I went on a fantastic ‘Monuments by Moonlight’ tour run by the ‘Old Town Trolley’ company on Sunday the 14th of December; I caught the Metro from ‘Foggy Bottom’ (my local stop) and had a quick look around the old Union railway station before I get on the trolley bus.

Union Station is a spectacle in itself, it reminded me greatly of the old Kansas City train station and also from the footage of the station in the film ‘Silver Streak’ (one of my favourites).  The architecture is absolutely amazing and it’s easy to wander around, bumping into travellers whilst being distracted by all the details on the walls and ceilings.

The Old Town Trolley is beautiful, a lovely old rickety thing with wood interior and huge glass windows; perfect for seeing the many sights in and around D.C.

During my tour I saw:

• The Jefferson Memorial
• Martin Luthor King Memorial
• Vietnam Memorial
• The Washington Monument
• The World War 2 memorial
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) memorial
• Abraham Lincoln memorial
• Iwo Jima Memorial

Adam, the driver and tour guide, was incredibly knowledgeable and it was an honour to sit and listen to him talk passionately about the history of the memorials and various other places that we passed during the tour.

The memorials are stunning at night, all lit up and much more poignant I think where they are not quite as populated as I imagine they are during the daytime.

Personally highlights for me were the Roosevelt memorial because I admire him an awful lot, same can be said for the Martin Luthor King memorial which is an exceptional sculpture.

I felt an amazing rush of emotion seeing the Iwo Jima memorial, I’ve seen images of the photos behind the statue in many books over the years and it is fantastic to see in the flesh.

My favourite memorial was Abraham Lincoln, I climbed the many stairs that lead up to Lincolns statue and had my very own Rocky moment when I got to the summit; atop you will find the statue of a very great man.

The view from the top of the memorial is beautiful because you get to see the Washington monument all lit up over the memorial pool water; seeing the pool made me think of the Vietnam protests.  So much history in such a small space.

The tour is excellent value for money, highly recommended.