With all eyes on the United States presidential election, HECTOR MACKENZIE reports back from a trip to the heart of the nation’s political system, Washington, D.C. The next president will spend a lot of time there - but is it worth a visit? MOMENTS after alighting at Union Station following the 137-mile bus trip from Philadelphia, we found ourselves en route to the most famous address in Washington, D.

C. Which would have been fine had we wanted our mango-chewing Uber driver to take us to THAT White House..

. The intended destination was apartment lodgings called AKA White House , less than a mile away from one of the world’s most instantly recognisable landmarks. Our driver redeemed herself with a nifty u-turn and set us down right outside the heavy front doors of a comfortable all-mod-cons oasis offering air-conditioned respite from the noon heat.

Created as the seat of government for a fledgling United States, with broad boulevards radiating outwards in neat quadrants from the US Capitol, the city pulses with politics and history. If you arrive by plane, you land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport..

. The Big Bus Tour proved an excellent orientation taking in the National Mall, Lincoln and Jefferson Monuments and the Reflecting Pool close to where Martin Luther King delivered his I Have a Dream speech during the 1963 civil rights rally. It’s said that on a visit to D.

C. you should expect to see someone demonstrating for or against something somewhere, and that.