London Day 1: A Tale of Two Passports but no cupcake

 

For those of you who didn’t follow our blog from the New York trip last fall, Shelly and I are having déjà vu all over again.  In NYC it was Shelly’s iPhone….in London it was my passport.  If you need a review, see the Day 1 NYC blog entry (www.whathappensinnycstaysinnyc.blogspot.com). 

We arrived in London late last night and got to the hotel around midnight.  We checked in with our passports, got into the elevator, and approached the door to our room.  Shelly opened the door with her key and I put my key inside my passport…and that was the last time I saw my passport.  We got up this morning and started out for our first day in London, but my passport was nowhere to be found. 

After searching frantically (emphasis on frantic), I decided to go to the U.S. Embassy to initiate the passport replacement process.  Did you know the U.S. Embassy in London is like Fort Knox?  You are not allowed to just go in.  You have to make arrangements in advance to get an appointment to be allowed access.  If you want to have a car accident or heart attack, please make sure to give them plenty of notice…and download the forms before you lose consciousness. 

To make a long story short, after six panic-filled hours, the passport was located in a slot in my suitcase, which had been searched no less than five times by different people.  Why a tale of two passports?  Because Shelly thought she had her passport in her messenger bag, and when we got back to the hotel, the passport was sitting on the nightstand.  Both passports are currently locked in the hotel safe.

On a better note...we went to the Queen's Theatre to see Les Miserables.  Fantastic production and the vocal talent was amazing, especially the little girl who played Cosette as a child.  After the show we ate a brilliant steak and shared sweet potato fries with a couple from Venezuela who were honeymooning in London.

Since we didn't have time to find a cupcake today, Buttercream (everybody's favorite traveling cupcake) insisted on posing with the two passports!