Bhanu knew some place which she had visited during her previous visit to Washington, but they had shifted. She was trying to find the new location and Vishwa was searching the net. Children, who are usually lukewarm about Indian food, also participated eagerly. I was casually leafing through one of the information booklets that were in the suite and found the ‘Bombay Club Restaurant’ in the restaurants section. Vishwa took it up for further research and gave his approval. Some more discussion took place and the hammer fell for Bombay Club for dinner.
We had a little time before setting out for dinner and decided to take a stroll around the Capitol Hill and see the National botanical garden, which was not far from the hotel. I was expecting a fabulous garden with lots of trees, shade, fountains and flowers. But the garden that we entered was nowhere near my expectations. It was neither large nor had any trees or shade. It is not easy for a garden to impress a person who has spent half his child hood in Lalbagh, Bangalore, but this place was not even trying. Still, having entered in, we spent some time there and headed for the Bombay club restaurant.
Capitol south and Farragut west were on the same metro line and we reached the Farragut west station in less than half an hour. It took some time to find the Connecticut Avenue, on which the Bombay club was located. After arriving at the spot we learnt that prior reservations were required and a table would be available for us in an hour. So, to spend time, we decided to stroll down the street and just as we took a turn at the end, found that we were in Lafayette square, right opposite the White House.
A visit to the white house was not on our agenda for the evening but the hunger for Indian food took us to the abode of the American president. I was expecting a huge crowd and visibly tight security in front of White house and was surprised to see not more than a dozen tourists. Also, there was only one secret service vehicle in front of the building and two or three officers keeping watch. I could walk right up to the fence and take a picture of the white house. It looked very unassuming and simple.
We were back at the restaurant in an hour, but it took another half an hour by the time a table was free.
Luckily, once the order was placed, the food arrived in reasonable time and it did taste very good. For once we had ordered sensibly and we were all pleasantly full when we walked out. It was dark and cool and we languidly walked back to the station and arrived at the hotel half asleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment