"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  (George Santayana)

World War II Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Holocaust Museum

(Is it my imagination or does that sculpture look like it’s giving Ahmadinejad the finger ?)

Just like in the movies.

Washington Monument

World War II Memorial

The next stop on our whirlwind working trip was Washington DC, capital of the land of the free.

Where we were quite aptly greeted, on our Sunday stroll down the Mall, by a couple of passionate Bush administration critics who had positioned themselves outside the White House.

29 November evening, New York time.

I’m in transit at the Newark airport - 5 hours - and absolutely bored.  There is no shopping to do.  Worse, Starbucks won’t sell me iced coffee.  I’m sorely tempted to get a drink at the bar (which I would have, but for the fact that I don’t fancy alcohol).

I’m absolutely appalled by the poor service - at an international airport no less !

6.30 pm.  The guy at Burger King (who appeared to be about to close the restaurant) grudgingly sold me the last burger for the day and turned al the customers behind me away.  Because he didn’t want to mess up the toaster, he microwaved by burger instead of toasting the bun.

7.15 pm.  I walk up to the Starbucks cafe and ask for a frappe.  The barista (who also appeared to be about to close the cafe for the day) says that there’s only hot coffee left; she tells me to take a walk to the larger Starbucks cafe at the arrival hall, which would be open till 10 pm.

7.30 pm.  I enter the larger Starbucks cafe at the arrival hall.  The barista who wears an absolutely bo chup I-am-so-sick-of-standing-here look tells me that there’s "no more cold drinks", I suppose because she doesn’t want to clean the blender. 

I walk out.  I’m too disgusted to argue with her.

It snowed very lightly yesterday evening in Stockholm, which was quite pretty, and very cold.

I nearly killed (and cryogenically preserved, or are the two mutually exclusive ?) myself in the shower this morning by accidentally turning the hot-cold knob to "cold", instead of the on-off knob to "off".

We leave our hotel for DC in an hour’s time.