Seat of Power

Joanie gave us a ride to the airport. We flew to Philly and then across the pond. Our British Air pilot introduced himself as James Bond. I’m not kidding. I just wish he had said, “Bond, James Bond.” After a fitful night, we landed in London early, if not particularly bright. We took the express to Paddington and then the Underground and a red double-decker bus to our hotel. After freshening up, we quickly turned it around and headed back out to Covent Gardens, a district know for its theater and shopping. Since, our challenge goal for today was just to stay up to 8 o’clock local and since most show’s curtains are at eight, going to the theater tonight didn’t seem like a good idea. Instead, we walked and shopped the day away. Our best eating came in a Flemish beer hall, where we shared a bucket of mussels. These Shetland Islands mussels were grown on a rope. Don’t ask me how they do that but this makes them much less gritty than usual. This post’s title comes from our boarding passes, which labeled us both as world travellers. We each also got our first stamps in our passports, because Canada doesn’t stamp American passports.