Travels in a Tin Can

last spot); jazz brunch; boat ride on the Mississippi; tour of Mardi Gras
museum; back to van by 6pm. In summary it appears to be a busy day spent
rushing from one thing to the next, but as with much in life the interest lies
between the lines.
Take the walking tour. Our desire to attend this had two motivating
factors. One, we had enjoyed other ranger programmes. Two, it was free. As
it turned out the walking tour was full of information and the presenter was
interesting - although he did have a habit of closing his eyes for minutes at a
time while speaking. Again I believe that this was Japanese technology at
work, providing miniature auto-cues on his eyelids. However, what the walking
tour did not really involve was walking.
Much of the hour and a half was spent standing in the street listening to
our guide; the lack of movement is probably a survival instinct that has
evolved to suit a presenter who talks with his eyes closed. Emma and I were
the only non-Americans who did the tour, resulting in a certain degree of
bullying - albeit ‘friendly’. Several references were made to a famous battle
that took place in the area in which the British faced heavy defeat at the
hands of the Americans. We took the comments in good grace of course and,
towards the end of the tour, we had a little revenge.
The guide was describing the age of some of the city and must have
noticed us smiling at how '200 years old' resulted in gasps from the majority of
the audience. His next comment was directed at us: 'Of course, that is not
very old to the British'. At this we had two options of how to respond. Disagree
with a: 'No, no your history is just as long and venerable as that of our tiny
insignificant island.' Or we could agree: 'Yes, your nation's history is but a