We are now in Richmond, Virginia and spent an interesing day walking round the sights. Above is The Capitol which is the Virginian Parliament. During the Civil War years of 1861-1865, Richmond became the capital of the Confederate states. Interestingly, the Parliament still runs on the British system and they also use the Mace to open sessions. 

 

Outside the Capitol stands a magnificent statue of George Washington.

 

This building was very interesting as in 1837 the owners brought over engineers and foundry workers from the town of Tredegar in Wales to construct the furnaces and rolling mills and in their honour named the foundry after their home town.

Later on the foundry would become the major Confederate munitions supplier.

 

Just behind the foundry is the above building. This was of great interest to John as it is the HQ of the company that he worked for, for 33 years.  It is locally called 'the White House'.  Ethyl Corporation bought the land from the owner of the foundry in 1957 and then helped with the restoration of the foundry buildings.

We should be moving on tomorrow but John took a fall today and has sprained his wrist so its now wrapped in an ice pack and hope he is ok to ride tomorrow.  We had 27C (82F) temperature today but the forecast for the next few days is a lot cooler and rain so Autumn has arrived!