The morning began once again at the computer – a bit of tinkering, taking care of a few small things. Afterwards, I treated myself to a hot shower. My neck had been a bit tense for two days, and the warmth felt really good. To dry off, I just lay down on the bed for a moment... and boom – I was out. Somehow I ended up dozing off for a good hour.

Around noon, I finally pulled myself together and headed out for some fresh air. Destination: The Wharf. I took the metro, got off a few stations later, and quickly grabbed a sandwich and a milkshake at Potbelly on the way. Small mistake: I had them add some "Hot Peppers," thinking it was a good idea. But wow, they weren't kidding. After a few bites, I couldn't taste the steak anymore – it was just spicy. Deliciously spicy, but it was a shame about the steak strips.

When I arrived at the water, I had planned to take a leisurely ride on the water taxi – just going in circles, cruising around and taking in the sights. But that didn't work out: Due to the heavy rainfall of the past few days, the Potomac River was not navigable upstream. High water. The river was full of driftwood, branches, trash – in short: all kinds of debris. The schedule had been changed accordingly, so I simply rode to Alexandria and back.

Before departure, I strolled a bit along the harbor basin and discovered several turtles living in the calm water. I got into a conversation with a local who told me that he had been seeing the "Schiggies" – as he called them – here for over ten years. A nice encounter.

The trip to Alexandria and back was quite relaxed. Particularly exciting was the proximity to the airport – you pass right by Washington National, a heavily used downtown airport. The planes sometimes made wild curves to land at the right angle. Once, a plane even had to abort its landing approach because the runway wasn't clear yet.

Almost casually, I noticed the large, rather unspectacular building in the background on the way back. The Pentagon. Seen it. Check. Moving on. Slowly, I began to notice again how mean my internal clock can be. After five nights in this time zone – and just as many nights bravely fighting jet lag – my body reliably reported in at around 10:30 PM German time. That's 4:30 PM local time, and it wanted to be tired. Thanks a lot.

Back on land, I first got myself a Coke and sat down with it on the pier next to the water taxi. I wasn't ready to move on yet. Instead, I watched the landing planes, let my gaze wander over the calm harbor basin, and watched two eagles fighting in the air over their food. It was quiet, peaceful.

And suddenly, quite a while had passed again. It wasn't until around 7 PM that I realized how late it had gotten. And that I still had something planned for today. Drumroll: Laundry.

On the way back to the hotel, I met a gentleman with almost the same camera as mine. Naturally, we got to talking. His name is Sam, a professional photographer – and formerly in IT. We chatted for almost an hour about finding the right motif, camera settings, and hot photo spots in D.C. He also showed me some really beautiful pictures on his website www.blueboxdm.com

After that, I really did head back. I washed and dried my clothes, though both pairs of pants were still slightly damp after the drying cycle. I'll probably have to put them back in the dryer tomorrow morning. The rest was fortunately dry – except for one sock that had mysteriously disappeared. No idea where, but: gone is gone. Good thing I only wear one type anyway. I simply asked Steffi to pack a replacement sock.

She herself, by the way, also couldn't sleep well. She woke up way too early – no wonder, after all, she's flying in a few hours. To me. Finally! Tomorrow I'm heading back to New York – by train. And then I'll pick up Steffi from the airport. But now: Time to close my eyes.

Until tomorrow.