A Walk and Pub Lunch in Old Town Alexandria

Before we bought the cabin we often took a Sunday walk into Old Town for brunch at Murphy's Grand Irish Pub. Since we were home this weekend, that's what we did. Sunday was a fine Spring day, so we weren't the only ones that were out enjoying the weather.

Turned out that Murphy's had been so busy, they were out of eggs and brunch was over when we got there - we had a pub lunch instead. Mary had the Irish Stew, and fish and chips for me, accompanied by...an ale or two.

Here are a couple of views of the walk down into town - for some background, Alexandria was established in the mid 1700's as a port town on the Potomac. Most of the buildings shown here date to the 1800's or earliest 1900's; we don't usually go to the oldest parts on the weekends because of the incredible tourist traffic they still attract.

A final three landmarks - Random Harvest is an antique store where we have bought a few items over the years. They also have stores in Georgetown and Bethesda. Then there is Flying Fish, a fun mixed cuisine restaurant featuring seafood. There is a very hip bar scene on the weekends down in the basement, where we were once able to get five of my Berlin buddies out for an evening. Flying Fish even has a drag brunch on Sundays, a real breakthrough for Old Town! The last photo is a landscape architecture and planning firm - they took over and old garage and car stereo building and reused it for their purposes, and it's a favorite of mine.

When George Washington surveyed the original boundaries of the District of Columbia, Alexandria and Georgetown - two river ports, were included. Sometime in the 1840's the Virginia elements were ceded back to Virginia, with the thought that the District would never need all of that territory. These Viriginia areas include Arlington and Alexandria, two densely populated areas of Northern Virginia nowadays.