Get set for a power trip

It might be as close to royalty as I will ever get.

The day after Queen Elizabeth II addressed a special joint session of Virginia's General Assembly in Richmond, I found the throne upon which she had briefly perched in the House of Delegates. It was marked by a piece of paper with the letters 'HRH' written on it.

Talk about a seat of power. I tried to look as regal as possible, then plopped down on the seat.

OK, so it was not a throne, just a silk-upholstered chair. And, maybe she did not sit on exactly that one; no one knew. Still it was the highlight of my visit to the renovated State Capitol, which recently reopened for tours.

Major overhaul

Work on restoring and expanding the Thomas Jefferson-designed building — in Capitol Square, a gently sloping hill that includes monuments of Stonewall Jackson, Edgar Allan Poe and other famous Virginians — began in 2004.

The 1785 building has undergone changes before, and in 1904, wings were added to give both the Senate and House new, larger chambers.

The $104.5 million (Dh334 million) project involved a major overhaul, including an update of the century-old plumbing and electrical systems.

Expansion in size

It also expanded the building's size by a third with an underground addition that includes a visitors centre and reception and committee meeting rooms.

During the renovation, pieces of the past kept resurfacing: a bricked-up fireplace, an elevator cage, decorative panels that had been painted.

"This building is an eyewitness to history," says Mark Greenough, a historian who supervises tours of the Capitol. "This is a place where history is remembered, and still being made."

He says the most dramatic change is Jefferson's Room, near the white-columned South Portico. Once a maze of six offices, it is now "a grand, glorious salon with an enormous portrait of Jefferson and his model of the Capitol more than two centuries ago".

Improvised interiors

Across the hall, in the old Senate chamber, is an oil painting of the battle of Yorktown, as well as a work depicting Virginia's first English settlers that Greenough says had been largely ignored for 100 years while it was hanging elsewhere in the Capitol.

The new Senate's grey walls have been painted baby-chick yellow; and besides brightening the walls, lots of natural light was brought in.

A week after the reopening, 3,800 people had taken tours of the place, making it one of the city's hottest tickets.

Guides cover the highlights in the structure and its history; you can explore on your own when the tour is done.

You can skip the tour altogether, but then you may not learn that Virginia's General Assembly is the oldest legislative body in the Western hemisphere.

Also that John Marshall presided over the treason trial of Aaron Burr in 1807, and both the Confederate and Virginia legislatures met in this building during the Civil War.

A life-size marble likeness of George Washington sits in the rotunda, with a statue of Robert E. Lee nearby in the old House.

The chamber is quiet, and its desks are small, seemingly more suited to the children who are drawn to the glass-cased mace.

In 1870, the floor above collapsed, killing 62 people and injuring 250. The collapse is spelt out in greater detail in the visitors centre, which has the requisite gift shop and an exhibit tracing the building's history.

Meriwether's Cafe, a Capitol mainstay for decades, is near an atrium with glass-sided elevators.

I did not get to sample the café's famous roasted-red-pepper-and-cabbage soup. Then again, neither did the queen.

Richmond from the UAE

From Dubai
Lufthansa and United Airlines fly daily via Frankfurt and Dulles Airport.
Fare: Dh3,520
Delta Airlines flies five times a week via Atlanta. Fare: Dh3,090
British Airways flies daily via London and O'Hare.
Fare: Dh2,650
KLM and Northwest Airlines fly daily via Amsterdam and Detroit. Fare:Dh2,490

From Abu Dhabi
British Airways flies daily via London and O'Hare.
Fare: Dh2,650
KLM and Northwest Airlines flies four times a week via Amsterdam and Detroit.
Fare: Dh2,490
(All fares exclusive of tax)
Information courtesy: MMI Travel

Information
Capitol Square, the grounds surrounding Virginia's legislative building, is open from 7am to 11pm daily. Tour the building with a brochure from the front desk. Tours are given from Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 1pm to 4pm. Visit www.virginiacapitol.gov.

For information on food and lodging, contact the Richmond Convention and Visitors Bureau, or log on to www.visit.richmond.com.