The day began with rain, but we certainly didn't let that dampen our enthusiasm as we headed out from our lovely B&B in Takoma Park and on to the metro for the trip into Washington DC. If there 's one thing that we've learned from our Scotland adventures it's to always bring a raincoat and carry an umbrella.
Today was the European Union Embassy Open House and, having thoroughly enjoyed the experience in the past, we decided that it would be fun to once again face the challenge of seeing how many embassy stamps we could muster on our brochure passport.
So, here are the highlights of our European adventure:
Lithuania was a delight. It's one of the few embassies that opens its doors without treating each visitor as if one was a potential terrorist.
Treats included Lithuanian dark rye bread, herb cheese, honey, and Lithuania beer, of which I did not partake.
Poland, which actually borders Lithuania, was next door, but prior to entering, we needed to get past the gruff security personnel, go through a metal detector and have our bags searched. The inconvenience was soon forgotten as we were each handed a red ticket in exchange for the Polish delicacies of a Pierogie, Kielbassa and sauerkraut along with a small glass of Polish Beer.
Across the street from Poland was the Spanish embassy. The queue was even longer, because here we not only had to go through the metal detector, but we once again had to rid ourselves of anything electronic and hand our bags over to go through a separate scanner.
Once inside there were no free samples for tasting. Plus there was this rather creepy mosaic on the wall. Don't look too closely at that baby's face.
Today was the European Union Embassy Open House and, having thoroughly enjoyed the experience in the past, we decided that it would be fun to once again face the challenge of seeing how many embassy stamps we could muster on our brochure passport.
So, here are the highlights of our European adventure:
Lithuania was a delight. It's one of the few embassies that opens its doors without treating each visitor as if one was a potential terrorist.
Treats included Lithuanian dark rye bread, herb cheese, honey, and Lithuania beer, of which I did not partake.
Do you know what Polish Beer tastes like?
Well, it tastes like..........Beer.
Which I do NOT care for, but not to worry.....Marty was more than happy to help me out.
Across the street from Poland was the Spanish embassy. The queue was even longer, because here we not only had to go through the metal detector, but we once again had to rid ourselves of anything electronic and hand our bags over to go through a separate scanner.
Once inside there were no free samples for tasting. Plus there was this rather creepy mosaic on the wall. Don't look too closely at that baby's face.
Latvia, like its fellow Baltic Country Lithuania, welcomed us without a search. No free food, but there were some entertaining dancers outside and some lovely singers inside.
Romania, just around the corner, was another easy entry. No treats, but excellent costumed dancers performed outside.
We headed to Italy, but the line was 3 blocks long, so we just kept on walking until we reached the United Kingdom. As I would have expected, they were organized and made the searching of the bags quite simple. No metal detectors, and we were greeted by a woman handing out some really cool UK bags.
The line for the Residence was an hour long, so we chose to just view the gardens
and had some fun visiting the many venues set up in tents.
We headed to Belgium, but that line was at least an hour's wait. So we continued on to the metro station and headed towards the Slovak and Austrian embassies.
On the way, I couldn't resist snapping the photo of this unusual structure in front of this house.
Just a few houses down the road, on the opposite side of the street, someone had a full size replica of a cow on the side porch. The scenery certainly made the hike to the metro entertaining!
Once at the Slovak embassy we were NOT disappointed. There was a Slovak folk group from Pittsburgh who had the crowds whooping and clapping during their awesome performance.
We each sampled some halushki and met some very entertaining characters.
By now it was 3:30, so we headed over to Austria, which is right next door. The search was much easier and we were through the door in no time where we were greeted by a young girl handing us a white ticket for a free glass of Austrian wine. Really, how could we refuse?
I know what you're thinking.......we look way too happy here. But rest assured that the wine samples were just that......samples. No harm to come from tasting, right?
After all, we didn't have any kids around with us to embarrass, so why not enjoy the moment?
And, as if this wasn't enough fun for one day, we were thrilled to be able to meet up with an old high school friend, Winthrop, and his very entertaining family for a few hours of camaraderie.
As usually happens when one is having so much fun, the time slipped by way too quickly. But we both were thrilled to have been able to reconnect with this special friend after so many years.
Really, a better time could not have been had! It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.
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