scotland | Arcticterntalk.org

Archive for the tag “scotland”

26 Mar 2013

Scotland from 10,000 feet

Just occasionally a flight is interesting. Sometimes the cabaret that some passengers bring, sometimes the crew but also sometimes the view. Flying into Edinburgh yesterday it was fascinating to see the snow. There was a fair amount from the Borders up to south of Edinburgh and then none at all. Edinburgh seemed devoid of its fair share of snow. Today also driving up to Perth and Stirling, there were areas that looked whited out and areas that were luscious green, that seemed to have also missed the snow. I suspect there are complex geographical reasons that will remain hidden from me till eternity.

View from plane

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged 000 feet, 10, airport, aviation, BAA, borders, cars, edinburgh, edinburgh airport, fair share, geographical reasons, london, nature, scotland, scottish borders, snow, transportation, vacation, weather, winter | Leave a comment

16 Nov 2012

4 Comments

Reflections on Scotland

Scotland is really not an average place. Expectations of lochs and bagpipes are millions of miles away when one lands at Edinburgh airport. The surrounding areas are industrial if one is being polite. Driving along one finds places like “Ratho” ( is that Rat Ho, or Rath hoe?), that bring one to the worst roundabout in the world. Said roundabout has more traffic lights than the whole of london and all are set perfectly so that only one car can get through. Gridlock is not a possibility but a guaranteed state of affairs.

The motorways are tedious and even though fields are around they are invariably decorated with smoke producing buildings, towers and who knows what else. In short this is not the idyllic part of Scotland as one drives to Dunblane.

In Dunblane what used to be the Dunblane Hydro is now the Doubletree by Hilton………..which is the better? Double is actually not a bad description as they see fit to advertise : “Tea for two for only 31.50£”. Which is actually also the price of breakfast for two…………so one might then see why I chose not to donate money to this institution that wanted 176£ for a room for the night.

Lastly, it is good to see that the Tramway in Edinburgh is getting nearer completion and is being built at the airport. That will be joyful!

Dunblane Hydro or Doubletree by Hilton?

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged airport, brighton half marathon, british airaways, british airways, doubletree by hilton, doubletrre, dunblane, edinburgh, edinburgh airport, edinburgh tram, hilton, hilton hotel, lochs, london, marriott hotels, mascot, murder, ratho, scotland, tram, tramway, travel, vacation

03 Oct 2012

Reflections of Glasgow

It has been a few months sinceI was last here and I always enjoy visiting. Coming in to land it was clear that there was no drought here. Many fields were waterlogged and rivers on the verge of flooding. The airport seemed quiet until one approached the taxi queue. Posters advised and indeed almost entranced me to use Glasgow Airport Taxis. Listings of wondrous reasons why. The sad reality was that the plane was full and around 100-150 people descended onto a taxi rank where there were no taxis. Each minute a few would arrive, take a single passenger and off they would go. Two things struck me. Firstly the sole man in charge of masterminding the entry of a person into the taxi ( would enjoy reading his job description) might well have considered for example saying ” this taxi is going to SECC, anyone up for sharing?”. My guess is that there would be relatively few places folks were heading. He did not, so each taxi departed with a solitary fee paying passenger having spent upwards of 30 minutes waiting in a queue. Secondly, the taxis were all mini buses. Most were designed to hold 7-9 people. Again these would depart with one passenger. Ludicrous. The alleged reason for the wait for an accident on the M8 ( I saw nothing of the kind) and a breakdown ( again nothing seen by me). What I suspect is poor planning. Clearly plane landings are predicted, clearly things can go wrong, but in general terms if you have a monopoly on a service you should be able to either provide that service or amend the service you do provide. Waiting for the taxi for some people was longer than the length of their flights. So I am afraid Glasgow Airport Taxis, you have failed on your commitment but I guess in your own way have provided an exceptional customer experience.

The taxi driver was an interesting character. I made the mistake of talking football with him. He then talked at me the whole journey and was still talking to me as I entered into SECC. The reason was his unhappiness, if I might tone it down, about Glasgow Rangers and their punishment being banished to Scottish League 3 with a transfer embargo until 2014 ( he said). I said what happens if all the players leave and you have none, surely then you can sign players? He skipped answering that one, but it was a sad tale. Whatever one thinks about the alleged crimes that Glasgow Rangers have committed, these have not been done by their fans.

Glasgow Airport

: Glasgow Airport Taxis

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged annan, british airways, easyjet, flood, flybe, glasgow, glasgow airport, glasgow airport taxis, glasgow rangers, league 3, london, m8, rain, scotland, taxi, travel, vacation | Leave a comment

26 Feb 2012

Museum of Flight Scotland and Concorde

On a recent trip to Scotland I was fortunate enough to have a little time to look around the museum, which is just outside North Berwick. an impressive place that really mandates a whole days visit. There are too many things to describe but seeing Concorde was an amazing experience. A number of other great exhibitions of various planes and a renovation hangar where planes being “mended” could be viewed. A specific mention for the Bi-Plane that is being created. A group of enthusiasts are building from scratch a Sopwith Bi-plane and will fly it probably in 2014. We were shown around by a real gentleman called /Trevor Frost who gave us an hour of his time to show us and explain the labour of love that they are undertaking.

The Concorde exhibition was quite moving reading about the events surrounding the final crash.

Concorde

The item causing the Concorde Paris crash

Cockpit Concorde

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged cockpit, concorde, concorde crash, hangar, impressive place, labour of love, museum of flight, north berwick, paris crash, planes, scotland | Leave a comment

19 Feb 2012

Brighton Half Marathon Photos and Comment

Athletics and running generally are not things that run in our family. Indeed one might argue that we run away from such things. Hence some sort of surprise when eldest daughter announced that she was entering the Brighton half-marathon. We travelled down last night not really knowing what to expect. Stayed in the Holiday inn , which is not be recommended for reasons that are too multiple to mention, other than that the room was cold, with a kind of fashion that would not be out of place in a a medieval castle, and the bathroom was miniscule and looked like it retained all the charm of the 1950,s and much of the grime too.

Anyway, up bright and early. Stood by the beach along the promenade for 2 hours and it was an amazing experience. Very proud of said daughter who finished well within her time anticipated and was running just in front of Katie Price. Many of the runners just on with it but a certain amount of cabaret was there. Runners with strange expressions, reading maps as they ran along, but the most curious events came from folks who wanted to cross over sides. Now, let me paint the picture. The road was closed to stop cars for around 3 hours, thousands of runners and yet folks were crossing over the running “track”. Bizarre. This included multiple parents with buggys and a wheelchair. But to beat all this lot was a woman who pressed the pelican crossing button, not once but twice! What did she think was going to happen? 10,000 runners would career into each other to stop so that she might cross?

In terms of the runners, there were so many that it was difficult to see in detail in real time but on browsing through the photos, things that caught my eye, other than a range of strange expressions, were those runners wearing gloves, with sunglasses on head, in a kilt, a man running parallel to the running lane, running with eyes closed ,

We loved the event and will return next year for more cabaret. The only surprising thing was that there not more collectors for charity out with buckets, surely this is the optimal time and event to do it?

enjoy some of the photos below