Day 28 - Friday

Left early for the 3 hour trip to Jerusalem - got a little lost, of course - but first stop was Yad Vashem: the Israeli Holocaust Memorial. A very modern museum with lots of large video, artifacts and information. The architecture is stark, concrete modern - hard to imagine it otherwise.

The first exhibit I saw was ID cards and photos from the pockets of corpses in a mass grave in Estonia. Very affecting.

It's post-ironic if not almost obscene that here we have a large museum devoted to the Nazi era. More info than anyone needs to know even if most of it is about their crimes. Too many swastikas are too many swastikas whatever the reason...

Then off to our hotel in East Jerusalem, the Arab section. We're skipping the tour of the Old City. John's friend, the Canadian Chargé d'Affaires for the West Bank is going to give us a talk tonight before dinner, and we are presently sitting in the lobby (for internet access) drinking a beer.

P.S. Condoleezza Rice is in Jerusalem this weekend. She and GWB have bookended our visit.