The Country Mice

This very cool structure in the Toronto Airport’s international departures lounge lures every age of humanity to clap, skip, shout and run about — checking where the echoes will bounce and reverberate. If you stand and whisper at one end, your brother will hear you at the other, much like the stone amphitheatres we’ve visited in Jordan and Israel.

Taking time for a few final calls before telling Todd, “Auf Wiedersehen. This will be my final transmission.”

And if you’ve got those mean old middle-aged parents who just *won’t* buy you a Nintendo DS — imagine your utterly ecstatic delight when you discover GAMES! MOVIES! MUSIC! TV SHOWS! neatly packed above the tray table in the seat ahead of you. And with a too-cool hand-held unit that lets you play and eat at the same time!

Knocking out aliens challenges even the hardiest time traveller!

A two hour stop-over in Brussels, 07h00 local time, 02h00 on the old (!) body clock, gave us time to purchase cappuccinos and chocolate — the airport sells tonnes of chocolate every year — and to browse Tin-tin in his home country.

We were startled by the small delegation that met us at the airport in Berlin — apparently it’s quite helpful to travel with a chairman — and which subsequently packed us into a taxi for a ride to the hotel. We’re in the centre of the western part of Berlin, trying to get our sleep-deprived bearings, and thinking this is all quite grand indeed.