14 July 2009

Here beginneth...

the tale of Hamster's trip to Washington (no, the other Washington). The successful global despot should always take an interest in his foreign service, so I decided to pop in on the embassy for an inspection, and take in a few sights, of course. In my previous post, I mentioned I picked up some brilliant summer reading at the Library of Congress. As some may know, armed forces from a certain nation which shall go unnamed torched the place in the early 19th century. This, of course, required building all new:
This building, the first of what are now three, is right across from the capitol (which aforementioned forces also turned to toast a while back).
The interior has been recently restored, and it is delicious:
Many lovely details,
(yes, that's mosaic in the arch, not painting)

the wall paintings are Pompeian 2nd and 3rd style (Kel or Duncan, correct me if I'm wrong),
even though the architectural inspiration looks rather Hadrianic,and the main reading room looks positively Hagia Sophia:
I swear this is where Harry Weese, the architect for Metro, got the inspiration for the design of the underground stations:
And you can never tell what kind of DC power brokers might be hanging around, researching or trying to find a good read for the train...

3 comments:

  1. I think the library was in the Capital when my anscestors tourched the place.

    DG

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  2. Score! Commentimg from the BB on the road!

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  3. We should take this and make it a new fun place for Peguins to run free.

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