Washington DC

National Mall is the definitely the best urban center I visited in the USA. Highly recommended to visit both houses of the Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, and all the amazing Smithsonian museums without entrance fees.

New York, New York.

我和陈丹青在了 at metropolitan museum of art. I was always wondering what happened to the majority of works of famous artists like Van Gogh, Monet, Gauguin, Rembrandt, because I saw only so few in museums before. Until I went to the USA. They are all there, especially in New York. Whole rooms just full of works from one of them while usually a museum is happy just to have one. Also saw more Rodin sculpture than I assumed he made in his life.

Orange is the new black. Trump Tower in New York has two strange gifts shops (not the masks. They are from Hollywood). Besides that it’s interesting to see. Has a Starbucks inside. Guards with machine guns are very friendly and willing to take pictures with you.

And so so much more to explore. It took me ten days to see it all.  Here are a few impressions.

 

Route 66

The longest preserved part is located in Arizona from Seligman over Kingman to Oatman. Oatman is full of wild donkeys which randomly try to run over tourists and vandalize their cars. A really really weird place – definitely worth to see. I recommend a good insurance or quick reactions – donkeys are surprisingly fast.

Canyon Diablo Crater

Aka Meteor Crater was the first crater which was recognized as meteorite impact crater and named best preserved meteorite crater on Earth. The tour guides told some funny tragic stories of its history and its use as training ground for NASA’s moon missions.

Lowell observatory

The astronomical observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona was established in 189 designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. In 2011, the Observatory was named one of “The World’s 100 Most Important Places” by TIME. Pluto, expansion of the universe, three largest known stars and many more discoveries were made here.

Monument valley

After a small lunch stop at Twin Rocks Cafe and Forest Gump Point Monument valley was just stunning. I almost ruined the rental car in the valley drive. If lots of sign warn that a road in inaccessible for normal cars better follow the sign.