Canadian Embassy and a couple of Museums

This morning we decide to visit the Canadian Embassy.   It is a beautiful building and Canadians can be proud.

                                                                CANADIAN EMBASSY

                                                  FRONT DOOR OF THE EMBASSY

We visit the gallery with an exhibit of prints from Cape Dorset.  It is beautiful.

We head over to the Mall and are very happy with the location of our hotel because it is so close.  The first Museum we come upon is the National Gallery of Art.  The Gallery is divided into two buildings.
We start off in the East Building.

The East Building was designed by I.M.Pei - didn't he do something at the Louvre in Paris?   The pyramids are reminiscent of that.

We check out an exhibit by an artist I have never heard of before. "Arcimboldo"  1526 - 1593
Nature and Fantasy.

He has some reversible paintings.  When you turn these paintings of bowls of fruits and vegetables upside down they look like faces - in the museum they have mirrors below the paintings and when you look in the mirror you see the face.  It is absolutely amazing.
After the East Building we head to the West Building.

This building was designed by John Russell Pope.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  A few things to note.  The museums in Washington have handouts that give you the highlights of the museum.  A very useful tool if you do not have a lot of time.  It lists about a dozen  items you should make a point of seeing.  All of these museums are free of charge,  which is fantastic.  We see lots of school groups taking advantage of the museums.   We also realize how nice it is to be in a very large museum with not a lot of visitors.  I think this while we wander around Washington.  New York City is so full of people and the museums are packed.  It is quite the contrast.
We have a bite of lunch in the cafeteria before we head over to the Hirshhorn Museum. It is a 4 story, not quite symmetrical, cylinder.  It is quite interesting and reminds me a little of the Guggenheim in New York in that it is circular in the inside (I much prefer the Guggenheim)

                                                         THE HIRSHHORN MUSEUM

Quite a few areas of this museum were closed and being painted, we assume, for an upcoming exhibit.  We check out what we can and then head for home. 
Terry left for the Convention Centre to attend a meeting this afternoon and I headed upstairs to work on this blog and download some photos.
This is our last night in Washington.  We will wait to see what the weather is like tomorrow before we decide what to do.  We get the bus back to New York at 5 pm tomorrow.

Talk to you later.....