Washington is unlike any other US city - it was designed by a Frenchman for a start - there is no grid plan of streets, instead streets radiate from the Capitol which is the symbolic centre of the city. There are no high rise buildings and there is much green space, not least the national mall itself, the wide green expanse that runs for two miles at the heart of the capital.
We have previously visited both the Capitol and the White House (19 years ago, when security was much more lax than it is now), so today we toured the US Supreme Court (close to the Capitol building) which its slogan 'equal justice under law' and an engraving on its bronze doors showing King John signing the Magna Carta:
Later we visited two new memorials that have been installed on the National Mall since our last visit: the World War II Memorial
and the national memorial to Martin Luther King Jr:
But there was something odd about the day and that was that it was Good Friday and Good Friday is not a public holiday in the US so it was just a day like any other day.
We were thinking of Good Friday back in Bermondsey but there was nothing in Washington to remind you of the special nature of the day, that is, until we visited the White House in the evening to see it by floodlight:
There were quite a few tourists milling around and quite a few armed police keeping an eye on everyone. And there was a man with a microphone and a portable loud speaker and he was reading from the Bible the Gospel accounts of the trial of Jesus; interspersing his readings with prayers for the people. And no one tried to stop him.
Thank you Lord that today the name of Jesus was lifted up outside the White House and thank you Lord, on this day of all days, that you did not even spare your own son, but gave him up for us all.
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