This morning I took a cab from Georgetown to Union Station in DC.  It struck me as we went through the streets just how tranquil a place Washington is.  There was almost no one on the sidewalks.  There are more and more gleaming enormous post-modern apartment complexes on wide clean empty streets, with no one around.  The cab driver laughed; yes, he said, it's very very calm.  It was a beautiful cold sunny morning, and Union Station was just glowing, with the big wreaths and bows still up on its columns.

This evening I took a walk up Fifth Avenue, and around 23rd street I fell in with a guy who apparently walks up and down Manhattan as a hobby.  "Are you on a short walk or a long walk?" he asked.  He was full of information about the buildings we passed and the things you could find on sidewalks if you looked closely enough.  He had come from Greenpoint (Brooklyn) and was on his way to the Upper East Side. 

We walked along for quite a while.  "I hate it when people don't know how to walk," he grumbled when some loitering tourists got in his way.

I'm very fond of both places.