Departing from school at 5am we headed to Heathrow, taking a mid-morning flight after a slightly fractious check-in to Washington DC. Arrival was smooth and we experienced no issues on entry to the US – phew!

We made our way to our Hotel in downtown Washington in the NoMa University district. This was a new hotel to us as we swore never to return to the Harrington, aka Fawlty Towers, after our last visit. We were welcomed by sweltering humidity and a bus with very little aircon and possibly the heaviest traffic I have ever experienced in Washington such that what should have been a short hop from the airport to the hotel took 2 hours or more making us late for the Basketball game.

We mused as to whether we should go after such a gruelling journey but we were so glad we did. The Capital One Arena is an amazing venue and whilst the Washington Wizards were slumping to a fairly awful end of season (something those of us who attend Carrow Road are well accustomed to) we made up for this with our first taste of US fast food and soaked up the unique local atmosphere a sports game provides. Half-time Corgi racing was the highlight for us and for the majority of the crowd. After a 24 hour day we were all ready to go to bed.

Friday was our major day in Washington. Again the weather was good and humidity high as we toured the major memorials in Washington’s historic heart. Students loved seeing the Washington monument for real and standing where Martin Luther King intoned “I have a dream” on the steps of the awesome Lincoln monument.

Historians and non-historians appreciated the WW2, Korean War and Vietnam war memorials, the latter two both symbolising an increasing confusion with how to commemorate and troublesome conflicts. The People’s House Museum was a new addition to the tour and contained incredible CGI renderings of the White House and a chance to sit in the Oval Office and take a Press Conference – which seemed ideal Instagram content and was a hit. We passed the real thing a few minutes later, although additional barriers had been erected which prevented getting great photos of the President’s abode.

The African American Museum is extremely difficult to get tickets to. After we had navigated the entry process which is almost as challenging as the ticketing process, the museum is an awesome recognition and celebration of the story of black people in the United States. The visitor is taken on a journey from slavery and misery to triumph and the incredible cultural, artistic, musical, dance contributions African Americans have made to the United States – it was a tour de force.

Having refreshed ourselves at the hotel we visited the iconic Ben’s Chilli Bowl for dinner, the half-smoke hot-dog being the fuel for Civil-Rights protestors, celebrities and Barack Obama from previous visits and we got to ride a Streetcar in an “interesting” neighborhood to boot!

Saturday we visited Arlington Cemetery where we visited the Women’s Memorial – a relatively new addition which Miss Sefton recommended it from a previous visit. It was a moving recognition of the increasing role of women in the armed forces, and contained particularly moving elements like the tables set for those who do not come home from conflict at official dinners. We saw the grave of JFK and the eternal flame and whilst we would have loved to explore further our bus to New York was calling and we headed back to the incredible Union Station to grab lunch before our journey.

Major protests were planned in Washington for this day and many of the protestors were on our trains and in the station practising their chants against the Trump administration. Our driver to New York could be described as “assertive” and delivered us to New York in double quick time. This meant that we had some time to explore the city before dinner, heading into Times Square for a taste of the Big Apple before dinner at the iconic Tick-Tock Diner next to Madison Square Garden.

On Monday we headed out for our first journey on the Metro to Battery Park to hop aboard our ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Here the girls donned Statue of Liberty foam hats and took numerous photos before heading to the more sobering Ellis Island to reflect on the immigrant story to the states. The great arrival hall has a real aura of lived experience – of migrants who had been on the brink of a new life in the United States and the hopes and fears of acceptance into the nation. Some students researched relatives who had travelled on boats and appeared in immigration records whilst others enjoyed the exhibitions and the excellent gift shop.

Back on dry land after superb views of Manhattan Island we were pitched into the old settlement of New Amsterdam, the location of skirmishes during the war for Independence and the iconic setting of Wall Street. More iconic than ever on this day as stocks tumbled after the tariff announcements.

The 9/11 memorial site is always sobering and the way this has been incorporated into the story of downtown Manhattan. We made our way home via the buzzing and upscale Chelsea Market and the beautiful more restful High Line. A very quick change and dinner later we finished the day at the Broadway Musical “Six”. Buzzing from such an eclectic range of activities Mr. Nightingale, and his family who received a vast array of (in the view of the girls) not very well composed selfies, could only reflect that this has been quite an exceptional day to spend a birthday.

Tuesday was our final full day and we headed over to the United Nations on edge of Manhattan Island. It was wetter and colder and we at first received something of a frosty reception, ironically not from an Ipswich fan and UN employee who we met outside, but from UN security who had changed their entry rules. Launching a charm offensive worthy of brokering any international peace agreement, we managed to circumvent the new security checks and make it through just in time for our tour. This was an incredible experience to be in such an iconic building and we timed it perfectly to be able to get photos in the General Assembly which had just stopped sitting. We got a real sense of the operation of the UN and the guides were passionate about its continued role and relevance.

Lunch was at the iconic Grand Central Station, few more auspicious venues exist, and then having hopped to Rockefeller Centre we allowed some time for shopping on 5th Avenue. Most students quickly bypassed Trump Tower and Sephora had a record day of sales.

We then headed into the Manhattan skyline to the top of Vanderbilt One. Sadly it was misty day and views were limited, but thankfully Vanderbilt One is more than just a skyscraper experience and it includes an incredible array of auditory, visual and kinaesthetic rooms with bouncing reflective balloons and chances to stand on glass over the edge of the building which some of us were too nervous to do!

Returning to the hotel to recharge we headed just around the corner to a bar called Burgerology (more healthy food naturally) and were surprised to find we had our own bespoke performance from an off-Broadway duo called “Duelling Pianos”. Taking musical requests ranging from Alicia Keys to Frank Sintra and Bon Jovi to Crystal Waters we bopped the evening away with a hedonistic vibe not matched since the Gatsby-esque parties of the 1920s.

Our final day was not to be wasted. We headed to Central Park exploring another more residential area of the city on 72nd Street. We wandered through Strawberry Fields, appreciated the amazing blossoms at the Cherry Hill Fountain (recreating the Friends titles) and on to the lake and the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. It was sunny, if cold, and students got to appreciate the park, the original terrain of Manhattan Island and the busker singing ‘Imagine’ in Strawberry Fields in memory of John Lennon.

We then took the Metro further into the Island to 132nd Street and the district of Harlem to meet our guide, the effervescent Lady Altovise. Flagging from tiredness and several days of incessant walking her infectious energy powered us through iconic Harlem venues such as the Apollo Theatre, into a small jazz club to see Duke Ellington’s piano, past speakeasies still in existence and into beautiful art-deco Hotel lobbies for loo breaks. We saw Harlem brownstones, heard about the story of the African American community, saw housing for WW1 veterans of the 92nd Infantry and listened to lip-smacking and inspirational stories of Sylvia’s Soul Food joint. We finished our tour in the iconic Schomberg Centre, the resting place of the beating heart of the Harlem Renaissance poet and writer Langston Hughes. 

What a tour it had been and as we boarded the plane at Newark to make our journey home it would take some time to digest all we had seen, felt and consumed! I know the flight gives time for gratitude for the opportunity we all had for this visit, for those back at school who had made it possible – the amazing admin team, nurse and others who had helped to assist to make everything run so smoothly.

We went with the fundamental aim of experiencing American history, politics and culture through two great and very different cities. For some, including staff members, we had travelled with all the natural anxieties of such a big journey so far from home in unfamiliar places perhaps with some less familiar people.

We had been in some of the richest places and iconic places on planet earth and heard stories and seen deprivation, drug dependency and social problems writ-large in a way not present in the UK. We had experienced constant warmth from our hosts and incredible fortitude from the students who never once complained – perhaps at points they just had too much else to think about!

We had experienced history ‘in the making’ as American politics dominated the global stage in a way not seen for a generation and seen shockwaves caused in Washington whilst we were there reverberating around the world (including my own pension which I still dare not check).

The United States plays such a dominant role in our cultural life, and seeing in-person places only ever seen on television and in movies has a special quality to it. You feel perhaps you are living in something of a dream, and perhaps at times we were almost sleepwalking! Most of all we experienced it all together, as a group, with friends and with new friends with shared memories and reference points.

In the words of American author Mark Twain: ‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.’ I think we did all three.