EU Open House

On Saturday, many of the countries of the EU were having open houses. We choose to go some of the more popular, bigger embassies so we only were able to make it four during the five hours they were open. This picture was taken at a little cafe table at the French embassy, late in the day. I'll back up and start at the beginning of the day.



We started at the Kennedy Center and walked up to Foggy Bottom to see the Embassy of Spain. It was the smallest of the embassies that we toured and is a pretty building on 23rd and Pennslyvania. It blends right into the neighborhood. They had Spanish wines, olives and olive oils to taste and one of the chefs from Jaleo (my favorite tapas restaurant) was there carving lovely little slivers of ham. They also had Spanish guitar and flamenco dancers.



From Spain, we caught the bus out to the German embassy. The Germans have a huge compound out west of Georgetown and we were able to see the Chancery and the lower level of the Ambassador's residence. We also got bratwurst (well, Jim did) and pretzels, sampled beer and Gewurztraminer and pastries. And they had a band. This bear is in front of the Ambassador's residence and we couldn't resist a photo op with him.

From there we went to the French embassy. We got a strawberry tart and a croissant and sat at the little outdoor cafe tables for a rest. The day was winding down and we had one more embassy to see. So, we said farewell to France and boarded the bus for House of Sweden.




The last stop was the Swedish embassy, which is on the waterfront at Georgetown and a short walk back to the Kennedy Center. The best part of this embassy was the view from the roof.