An early start again, and another long walk this time to the Smithsonian; we were dismayed when we discovered on reaching the Mall at 9 am that the museums don’t open until 10 o’clock! But in the end we hung out in the increasing heat until the Air and Space Museum opened.

It really is fantastic – the orignal Command Module from Apollo 11; the back-ups of the lunar module; F here posing against a background of the Apollo-Soyuz mission. He bought a set of models of the moon landings which kept him busy on the train.

I had a work-related engagement immediately after lunch, and then we went to Union Station to get a train to New York. As it happened there was one in five minutes which we managed to get. But three and a half hours seemed like quite a long time for all of us – the Acela expresses are off at the moment. So I decided that for the Wednesday leg of the journey, from NY to Boston, we would drive.

Arrived in the end though, and taxi up to my old friend S and his newlywed wife E on the Upper East Side. F’s comment on the architecture has been noted. S and E have a cat and a dog; the former curled up on F once he was asleep; the latter kept a wary and respectful distance.

F and cat (both asleep)