The coach party is staying overnight at the Ramada Inn in Concord, which, according to our rep, is one of the best hotels in the area - but then, he would presumably tell us whatever he thought we wanted to hear anyway, wouldn't he? I'm no expert in these matters, but I'm guessing that any tour rep who starts a tour by introducing himself to his group and saying "Right, well the hotel we're staying in tonight isn't very good - but hey, what are you going to do?" ...

Crossing back into the USA by coach didn't turn out to be as complicated as I had been expecting considering the hassles I had crossing into Canada a couple of weeks ago on the west coast. From my seat near the front of the coach, it seemed that the entire process of crossing the border back into the United States consisted of the following conversation between our coach driver and a US customs official: Driver: Good Evening, Officer. Customs: Good Evening, Sir...