In summer, Americans swarm Washington DC, a city whose memorials and grand edifices honour the people's collective past.
But there is more for anyone with an interest in global affairs and history. In DC, one can visit the government buildings and marvel at the abundance of power and influence — twin draws that pull aspiring young professionals to the city like moths to a flame.
Like one giant diorama in a natural history museum, DC provides a fascinating and telling tale about Americans, from glad-handing politicians, to buttoned-down bureaucrats.
My conclusion — after a recent press trip with Qatar Airways, which was inaugurating its new non-stop daily service from Doha — is that all this power and influence coursing through the streets gives the city an electric feel.
Homage to the past
At the same time, it is also a city that knows how to pay homage to its past and citizens. To see the history on display, tourists should start off with the M's — memorials, monuments, museums and the Mall.
The National Mall is a rectangular expanse of greenery stretching for about a mile and the point of reference for any DC sojourn. At its centre stands the Washington Memorial — a tribute to the US's first president. It is an obelisk rising 170m and is made of Maryland white granite.
Huddled around the green stretch of parkland are dozens of attractions. There is the Jefferson Memorial, like a gleaming white Roman temple, commemorating the third US president, the Holocaust Museum, a spy museum and a collection of Smithsonian Museums on design, portraiture, natural history and American Indians. Most museums do not charge an entrance fee.
Further ahead, one can see the Supreme Court, with its great pillars, the FBI headquarters, the IMF and the World Bank and the National Archives, where visitors can peer through dim light to see the US's declaration of independence, signed 231 years ago.
Even the Watergate hotel, once the scene of the crime that caused the downfall of President Nixon, is not far away.
Memories are forever
At one end of the Mall lies Capitol Hill, where the Congress passes laws, and at the other is the Lincoln Memorial, where an awe-inspiring statue of Abraham Lincoln has been hewn out of white marble. It was on these steps that Martin Luther King Jr gave his speech, "I have a dream". A plaque marks the exact spot. Today, it is a shrine of sorts for African-American people, who gather there for their family reunions.
Like other DC monuments, the text of old speeches adorns the walls of the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln was a famous orator and it was at the tail end of the US's Civil War that he spoke of a government "of the people, by the people and for the people".
Tributes to other inspiring orators can be found among the memorials built for President Kennedy and his brother, Robert, at Arlington National Cemetery, just across the Potomac River.
Like at any centre of power, luxury is in abundance in DC.
We stayed at the Renaissance Mayflower, an elegant four-star establishment just a few blocks from the White House. It is a place where DC powerbrokers do business over a sumptuous breakfast buffet.
Lunch at Charlie Palmer's steakhouse, across the street from the Capitol, is not to be missed. In addition to great food, the restaurant offers one of the best chances to see a senator or presidential hopeful lunching. For dinner, become a 'localvore' and eat some of the freshest ingredients grown in the surrounding countryside and served at Agraria restaurant — located in Georgetown.
Enthusiastic lot
The provisions gave us the strength to keep up with our guide, a walking encyclopaedia named Judy, who took us up to the Capitol Building and around the various memorials. It was at the National Air and Space Museum that we found her male equivalent. Jim, a legal assistant by vocation but aviation nut by hobby, took us around authentic relics of the great space race.
Space capsules, jet aeroplanes which fly at six times the speed of sound and even the original aeroplane used by Charles Lindbergh to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. An IMAX film, on jet fighter pilots, made sure we would never forget this museum.
DC is not all about museums, though. Whether wolfing down sandwiches while watching the DC Nationals' baseball team or seeing a truly electrifying R&B performance at Blues Alley in the Georgetown district, the city thrills and is exciting and fun.
Do the Boogie-woogie
On a palatial riverboat that plies the waters of the Potomac River, our group of Middle Eastern journalists learnt that the Electric Slide is alive and well.
It was after dinner when a brassy Filipina singer began singing Electric Boogie, a song remembered as much for its accompanying line dance as for its lyrics. The people obliged, dozens of them, in unison, acting out shimmies, slides and shakes.
The other journalists could hardly blink and the singer on board the Odyssey summed up our trip. "You gotta know it. It's electric! Boogie, woogie, woogie!"
Go there... Washington
From the UAE
From Dubai: Qatar Airways flies daily via Doha. Fare: Dh4,010
Lufthansa flies six times a week via Frankfurt. Dh5,420
KLM flies daily via Amsterdam. Dh4,540
— Information courtesy: Dnata Holidays
