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Embassy Row Photowalk

Wouldn't a European vacation be nice right about now?  Wouldn't traveling to countries like Ireland, the UK, Greece, Italy and others be a welcome break in your life? You'd think so but with the threats of swine flu, worldwide economic depression, high terrorism alerts and other scary things looming on the horizon travel almost anywhere outside the US is not high on our agendas.

Now what if I told you that you could visit these countries right here in the heart of DC?  And what if I said you could do it all in one day?  Pique your interest yet?

On May 9th the countries of the European Union are holding an open house in their embassies across DC.

...take a rare behind-the-scenes look at the European Embassies, many of which are among Washington's historic and architectural treasures. Each Embassy offers a unique program featuring the country's cuisine, its music and special events. In 2008, more than 50,000 visitors experienced the diversity and richness of European culture during the EU Open House.

Sherri and I thought that this would be a good opportunity for a photowalk.  We attended this event last year and had a lot of fun while capturing some nice images both inside and outside of the embassies.  We're looking forward to visiting a few new countries this year and reaquainting with some we toured last year.

We'll meet at the statue in the center of Dupont Circle at 9:30am. Early birds can meet us there at 9:00 to share some Krispy Kreme donuts we'll provide (there's a Starbucks across the street too).  Once everyone arrives, probably between 9:45 and 10:00, we'll head north along Massachusetts Avenue.  There are a number of embassies participating but unfortunately we can't make them all.  Last year we noticed that most people were able to tour 6 to 8 in a day, I think we made 6.

I've posted the embassies (see map below) we will try to make this year though there are many more participating on our route near Sheridan Circle.  You can find the complete list here.  I expect that this will be a loose photowalk with many of us breaking up into groups.  This event will be like DisneyLand, you just can't see everything in one day so I don't want to stop anyone from visiting an embassy I may not have listed.

We'll proceed up Massachusetts Ave, stopping by various embassies for tours and snacks and ending at the British Embassy.  There are quite a few interesting sites along the route that we can snap as well. Many of the embassies provide complimentary food and drink representative of their culture along with bottled water.

Make sure you bring identification and try to avoid bringing large bags or backpacks as all embassies will be conducting security checks.  There are some that will not allow photography inside, like the Netherlands, and we can skip those.  I'll try to provide a list of the embassies with this restriction beforehand.  At any rate we'll need to bring a limited amount of equipment.

At the end of the route, there is a bus provided for the tours that can return you to Dupont Circle.

Sherri and I are looking forward to seeing you out there.  Please leave a comment here or sign up on our Facebook event page if you plan to attend.  There is also a Flickr group for this walk so join up.

Here is a map of the route with some of the embassies marked along the way.


View Embassy Row Photowalk in a larger map

Related posts:

1. Embassy Row Photowalk ‘09 Wrap-up
2. Photowalk DC – National Archives and Chinese New Year Parade
3. Reminder and Preview – Embassy Row Photowalk Tomorrow
4. Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk – Old Town Alexandria – Update 1
5. Early Morning Cherry Blossom Photowalk 2010