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Published: October 3rd 2022
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Tarbert War Memorial
Taking a walk on a quiet Sunday morning. So much for our dedication to photography. When the question came up yesterday evening whether we wanted to be out early again this morning for the sunrise, it was an almost unanimous "No!"
So after another noisy night of wind and rain, it was very evident that we had made the right decision when I got up at a nice sociable time for breakfast. It wasn't raining but the sky was white and much too drab for photography.
We all had breakfast together and then I went for a walk around Tarbert, which, on a Sunday is even more sleepy than on any other day. Our favourite coffee shop at the distillery was closed, as was the tweed shop. My flight was earlier than everyone else's, so after saying all my goodbyes to the rest of the group, a very kind man from the hotel drove me to the airport, which is almost an hour drive away.
We had a lot to talk about - Scottish politics, the island economy, children's education (and the differences to the English exams), the Gaelic language, the island job market, tourists, roads, community ownership, the transport links to the main-land and, inevitably,
Stornoway Airport
The tiny but civilised airport terminal - if only all terminals were like this! Scottish independence. It seems that the Scottish government is not very well thought of in these parts and most of the services they control are not well managed, particularly health-care.
He also took me on a little tour through Stornoway. Whilst there was a nice looking harbour, strangely the post-modern architecture of the Western Isles Council building had not featured on our photography tour.
I have never been through airport security where I am literally the only person going through. I was, obviously, well too early, although at any other airport I would have been pushing my luck (50 minutes before the flight). Mind you, I'm pleased that I did have it all to myself, as they wanted everything I was carrying separated out and I ended-up using six trays in total.
Once through, I joined the one other person already waiting for a flight. Oh, and I must say, I felt very sophisticated travelling in my new tweed jacket (see
An Expensive Diversion From Photography).
Whilst I was waiting I could hear a siren going off in the background a few times. My guess is that it is to frighten the sheep off the runway as I suspect they
Scotland's Airline
It was an even smaller plane this time. have no more intention of giving way to planes than they have for cars.
It was a "Scotland's Airline" propeller-driven flight to Glasgow, with about 36 seats. I had to stop trying to listen to music on my headphones as I couldn't hear it over the noise of the engines. It was probably worse as I was at the back of the plane. I had to forget the music and just enjoy the Scottish scenery, which is stunning.
As in Edinburgh, it was just a matter of walking straight through into the departure area and then I have had three hours to kill before my flight to Heathrow, although that increased to four hours in the end.
As you would expect Glasgow is considerably bigger and busier than Stornoway, with the usual array of shops and restaurants. It was a suitable time (although seemingly anytime is a suitable time in an airport) to have a pint so I was able to chill and have a drink whilst waiting for my next flight. There are surprisingly few flights between Glasgow and London.
I have never flown domestically into Heathrow before. I guess it was to be expected,
Northern Scotland
I'm not sure exactly where it was, but there was some stunning scenery on the flight. but we ended-up in a separate baggage reclaim area from the usual international flights, with two carrousels and very few people. It was a lot calmer than the usual reclaim area (people were not crowding round the edge of the carrousel thinking that would make their baggage appear quicker), but it was starting to get a bit stressful for me when everyone else had gone and I was still waiting. Was my baggage still going round on the carrousel in Glasgow?
It was literally the last to arrive - probably because it was the first onto the plane, given that I had arrived in Glasgow so early.
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