Appreciating Old Town Alexandria

After last weekend's Metro troubles, my extended visit to Mount Vernon meant my plans to visit Old Town Alexandria on the way back died a death. However, yesterday they were resurrected when, despite yet more Metro holdups, I finally made it.

It's a wonderfully pretty, and dare I say it, quaint place. It's very European, or I guess, colonial, in feel with tree lined streets, old terraced houses, running down to the pier and harbour down on the waterfront. I don't think I've ever felt so immediately at home in America as I did walking around Alexandria. There's not really anything to do there but walk, but the old streets were reward enough for me after a quick breakfast at a local bakery.




A lot of the terraces wouldn't have been out of place in the UK, and nor would the boutique style shops that far outnumbered the chain stores. It's perhaps a little odd that in a country that rather spectacularly threw off the shackles of Monarchy that the two main streets should be called King and Prince's Street, but Alexandria is older than DC itself and so does have a history dating back to the time when America was a colony, hence it's European and familiar feel. Although at least one resident appears to have split loyalties when it comes to the outcome of the War of Independence.


After spending a couple of hours just walking the street and strolling around the waterfront marina, I decided to head back to DC. However, after a spying a sign for a 'waterfront path', I decided to leave the Metro to it's engineering works and walk back along the Potomac, a trip of about 6 miles and two and a half hours. But it was worth every step, although I did bottle out when I reached Arlington and get on the Metro.



The walk itself was, ironically, part of the pathway to Mount Vernon and largely followed the Potomac river northwards, with occasional dips in and out of forests, marinas and picnic areas along the way, but it never went near a residential or commercial area (aside from a brief skirt around Reagan National Airport and some accompanying impressive close up views of landing aircraft), and there were few people on the trail, so it was a pretty quiet, but scenic couple of hours back to DC.




By the time I'd finished I'd acquired a pair of sore feet, one blister and an oddly shaped, and oddly placed, patch of sunburn on my right shoulder. I think I then pushed my luck by getting on the Metro to visit the Georgetown University Law bookshop, only to get there and find it closed. So I ventured the short distance to Union Station as I remembered there being a smoothie bar there. Unfortunately I'd forgotten that it was a pretty rubbish smoothie bar, but it didn't take long to rekindle.

After stumbling back to the flat and phoning home, we went out for dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant recommended by some of Cecily's friends. There are plenty of Ethiopian restaurants here and we'd been wanting to try one for a while, but I have to confess to being a little underwhelmed by it. The food was fine and I'd go again, but unlike some of the others I wasn't that big a fan. The dishes were certainly unlike anything I'd had before - different varieties of cooked meet served on a sort of bread pancake called an injera. Unfortunately a friend once described such an injera as having the texture of leather and the taste of vinegar, and I have to agree with his tastebuds. They're basically pancakes made with sour dough starter, and hence are very sour, which I suppose is necessary to contrast with the spices of the main dishes, but unfortunately not really to my taste.

On the way back we passed Ben's Chili Diner, which is (for somewhat different reasons) a Washington DC institution and similarly recommended by just about everyone. No doubt we'll pay it a visit at some point, hopefully I'll appreciate it more than it's neighbour.