What to see near Hotel Lombardy

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is close enough to walk to from your room, and it will stop you cold. Maya Lin's black granite wall descends into the earth quietly, almost gently, and then you are standing before 58,000 names and your own reflection looking back at you. The stone is not cold in the way you expect. People leave things at the base: photographs, boots, folded letters. From there the path curves naturally toward the Lincoln Memorial, whose columns frame a view down the long still ribbon of the Reflecting Pool that feels almost impossible in a city this busy. If you keep walking, the WWII Memorial's fountain plaza offers a moment of stillness at the very center of it all. Give the whole stretch an afternoon.