Washington, the White House and the Willard

Ok, so Washington at the end of July is not the most comfortable temperature for two ladies from London - but we thought that given that tempers in our capital city were bound to rise because of transport and the Olympics, we thought we'd decamp to someone else's capital instead

And while steamy and hot, Washington has that effortless elegance which makes you want to turn into Julia Roberts or Audrery Hepburn wearing big hats and even bigger sunglasses. We arrived courtesy of Virgin Atlantic at around two in the afternoon, a pleasant flight even in economy. Leaving the safety of the airport's air-conditioning to get a cab, the heat hit us like a wall. Thankfully  a cab ride soon delivered us to the grace and grandeur of the Willard Hotel, and after depositing our luggage, we set off (slowly) for the White House.

Unfortunately, the White House doesn't give tours to foreign nationals currently, and we were forced to take photographs of the South Lawn through railings,  keeping a wary eye on the heavily armed guards on the roof.  The White Houseis, as everyone says, smaller than you think it's going to be.   But it is beautiful, in a colonial, slaves-sweeping-the-porch kind of way.

This thought came back to us several times in our visit; there is something about the rhetoric which doesn't quite align with historical fact.  There's nothing untrue, it's just not the whole truth.  But we'll come back to that through the trip.

What has caused us some amusement is the reporting of the Olympics - some of the TV coverage has been relentlessly patronising when referring to the UK - not to mention poorly pronounced.   Not that we're bitter over the lack of medals so far, and the current lack of gold.....

One thing of which we could feel justifiably proud - we felt renewed respect and love for the BBC, free as it is from 12 minute ad breaks every 10 minutes.