Markets of all kinds and farewell to DC

 

 

Packing, check-out, and out  we were again - despite light rain this morning - for one more adventure: We still wanted to explore the Union Market District. Located in the NoMa neighborhood, this gourmet food hall (photo above, left) offers a variety of different cuisines and delicacies. Union Market is a revived mid-century produce- and meat-selling bazaar that holds food stalls, restaurants and kitchen/restaurant equipment. 

 

The building was restored and reopened in 2012, as an industrial-cool space. Another building is occupied by La Cosecha (far above),  a contemporary Latin American marketplace. The whole market area is filled with little restaurants, cafés, but also with pretty „authentic“ meat markets and whole sale stores. Though it was still a little quiet in the morning, we got a good idea about how attractive this neighborhood, which name means „North of Massachusetts Avenue“. It is situated closeby Union Station and connects with Ivy City, where a flagship REI Store and the Red Bear Brewing Company are to be found.

 

After checking out „Politics and Prose“ bookstore (pic on right side), an independen,  fantastic/chaotic/adorable used-book store founded in 1984, we went for a stroll through the NoMa district with its beautiful little row houses - contrasting to the mushrooming modern highrises! Some of the trees in front already started to bloom.

 

 

When we reached H Street (where a streetcar is running), we smelled coffee and found Sidamo (left photo), an Ethiopian coffee roastery/shop (there are more Ethiopian places around!), where we enjoyed another cup of strong and excellent coffee while watching the  owner handroasting batch by batch. Again, many new buildings around, but also some of the old features along H Street.

 

 

 

 

Next stop: Union Station (left), the second-busiest Amtrak hub in the nation with a foodcourt, shops and restaurants, tour and bike rental offerings. Designed by Daniel Burnham and opened in 1907, it is Amtrak's headquarters, connecting DC with cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston on a frequent basis, but there are also long-distance AMTRAK services to Chicago and New Orleans. Finally (!!!) we also found a post office - which isn’t too easy anymore nowadays in big cities - and mailed a postcard to friends of us. The post office employee was stationed in Göppingen, as he proudly told us.

 Since we still had plenty of time and rain had stopped, we walked a good mile or so to get to another famous DC market, the Eastern Market (right), in the Capitol Hill neighborhood (below). The market was completed in 1873, designed by a German-born immigrant named Adolf Cluss. He also designed the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building at the Mall. 2007 the Market buildings burned down, but were rebuilt and reopened two years later. Eastern Market is one of the few historic public market buildings in Washington, DC and the only one that has retained its original public market function with butchers, fish mongers, bakeries, etc.. Though, we missed the weekend farmers and flea market there, we at least got us a delicious Pastrami Sandwich for To-go!

We took an Uber back to the hotel and got ready for our trip by foot to the metro station and from there by subway to the airport. Recently, the Silver Line was completed and now connects the city to Dulles International Airport DC - for merely $ 3,65 (regular) or 6,45 (peak time) - which is amazingly cheap considering the distance! In DC - other than in many other cities, trains and stations are clean, not overcrowded, trains frequent often and reliably. It took us about 50 min. to get to the airport (Uber would probably have taken 1/2 hour in weekday traffic). With the exception of long walking distances in the airport to get around, the usual procedures went quick and smooth. Plane (a B 777-200) departed about 30 min. late, but we each had a row of our own, it was only about 40 % full.