Washington DC was my home for nearly a decade and I discovered that most of the six million or more Washingtonians not only loved the fact that they lived there, but they were prone to showing off � especially in the spring when their city�s treasured cherry trees blossomed.
In time I came to behave like one of the locals and during a recent visit I remembered why Washington is a city that�s so easy to love � especially in springtime.
A massive, power-driven American city is a strange amour � especially for someone raised in the rural Eastern Cape with endless beaches and wide skies.
Nevertheless, among the myriad reasons to enjoy Washington, is that it�s a city of open spaces and flowers, and a haven for culture-vultures, that is created on a human scale despite its size.
Buildings in the immediate downtown vicinity are never taller than the obelisk that forms the Washington Monument, so there are no skyscrapers to create gloomy wind tunnels. Instead, the Potomac River wanders lazily past government buildings, bypassing gracious avenues, circles and parks, all elegantly designed by French architect Pierre L�Enfant.
Washingtonians provoke much wry mirth among expats by referring to their hometown as "The Capital Of The Free World.
If you�re in DC it�s impossible to ignore the city�s world super-power status and political symbols pop up everywhere. But whatever your interests, it�s likely that Washington can oblige. There is a deep vein of culture to tap for those who prefer non-political pursuits and attractions.
The superb Smithsonian museum complex provides a moveable feast of world-beating science and art exhibitions and the river-side Kennedy Centre is a hub of the performing arts. Plus, there�s an ethos of bringing the arts and sciences to the people, so the zoo, the Smithsonian and many other museums are free.
Late summer brings free outdoor Shakespeare in the park. Free Sunday night concerts at the Kennedy Centre offer selections from "whoever�s playing", be it Yoyo Ma or the Mississippi gospel choir. On warm evenings, free Kirstenbosch-style concerts are offered on a grassy slope in the Washington Zoo. The free fireworks display over the tidal basin on July 4 defies all description and my university-going son and his friends are as keen to watch now as when they were 10-year-olds.
Belying the national fast-food mentality, there are numerous sophisticated wine bars and cutting-edge restaurants.
More poetry books are devoured in DC than in the rest of the country altogether. Kramer Books and Afterwords is a bookstore-bistro, open 24/7/365 and where else would you find a neighbourhood bookshop called Politics and Prose? There you can sit on the floor and listen to "whoever�s in town" read from their books. Waangari Maathai, Zakes Mda, Alexander McCall Smith, Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Deepak Chopra� that�s where I met them.
Public transit is efficient and makes DC a good choice for visitors who seek a safe, accessible place to visit. Potential tourists should bear in mind however, that for at least for at least half the year, the weather�s awful.
By August, even the sky perspires and brief hours of darkness bring no relief. Nothing cools down because buildings return hot, used air to tired pavements. Frequent thunderstorms leave slushy sidewalks and walking on DC streets in the depths of summer is like traversing a swamp � biting bugs included.
At the other extreme, when winter smacks down hard, tourists get the worst of it. Flights are cancelled by the dozen, runways close and buses and taxis stop moving.
The nightmarish experience of being stuck at snowed-in airport is one of the special hells reserved for those who travel in a northern hemisphere winter.
Fall, the in-between season, is crisp and pleasant in DC, but not spectacular. Leaf-peepers go north or south along the eastern seaboard for vistas of beautiful red and russet autumn leaves.
Without doubt, spring is the time of year to visit. That�s the season when Washington offers itself wholeheartedly for the admiration and pleasure of those who choose to partake.
Washingtonians relish their outdoor spaces in the spring. Powerbrokers lunch on the grass in pocket-sized parks that punctuate downtown DC. Frisbees rule along the Mall � that enormous rectangular piece of ground stretching between the Washington Monument and the Capitol, the seat of US government.
Young executives trade indoor gym sessions for free-wheeling roller blades and during spring weekends the air-space above the Mall comes alive with kites.
But it�s the cherry blossoms that define Washington in the spring. A short walk from the Mall to the tidal basin, where the Potomac blends with the incoming sea, will culminate in an extraordinary sensation of being blown away by an explosion of flowers. Thousands of Japanese cherry trees surround the calm tidal basin and, in early spring, every tree burgeons into its own cloud of sweetly scented blossoms.
For Washingtonians, the flowering is a perennial reward for surviving another winter and it�s a perfect opportunity to show off. Locals seem to brush aside any lurking reserve about foreigners and cherry blossom time becomes everyone�s festival. Over a million visitors hit the tidal basin annually, to enjoy the blossoms.
Incidentally, not all visitors were always unreservedly welcome � during the 2002 cherry blossom festival, a family of beavers determinedly attempted to dam the entire tidal basin.
A number of valuable cherry trees were felled for building material and the busy beavers evaded eviction for weeks before they were outwitted by park rangers and removed to another abode, far away.
The 3 700 cherry trees blossom for seven to 14 days only and occasionally a storm cuts the time even shorter. However, a dedicated phone-in Blossom-Line updated by the National Parks Service keeps track of the unfolding botanical drama from immediately after the winter thaw and the entire city anticipates the lacy pink and white flowers with childlike delight.
DC has always celebrated these beautiful natural highlights by hosting the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival and because the cherry trees were a gift to the US from Japan in 1912, festival events are as always, centred on Japanese culture. The two-week festival that I enjoyed featured concerts, exhibits, a street parade, fireworks, a kite festival and athletic competitions, traditionally including rugby on the Mall, albeit foreign to most Americans.
In addition, in 2007, the city hosted the 90-year-old daughter of former Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki, who initially gave the trees to Washington as a symbol of Japanese and American friendship long before Pearl Harbour, Nagasaki or Hiroshima. Decades later, I was present when Minister Mitsuro Kitano from the Japanese Embassy spoke: "We look at the cherry blossom as a lot of things. When it blossoms, it is like we are seeing life."
I mused that as a simple catalyst for international good faith and goodwill, the trees have regularly outperformed legions of politicians.
The festival was fun, so if you can get your head around a kimono-clad Mickey Mouse leading festival parades on the Mall, go and drench your senses in cherry blossoms and symbolism. Washington�s not a city for all seasons, but it has very few rivals in springtime.
- See Washington
- Once in town, contact the Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation (WCTC) on (202) 789 7000 or, to order a DC visitor�s guide, call (800) 422 8644.
Visit the DC Visitor Information Centre in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Centre, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. Take the Metro to the Federal Triangle Station, Blue/Orange lines.
- Public transit, walking and biking are the best ways to see the blossoms, but if driving is your only option, plan ahead to minimise your time in congested traffic � you came to see the blossoms not the cars. Go as early as possible or in the evening.
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