Nicole schreibt...
Pittsburgh / Washington / Virginia 2007 |
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Having been back to the USA after a long break last year for a week on Broadway, I was left with a strange longing to see the 'real America' again rather than cosmopolitan Manhattan, the America I remembered from those two trips to visit relatives in Oklahoma and Arkansas several years ago. So I decided to descend on my American internet friends and explore a few new corners of the United States. But since I couldn't fly to Pittsburgh directly anyway, I first stopped in New York for another weekend on Broadway. You can read my impressions of the musicals I saw here.
Three days later I was on my way from Newark to Pittsburgh, which had probably not found its way onto my initiary if my friend Peter didn't live there. I found Pittsburgh perfectly charming though with leafy green parks and suburbs and a pleasant city center (or "downtown" as they call it over there).
I had also made sure to be in town for the biggest of all American holidays - Independence Day on 4th July. To make the cliché complete I had asked Peter to get us tickets for a baseball game for the Pittsburgh Pirates that day and while I freely admit I didn't understand even half of the rules, I had a good time and enjoyed myself enough to check out our own baseball team here, the Cologne Cardinals, who have been playing widely ignored by the general public for 15 years now.
After the baseball game we trudged across downtown to the newely refurbished Station Square area across the river to have dinner and watch the fireworks over the Golden Triangle where two rivers merge into the Ohio River.
Next day we picked up a rental car from the airport and spent all day driving to Virginia's historical triangle Jamestown - Yorktown - Williamsburg. Despite forgetting my licence at home, I got a go at driving the fabled American highways myself and noticed soon that a) Americans don't give a damn about their strict speed limits, b) don't mind at all to overtake on the right side, making changing lanes an adventure in itself and c) that Automatic cars suck. It didn't help much that the clogged up bypass around Washington DC fell into my hours of driving and I spent half the time in a traffic jam.
There was little to do but have dinner and an early night in after our arrival, but the next day we set out to explore Jamestown, the first colonial settlement of the English adventurers, exactly 400 years ago. Jamestown's first settlers are now mostly remembered for the saga of the Indian princess Pocahontas who did or did not dally with the English Captain John Smith, but definitely married another English settler later and was taken to London by him where she died of illness.
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In the afternoon we went on to Yorktown for another lesson in American history at the Victory Center. It was here the fledgling army of the newly created United States of America won the decisive battle against the English who were quite reluctant to deliver the prosperous colonies into independence but after Yorktown were forced to pack it in and go home. History was again brought to life here with a replica, this time of an army camp as it would have been in 1781.
Having run out of steam then, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the hotel pool before returning to Yorktown the next morning to visit the actual battlefield before spending the rest at the day at Water County, one of those huge water parks where you can spend a whole day splashing around on big slides and in warm pools.
On Sunday it was time to pay Williamsburg a visit, the perfectly preserved capital of colonial Virginia, which is also dedicated to living history. You can visit several historic shops, watch people at work as they would have been working in 18th century and if your budget stretches to it (ours didn't), have a big historic dinner at an authentic tavern.
Our last day in the historical triangle was again given to fun and chilling, this time at Busch Gardens Europe, a huge theme park whose different sections were dedicated to various European countries, so curiosity drove me to the German Festhaus of course to try their idea of German food (no, spare ribs are NOT a staple here!) and watch the German show (the like of which you'd only see here in folkloristic Bavarian villages firmly aimed at foreign tourists. Ah, national clichés. It's a nice thing!). Still I had a great time on the various roller coasters and best of all there were little to no queues at all.
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After paying a quick visit to the Mariner's Museum in Newport which unfortunately wasn't as interesting as I had hoped, we went on the highway to Washington where Peter dropped me off in Arlington to spend the remaining days of my US trip with another internet friend. Tricia took me into Washington for dinner and to enjoy the sight of the monuments along the Mall which are all beautifully lit up after dark.
Since she had to work the next day I returned into downtown Washington on my own the next day for more sightseeing in daylight and to visit some of the Smithsonian Museums along the Mall which are all free to enter. My first stop was the popular Air & Space Museum, a fascinating place for a geek like me who's always loved flying and dreamed of space travel.
I had been less keen on the Museum of Natural History, but since it started to rain just as I was walking past the entrance I entered nonetheless and quite enjoyed the exhibits - the huge dinosaur skeletons less than the models of various animals from around the globe.
The later half of my sightseeing walk was cut short by another thunderstorm so that I sat under the protective roof of Lincoln's huge memorial for half an hour until it had at least calmed down enough to walk back to the metro station and return to Arlington.
On my last full day in the US Tricia took me to the Shenandoah Valley for a horse-riding tour and since I hadn't done western riding in ages, I really enjoyed myself (though I wish we hadn't been forced to share the trail ride with hopeless bloody beginners requiring stops every few minutes to let them catch up). In the afternoon I burned the rest of my budget in a huge shopping mall in Washington (the exchange rate truly made shopping a joy this time!) and we had a nice goodbye dinner at a Mexican restaurant with some friends. Despite Tricia's warnings that Dulles Airport was mayhem on Friday when everyone was leaving Washington, I found the airport very efficient and procedures faster than on many other airports (Delhi anyone? Or Porlamar?).
And so I came back here after two fabulous weeks that were truly a perfect mix of sightseeing, musicals, shopping, sports and fun and in wonderful company.
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