I booked a tour of Gettysburg over the net from New Zealand and it was pretty good.
We boarded the bus at Union station in D.C. The first interesting thing was the driver/tour guide said that he was meant to play us a video that the company gave him but it was boring and just put people to sleep so now he plays the Gettysburg movie.
The tour was a once over lightly of Gettysburg and the battle. We visited the 3 major sights of the 3 days and drove past many of the other points of interest.
The picture below is looking at Devil's Den from Little Round Top.
The highlights for me were visiting little round top, viewing the fields which Pickett's charge took place and visiting one of the houses in Gettysburg (The Schriver house) that was affected by the battle and hearing the story of what happened to the family. The photo below is off the tour guide at the back of the house.
Like Fredericksburg and Harper’s Ferry; Gettysburg was devastated by the battle. Gettysburg in 1863 was about 2,500 people, about the same size of Featherston. Then 165,000 soldiers with over 70,000 horses turn up to have a fight and leave behind the aftermath of the battle including 8,000 dead men and 3,000 dead horses. The stench was smelt from miles around and locals were sick from the smell. Also left behind were about 12,500 wounded that the locals had to look after.
We had a great lunch at the “General Pickett’s buffet” which was only $10.00 and a quick walk around some of the town.
Below is a picture from one shop of the muskets for sale, all real and most work. I thought at between $1,250 and $3,000 these were not bad value.
There is a lot to do and see in Gettysburg I could spend a week there easy and if I ever return thats what I would do. One thing I have learnt is that the Americans love their monuments and statues.
When we arrived back at Union station we decided to walk down to the White House as we had not seen that.
The security is tight at the White House where there was a squirrel.
We walked past a police woman guard who was carrying a Machine Gun in a bag warning people not to walk on the grass. A guy walking past did not hear what she said and started walking towards her, she got quite angry at him and was about to pull the gun on him. I took this picture of her yelling at the guy hand in her bag, note the gun stock coming out of the bag.
Again I had some problems with my camera's SD card. I brought 2 x 32g SD cards in NZ and both have failed I have lost a pile of photo's. I'm very disappointed with the cards.
Tomorrow we leave Washington D.C. for Albuquerque.
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