The National Cathedral Bell Tower

So I am totally behind on posting. Something funny/spectacular/amazing/crazy happens every day, but I am just a little busy out here in DC! 

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago (the same day as the European Union Embassies tour) the National Cathedral had their "Flower Mart." They had lots of floral displays from around the world (and booths of food and items to buy outside), but the main thing I was interested in was the TOWER. The National Cathedral bell tower, to be specific. 

On this blessed day the cathedral people open up the steps to the bell tower for the general public.

This means me.

I didn't even mind the feel (too much) because it goes to support the cathedral and the wonderful things they do for the Christian and non-Christian community in DC. Who could be upset about supporting such a thing?

Anyway, I grabbed my chance when it came and got a ticket to go up the steps to the bell tower.

No, not these steps. The steps inside. :)

The views were magnificent. This is looking out a window about halfway up. Can you see the Washington Monument?

These are the windows I was looking out of in the picture above.

Seldom-used bell towers allow for some pretty strange rooms, like this big one pictured above. The steps to the bell tower, below, are in the corner, but this big room was used mostly for storage of random metal things, dust, and...wine bottles?!? Not quite sure what function they served, but they were pretty cool looking.

The steps of the final ascent

The top, where the bells and the bell-ringing ropes are held, has little windows with very small balconies that you can go out on. You have to squeeze through the windows and jump down on to the balcony (but it was much less dangerous than I am making it sound), and I was wearing heels (naturally), but naturally I went out the windows on every side. I knew that they would probably give us very little time after the bell-ringing demonstration before they started herding us downstairs, so I must admit (a bit ashamedly) that I ignored the demonstration (I tried to be polite about jumping in and out of the windows, though) and jumped in and out of all the windows.

I am willing to perform such a great sacrifice, friends, for you. How else will you see pictures from the top of the National Cathedral, which is (because of its placement on a hill) the highest spot in DC?

If you look closely in the back middle of this picture, you can see the white and gold LDS temple. It is pretty huge landmark in DC and they use it daily in their traffic reports.

Don't worry, I didn't touch the bell ropes!

Looking through a screen at the Capitol and downtown

I took more than 200 pictures of the view and the Cathedral (which is GORGEOUS, by the way), and that many pictures just overwhelms a blog post. So maybe I will post an album online. Until then, here are some more views of DC from the bell tower.

And just one of the inside of the Cathedral.

Around the World Embassy Tour

One of the many perks of living in Washington, D.C. is the "Embassy Tour" event. Once a year on a Saturday in May the European Union embassies open their doors to the public, and then the next Saturday the rest of the embassies do the same. They have food and drink samples, live music, art exhibits, information about their countries, and opportunities to meet the ambassadors and others from the country. OF course, not all of the embassies are able to participate each year, and not all of the embassies have food, but it is still an amazing experience to go and visit the embassies. If any of you are ever out in DC in May, I would highly recommend going online and looking this event up.

The best thing about the embassy tour is the free shuttle service that runs between the embassy route. I'm telling you, this thing is awesome!

The first week I went to the European Embassies: specifically Sweden, France, Germany, Denmark, and Italy. With so many embassies open you are hard-pressed to hit them all between 10 am-4 pm, so it is best to look at the routes (the embassies are spread all over the city) and pick which ones you want to hit.

EU open embassies map

First was Sweden. They had cheese, crackers, and delicious jellies for sample.

One of the best parts of the Swedish embassy was the view from the roof.

This has nothing to do with the embassies but I saw this little restaurant (?) while on the shuttle and threw it in for my sister Jocilyn. It's an inside joke :)

Next was France. France and Germany have quite big embassies (I think Germany had the biggest embassy yard of all the embassies I went to) and so they had a little more room to spread out and have booths of information about French language schools, French companies, etc.

They also had French cheese and bread.

The German embassy, since it was so big, had lots of room to show off. Here is a German table setting (?)

And a "ladies' sitting room"

And remnants of the Jewish presence in Germany.

This man and woman were playing German songs on these. Awesome.

Another cool thing about the Germany embassy were these cardboard cut-outs of famous sites in Germany with an explanation of what it is next to it. This way, you almost felt like you were walking through Germany!

The Germany embassy also gave out free chocolates. Delicious, lush, liquor truffles. You can bet that I got a few strange looks when I asked for the (non-alcoholic) bunny-shaped children's chocolate.

Denmark was kind of lame. Sorry. The only food available was certainly not free, and they didn't have much in the way of booths. They did, however, have a Lego booth (were legos invented in Denmark?) and they also had a free bathroom, which I definitely took advantage of.

Italy was a must-see because my friend Sarah served her mission there. Again, I was disappointed by the lack of free food (they had gelatto for $4 a cup and $6 sandwiches!) but the inside of the Italian embassy was awesome.

This is a picture of one of the photos on display in the Italian embassy. Doesn't it almost look like I took this picture live?

The inside of the Italian Embassy. Isn't it so artistic?

What else would be on display at the Italian embassy than a Ferrari? There were 3 other cars there (including the mini in the next picture), but I was most interested in the red (and black) Ferraris.

Isn't this color combination just beautiful?

The next week I only hit up a few more. I wanted to hit up all the Middle Eastern ones that were open, but Egypt, Saudia Arabia, and Iraq were all on different sides of the city.

Map of the open non-EU embassies

On my way to Iraq (my Middle East embassy of choice), I hit up the Bahamas, Slovenia, and a few others.

The Bahamas embassy even had the ambassador at the door shaking everyone's hand as they came in.

A traditional mask from the Bahamas.

The Bahamas, along with several other embassies (France included), had samples of native alcoholic drinks. I naturally stood in line for the juice with the children. :)

The best embassy visit, hands down, was Iraq. Music, dancing, cultural displays, and a full lunch meal of dates, yogurt drink, chicken, pitas, hummus, and water bottles. What a dream.

Nepal, next to the Iraqi embassy, was also pretty cool. They had some beautiful displays and lots of jewelry for sale.

Too bad I won't be here next year to hit up the other embassies! Maybe I can go to the American embassy in Tel Aviv...