Round The World and other travels

I had no trouble at all getting up in good time for my pre-ordered room service breakfast, which arrived right on schedule. Once I'd eaten, it was a simple matter to pack my case, check out of the hotel and take a cab back to DFW. As I had no idea which terminal I was leaving from, I suggested that the driver should simply pick an AA Domestic terminal at random. My luck was obviously in - he selected C, and C is what it turned out to be! Incidentally, you may be wondering why, if my real destination was Washington, I flew into Dallas. Well, the Dallas flight was previously booked as an award and, for sufficient reason, I decided to keep the routing when my plans subsequently changed. On passing through security, I quickly located the same Admiral's Club that I had used on two occasions during Part 3 of the trip. I caught up with my diary, becoming so absorbed in it that I nearly left it late to head for Gate 2. This brought another sense of déjà vu, as I'd left from this gate when flying to San Antonio the previous September.

The luggage took quite some time to appear at BWI, but soon enough I was bound for downtown DC and an old haunt, The Willard. Although the cab fare was on the steep side, I was well aware that when added to my air fare into BWI, it still came to less than the corresponding air fare into DCA (the much more conveniently located Reagan National Airport). I eventually arrived at the hotel and was delighted to be offered an Executive Suite on the 10th floor. It was every bit as nice as last time, although I thought it was relatively unusual in having twin double beds, rather than a king.

After settling in, my first priority was to contact my good friend Bruce - perhaps better known to some readers as sftrvlr - who was also in town for the weekend and based on Capitol Hill. (As I've said before, these trips aren't just thrown together, even when re-planned with just 5 days to go!) We arranged to meet up later for drinks and dinner, which meant that I had time for a short walk in what remained of the afternoon sunshine. I wrapped up well and headed out for a short stroll taking in the Treasury Building, the White House, the Washington Monument and the Federal Triangle area. I found that, most of the time, the cold was perfectly bearable, but when the breeze really got going - for example, near the foot of the Washington Monument - it was absolutely freezing.

I made it back to the hotel in good time for Bruce's arrival. I think he was quite impressed with my suite! As agreed, he was going to help me out with my Royal Ambassador minibar problem , and we caught up on all our news and made plans for the following day over a couple of glasses of red wine. We then headed out for a rather late supper at Le Tomate, a somewhat strangely named Italian restaurant in the Dupont Circle neighbourhood. We then rode the Metro back to Metro Central, where I could walk the couple of blocks back to the Willard and Bruce could catch a connection back to his base.