Tis the season...

The Christmas markets are in full swing now. Hot wine, roasted chestnuts, huge pretzels, decorated candles, nativity scenes, carved wooden figures, and all manner of traditional arts and crafts. Great to wander through. These are two I came across today.

I'm back in Vienna, living in a new neighbourhood. Nachmarkt is half a block away, the underground is two blocks, and for some reason, right around the corner is a "mini-Japan" with two Japanese corner stores, a Japanese tea shop, and two sushi places. Go figure.

It's the weekend, and I'm engaged in that most glamorous of globe trotting consultant activities...laundry, interspersed with work. Can't complain too much, I did get an afternoon nap and a good long walk this morning through Nachmarkt and the Christmas markets!

Washington, DC

2 more sleeps and I get to visit home!

Went for a long early walk this morning. Sat with my mocha in Lafayette Park across Penslyvania Avenue from George & Laura's house (I wasn't invited in) then walked down the Mall by the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial (where Martin Luther King made his famous "I have a dream" speach) and then the Viet Nam Veteran's Memorial. In advance of the US Memorial Day long weekend, a group of school kids were doing rubbings of names.

Let's all hope they're not back in forty years with their kids looking at names of dead friends on yet another war memorial wall. Over fifty thousand names on this wall, most of them only eighteen or twenty years old. What a waste of life.

United Nations

What's a UN funded work trip to New York without visiting the Mother Ship?

The UN is an old, massive building, that really shows its age once you get inside. Tiny, cramped offices, lots of cubicles jammed together. But, some truly amazing views of Manhattan and across the East River into Brooklyn and beyond. It's a short walk from here to 5th Avenue, the theatre district on 42nd Street, and Grand Central Station.

The "knotted gun" sculpture was created by Carl Frederick Reutersward, and is a memorial tribute to John Lennon. The Non-Violence Prevention Foundation now uses it as part of its "talk it out" campaign to end violence. I think the UN main public entrance, where the sculpture sits, is a perfect place for this.

New York

Turns out my hotel was a fifteen minute walk from Ground Zero. I hadn't set out to find it on this particular morning (although it was on my list of places to visit), but stumbled across it quite by accident while out walking.

From the street, there isn't much to see as there is a high construction fence surrounding the site, and it looks much like any other large construction site, albeit larger than most. What initially sets it apart are the tourists crowded about, the tour buses, the hawkers selling all sorts of trinkets and soliciting donations for alleged charities. Then you come to the memorial site with the pictures and text about 9/11 and the gravity of the event begins to hit.

For me, the little church across the street was an interesting element. St. Paul's Chaple www.saintpaulschapel.org/ was built in 1766. George Washington worshipped there on inauguration day, April 20, 1789, when New York was the Capital of the United States. On 9/11, the grounds were piled with debris and the chapel became a refuge for rescue workers. There's an interesting pictorial display at the front of the grounds. At the back is this tiny, rather old, cemetary that overlooks the World Trade Center site. It was this juxtaposition of the old and the new that really interested me. Something of a reminder of ongoing presence of death, endings, new beginings, and the circular nature of our existance.