23 April 2019 - New York to Washington DC

We left NY this morning on the 10:25 Amtrak and arrived in Washington DC after travelling through New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. We arrived at Union Station around 2pm and found we were only a 15 minute walk from our hotel the Hyatt Regency on Capitol. Once again check-in was smooth and we were soon unpacking our suitcases (for the last time). While Mark did his 10k in the fitness centre I caught up on a bit of washing, and then it was time to go for a walk and orient oureliselves. The famous Capitol building is only a short walk from here and we visited just long enough to get familiar with our surroundings and to take some photos.

The temperature here in Washington today was 30ºC and even the evening was quite balmy as we strolled around looking for somewhere to eat. We eventually settled on Carmine's Italian restaurant which has to be experienced to be believed. It is an old fashioned Italian family restaurant which means that whatever dish you order comes out large enough to feed a number of people. We took a chance on the Penne Meatballs and when it finally arrived it was the largest plate of food we'd ever seen.

The meatballs and the sauce were both outstanding and we managed to almost finish the whole lot, leaving just a few scraps of penne. Believe it or not we then followed that with a family serve of the most delicious chocolate torte I have ever tasted. We managed about half of that and the rest is in the fridge in a take out box for later. After dinner it was still a lovely warm temperature and we decided to walk back to the hotel. Everywhere you look in Washington there are beautiful buildings and on our way we passed the District of Columbia Court of Appeal courthouse.

Altogether a big day. We left NYC this morning and we go to sleep in Washington DC and tomorrow we start the last stage of our trip.