Thursday 20th October

Today we returned with our bag to Lizzy and Ryan's flat before taking the light rail (tram) to Penn station and then the train to Washington DC. We arrived around lunchtime and on our way down to have a look at the Sculpture garden we spotted some umbrellas down a side street and found an excellent place for to eat. Iain had an extremely good fish and chips and I sampled crab cake which was also very good. We then walked to the Sculpture garden which was  much smaller than I had expected. The weather was hot and sunny but with much higher humidity than previous days. We then visited the Newseum which Iain then spent the rest of the afternoon perusing, whilst I mostly sat around, although I did look at some of the exhibits; most notably one about 7/11. 

We met Lizzy outside the Folger at 5pm and went to a bar for a cocktail whilst waiting for Ryan to join us. We then went for dinner in the restaurant below before returning to the Folger to see a play. This was a really excellent and fun production of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. It was also interesting to see the reading room of the Folger during the intermission. We had to catch the Marc train at 10.30pm as it was the last one to BWI where Ryan had left the car, so we had to dash out before the applause started and get an uber to Union Station. We made it though, and got to bed about midnight. The uber system is very useful - it relies of GPS on mobile phones. One registers on the system and it uses a direct debit type system to pay for any ride the client books. The client looks on line and can see what cars are nearby and how much it would cost and can then request a particular car. The app displays the name of the driver, their rating and the numberplate of the car.