Washington D.C.

Somebody, probably John Adams, remarked that this was a stupid place to build any kind of city, let alone a capital as it is freezing here in the winter and disgusting in the summer. Well, we can vouch for the latter certainly. You might think that we were inured to it given our Texan residency but, of course, when we are in Houston we don't try to do anything other than sit in the fridge.

Today we managed a bit more than that, but bleurggh, was it sticky out there.

We breakfasted at Union Station (still lovely) and then jumped on a bus that took us all over. We got out here and there and did some tramping. We saw the White House (the outside at least - you have to give several months notice if you want to go inside apparently), Ford's Theatre, Chinatown, and so forth and then up, all the way to the National Cathedral.

Which is beautiful. It looks like a cathedral (gothic architecture, flying buttresses, big nave and so on) but it is all NEW and smooth and perfect. Best of all are the stained glass windows: they're rich and vibrant and modern. Utterly cool and made the place fabulous. When next in England I shall start throwing bricks so that the C0fE can do some sprucing up in this manner. Money well spent.

Then it was back on the bus and through Georgetown (more Britain), a very quick swing past Arlington and then once more to the Mall. Here, between the monuments, are some of the finest museums in the world and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the National Air and Space Museum (part one). This was very awesome - how cool are planes? Look! That's the original Flyer built by the Wright Brothers in 1903. And that's the Spirit of St. Louis. And that's, er.. the actual Apollo 11 re-entry vehicle. Crikey. And on and on and so forth. There's still part two of the museum, somewhere slightly out of town where they keep the big stuff like the Space Shuttle. Eeep!

Then with dusk drawing in we went down the Mall, past the Washington Memorial to the new World War II Memorial (again lovely). We cooled our feet in the fountains and then set off, finally, for the mighty temple at the end of the avenue - the Lincoln Memorial.

DC is obviously full of literally monumental architecture, sculpture, spaces and lines of sight and so forth - but this tops everything. Walking towards it feels like a pilgrimage. Climbing the steps feels like being asked to meet a challenge. Approaching the statue itself is to encounter true greatness, to come close to something truly powerful and yet good.

Underneath is a wonderful little museum which commemorates Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. It was installed in the early '90s after some Arkansas school children visited and were surprised that there wasn't one already. They raised the money themselves. Brilliantly, the exhibition shows how the Lincoln Memorial has been at the centre of so many different campaigns: not just black civil rights and abolitionism, but women's rights, labour rights, gay rights and on and on, all these battles that had to be fought, are still being fought, to wrest what should have been given freely from those that didn't know or didn't care that they were withholding them.

Whatever guff you hear in Philadelphia, or from the Founding Fathers about equality, these protesters didn't go and march to Independence Hall or to the Liberty Bell.

They go to Lincoln.

He sits and listens and stares up the Mall at the Capitol and he waits.