statue is made after a famous picture from World War II on Iwo Jima, where American soldiers are installing the American flag on a conquered island.

There are still working on demolishing the office building opposite ours.

Yesterday there was a huge cloud of dust when I came back from Starbucks to get some coffee: they used an explosive top bring part of the building down.

Here's a picture of about a week ago.

The metro in Washington D.C. is implementing a new system for the information on the signs on the platforms.

Last weekend I saw it for the first time: instead of showing only one train at the time on the display, they now show the coming next three trains.

The system is not perfect yet. Below you can see that it says "No passengers, Boarding" -- but the train is full with people.