The Best Of Washington D.C.

The National Air and Space Museum is the most visited museum in the world. A few of its  exhibits include the Wright Brothers' plane from Kitty Hawk, the fastest plane ever built and the command module from Apollo 11 . The "How Things Fly" gallery explains the principles of flight through demonstrations and over 50 interactive stations. Besides the incredible artifacts, the Air and Space Museum contains the Albert Einstein Planetarium and the Samuel P. Langley Theater featuring the latest IMAX movies. No trip to Washington would be complete without a visit to the Air and Space Museum.

 

Completely refurbished in 1988, Union Station has modern facilities in a beautiful building modeled after the Roman Baths of Diocletian. Underneath its gilded ceiling are five restaurants, 125 stores, traveler services, a nine screen movie complex and the biggest food court you've ever seen (there are almost 50 vendors in the food court). Union Station is the ideal place to have lunch, shop around, then return to sightseeing. Some of Washington's more popular tours like Tourmobile and Red Trolley tours originate at Union Station.

 

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a moving tribute to the almost 59,000 soldiers who died in Vietnam. The names of the deceased are etched into the memorial's black granite with directories available to locate names. It is not unusual to see visitors make rubbings of the names and the memorial is often lined with flowers and tributes from loved ones. Together with Frederick Hart's sculpture of three soldiers, the memorial is a peaceful place of reflection.

 

The National Gallery of Art has a permanent collection of American and European masterpieces that is world famous. In the East Building (designed by I.M. Pei), visitors can see works of modern art by artists like Picasso, Matisse and Jackson Pollack. The West Building has a collection of paintings and sculptures from the 13th - 19th century including works from Titian, Renoir and others. The West Building also houses the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the western hemisphere.

 

Formed by a unanimous act of Congress, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the only national memorial dedicated to the Holocaust. It recounts the plight of over 11 million Jews and political prisoners that were killed by Nazis between 1933 and 1945. The museum's powerful displays are sometimes graphic and can be very upsetting. Not recommended for children under 12. Plan to spend a couple of hours at this popular site.