Cycling Capitol Hill
BIKES! Gleaming in a row and for rent in a new sleek space right outside Union Station. What a good way to cover the spaces in between tourist sites: that long walk from the train to the Capitol is collapsed into a pleasant few minutes under a canopy of trees when you’re pedaling through the park.
My friend Laura and I had geared up at the Bike and Roll rental shop and were sent on our way by the earnest young men running the stand. Included in our fee were helmets, locks, and handlebar pouches that held our cameras while we meandered across the Hill on rented wheels.
You can ride on the sidewalks in DC; a nuisance for pedestrians I’m sure, but we were too timid to brave the traffic on anything but side streets. A bike lane runs assertively right in the center of Pennsylvania Avenue, but in spite of the old maxim that doing something you haven’t tried for years is “just like riding a bike,” I was too tentative and wobbly on mine to surge down that mid-lane bike route.
It was enough of a challenge for me to manage the places where sidewalks buckled over tree roots and to navigate the sharp turns you need to make once you pedal up the ramps from street to curb when you’ve got the “walk” light. (It sure makes you aware of the difficult choreography wheelchair users must have to master!)
Careful to avoid bicycling over the dark-suited Senatorial types, we weaved along the walkways aiming for the Capitol and the Supreme Court just across from it. I’ve seen these buildings hundreds of times, but the grandeur never diminishes. I was like the greenest tourist, enthusiastically snapping too many pictures and pointing out architectural details, reading the words “Equal Justice Under Law” in a sort of soft-focus, idealistic reverie.
We first used our handy bike locks at the Library of Congress. Inside, the photo taking really got out of hand. Everywhere you look, richly saturated, colorful beauty: every view ornate, every wall and ceiling a deep pastel hue. You will love the view from the balcony on the third floor looking over the vast reader’s room.
You can wander in to the very core of the building, its symbolic soul: Thomas Jefferson’s library. His collection of grammar books and French histories and notes on the Serpentine wall at UVa and volumes by Milton and drafts of the Declaration of Independence and his writings on slavery sits shelved in glass rows. You can gaze at the spines and consider all the research and thinking and wisdom behind the decisions he made as he crafted a plan for a new country. Fascinating, but a lunch-time hunger pulled us away.
A few minutes of riding got us to Eastern Market. We strolled down the brightly lit promenade ogling olives and platters of clams.
Crabcakes from Market Lunch with a side of grilled green beans and green-fried tomatoes fueled us up for a leisurely ride back through the drizzle to the friendly fellows at the bike shop.
