Washington DC, May 2013

Returning from the annual work trip to South Africa my flight connected in Washington DC.
 I decided to take a four day stopover to see whatever I could of DC, especially the Smithsonian museums as I have been a member since 1986!

I booked at the Channel Inn Hotel for the time as the rate was reasonable and it is within walking distance from the mall. The "mall" is the local nickname for the huge strip from Capitol Hill west to the Potomac river. The hotel was an excellent choice with very good service, food and location.

Arriving late on a rainy afternoon I only spent some time strolling around the channel area, finding a local restaurant/pub to have dinner and went to bed early to be ready for the following morning.

The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect all the time. Cool to hot with some clouds but perfect for the ± 47km of walking I did in the four days. Although DC is hardly a bird watchers paradise I did carry binoculars all the time and managed to find 11 lifers.

Overall it was great and I enjoyed every minute. It was an amazing experience to see the thousands of mostly local people (I saw relatively few foreign tourists) enjoying and honouring their history, art, culture etc. I can recommend this experience to everybody.

Things I did not enjoy were few: The price of beer - around $9.50, the seemingly total disrespect of school kids towards anybody older than themselves, and the taxi to get back to the airport at $80!

As always, click on the album and enjoy.

Washington DC, May 2013

South Africa April 2013
The annual work trip to South Africa from April 1 to May 7 turned out to be a lovely time with some nice surprises.

I left San José on April 1, connected in Mexico City and Washington DC. From there to SA via Frankfurt. The return trip was the same with a connection in Munich. I have to mention here that unexpected to me, of all the flights the two outstanding ones were the two legs with SAA! Everything was super good, from the boarding to the food, something happened!

In SA I stays with Elaine as I do every year - a great thank you to her!

During the stay with her we were chatting about the old days and friends and decided to try to contact some. This started with me having made contact with Deon van der Walt some time before on FB. One thing led to the other and we had some amazing reunions with Deon at Elaine's house and then with Geoff and Gisi at their new house in Howick, with their kids Clive and Niki there as well! This was so cool to see them and catch up, in Deon's case after nearly forty years and Geoff & Gisi after some ten years.

Other interesting bits was to get to see the Mandela sculpture near Howick and the waterfall after 36 years!

The work I did during the time was all on time and without problems and I enjoyed the stay and meeting up with all the friends I could.

As always, click on the album and enjoy.

South Africa visit April/May 2013