Barbados and St. Lucia
We were going from Gatwick via Barbados, staying my mothers unfinished, and largely unfunished place there and then flying out via LIAT to SLU and originally, back via Air Jamaica. But Air Jamaica decided to drop the UVF-BGI route and put us on their code-share partner (LIAT) back to Barbados. This was a bit annoying, because when I booked the tickets, there was no flight on LIAT back to BGI. If there was, I’d have booked it, as LIAT was half the price of Air Jamiaca!
So, the flight out was uneventful. We arrived and were picked up after a snafu at immigration. Remember to get the address where you’re staying before going through BGI immigration folks! We only got through because my mum was on their systems already (passing through a few weeks prior). Due to her being at another wedding on the other side of the island, we stayed in a hotel that night, the Hilton. I dipped into the Caribbean sea which was rough and quite exhilariting, the waves were huge, and later on I took some night pics. The hotel was across from the capital, Bridgetown:
Night
Day
Next day, I ventured into town with my Brother to confirm the flight out to St. Lucia. Since the JM ticket said, ‘confirmed’ I didn’t check that segment of the journey. Mistake, as we’ll see later.
Downtown Bridgetown (Parliament
is the building in the middle with green
shutters)
Anyway, that took a
little while, but went smoothly. I decided to see if
we could inspect our heritage at the Parliament (one of the oldest -
from 1639). We could! In fact, one half of the
parliament has been turned into a modern
interactive museum of parliamentary history and
the other half has a guided tour of the House of
Assembly, a lower chamber of elected politicians
and then the Senate (appointed), composed of the
great and good. The Senate chamber had a massive
portrait of the Queen. I thought this was a bit
puzzling, since I keep hearing that Barbados wants
to be a republic, but apparently the lure of
honours keeps the great and good from going for a
full break with the UK, which suits me fine.
Photos were not permitted inside, so all I got was
this picture of the mailbox (or was it a stamp
dispenser, I’m not sure).
We then visited the cathedral, St. Michael’s,
for a few minutes rest and to inspect the tomb
stones, this one from 1673! And then over to the
Synagogue (below right), which now has a
state-of-the-art and fascinating museum of Judaism in
Barbados.
What’s that you say? Jews in Barbados? Well,
no-expects the Spanish Inquisition! They forced the
Jews from Spain to Portugal, and then from Portugal
to Brazil where they learnt how to grow sugar. The
Portuguese inquisition pushed them again, and they
migrated, with their knowledge to Cromwellian Barbados, where
they taught to English how to grow sugar. Sugar
production was labour intensive. We know what
happened next.
Sugar was regarded as a spice along with ginger,
cinnamon, cloves. As the market for sugar fell, many
of the Jews migrated again. Those who didn’t
migrate on to the US intermarried with the black
population and mostly dwindled away, except for their
names and places, Swan Street, Da Costa, Abrahams,
Pinto, Barrow.
Synagogue Cemetary
The following day, we
flew to St. Lucia. It was a bit crazy, as we took
buses to the airport. Both were crammed with school
kids and although I had hand luggage only, everyone
else took suitcases. Somehow we all fit.
Everything else went smoothly, including the flight.
Quite right too, as we were accompanied by the CEO of
the airline, Mark Darcy (seen above at the front of
the plane). Interestingly, the cockpit door remained
open for the flight. Over St. Lucia, I got a picture,
under the wing, of the famous Pitons (dual volcanic
peaks).
In St. Lucia, we got a taxi to Gros Islet, the
tourist area in the north of the island. SLU gained
independence in 1979, and it showed, bus stop signs
had the TfL roundel, and all the other road signage
would look at home in the Highway Code.
The hotel was rather better than I expected and the
beach (down the road) was beautiful (iPhone pic).
The wedding was the next day, and the fantastic
reception was on a mountain top. The view back over
Gros Islet was astounding.
Next day, was a tour of the island, similar but
longer to the one I took in 2006 from the Easy Cruise
boat. First, we went up to the top of Castries, the
capital, for a view down and to see some of the older
French architecture:
Past the Chavez funded oil facility, we
stopped to have a look at a Banana plantation
(from which locals are allowed to pick, so long as
they don’t sell any), and that’s me in
front of one of the sweeping bays along the
coastal route.
Just before Soufrière, the obligatory tourist shot of
the Pitons:
and at the bottom of a Swiss-like valley, a volcano gently smouldered.
After visiting the stinky sulphur pits and nearby
botanic gardens, and a Creole lunch, we headed back
to the Airport, via Magriot Bay, film set of Pirates
of the Caribbean.
Back at the airport, it turned out that Air
Jamaica’s ‘confirmed’ mark on the
ticket meant nothing and we weren’t booked on
the LIAT flight back. Everyone stayed calm, and when
I failed to get through the Air Jamaica’s
office in Barbados (un-suprising on a Sunday
afternoon), the LIAT supervisor phoned the LIAT
check-in desk at BGI, which is next to the Air
Jamaica desk. Thank you, LIAT, for cutting to the
chase there, and all was sorted in about 10 mins.
The next day was Concorde and cliffs. Barbados was
the only regular (each winter) destination for
Concorde other than Paris and New York. In
recognition of this BA made a permanent loan of a
Concorde to Barbados, and they have built a museum of flight around it.
Aside from the museum, which had a replica
Concorde departure lounge with menus and faux
celebrity announcements, and an impossible to fly
Concorde flight simulator, we were taken on-board
and given a proper little taste of the flight
experience. For once we could actually sit in the
plane seats in a plane museum!
That afternoon I visited the cliffs on the rugged
east coast. That’s me listening to the iPhone:
and the next day, it was back to Bridgetown to visit
a sugar mill.
Errol Barrow and Independence Arch
The bus on the way out of
Bridgetown went past the new cricket stadium before shooting
up Highway 2A towards Speightstown.
So, as we know, the Jews taught the English how to
grow sugar. Babados being a flat island was superb
for sugar and a boom developed, which quickly bust as
the soil went fallow and the market depressed with
falling prices. What followed was a steady
development of more and more technology-led
efficiency. Barbados led the world in cultivation and
harvesting techniques. And that was basically what
the museum was about, one sugar technology
break-through after another all the way from the 16th
to 20th century. Barbados was the world centre for
sugar, ending with complete mechanisation today.
Unfortunately, it seemed I picked the wrong sugar
museum through (this is the right one, next time maybe).
This one was the museum of the main actual working
sugar factory on the island, but the sugar was
still in the field growing. I could see the yellow
hats, implying a factory tour, but the mills were
idle, waiting for ripening and cutting to begin.
Instead I saw a DVD, an old Pathe style production
from the 1930s with sound showing the last
remnants of the cane cutters singing and loading
sugar into the last working Windmill, and then
onto a railway to take the sugar to Bridgetown.
Wait...a railway? The only railway I heard of was
from my passed-on Grandmother. The video was a bit
haunting, thinking of the terrible struggles for
liberty and food of the cane cutters (not shown in
the film). Still, we know there is a fairly happy ending. Not least
demonstrated by the number of spanking new
Japanese trucks on the highway.
On the way back, I was
enchanted by a view out of the bus over St. George
parish. It was a view of Barbados I had never seen
before, a valley with fields and hedges, just like
England. So the next day, my last day, I went back to
have a look.
Getting there was easier said than done. I got off
the bus far, far too early and had to walk at least a
mile till I got to the high ridge over the valley
(near to a water pumping station). Behind me was a
sugar cane field and it was readily apparent that the
island is indeed built on coral rather than volcanic
rock, the “bedrock” below the muddy sugar
cane field was exposed at road level and the fossils
were laid bare.
After all that walking, I was thirsty, and it was
close to midday. So I walked what I thought would be
a short distance to a shop selling drinks with a bus
stop outside. Mistake, it must have been 2 or three
miles. There was nothing till Gun Hill (which was an
early warning station for slave control), and when I
got there the shop was closed. Still there was a nice
view of the island up there.
Not to worry through, back out of Gun Hill, there was
a fabulously cheap convenience store where I got a
huge bottle of lemonade (for the price), and soon
enough the bus came to whip me back, in good time for
the journey to the Airport and home again.
Scotland and back
The top left view is of Terminal 5 B, where, it seems, all the Long haul flights go from, while the domestics, including mine, went from the main building. The vibe in the terminal was certainly world-class, very relaxing and soothing with lots of natural light, and no blaring announcements.
I had to take advantage of the superb shopping facilities to buy some headphones for my iPhone, and a tie and cufflinks to match my pink Van Heusen shirt. Despite being tax free, the Sony Style store was a bit more expensive than Amazon, but the Tie Rack offerings were quite affordable for the quality.
The flight (BA, Airbus A321) left 15 minutes late, but the pilot said we'd make up the time. When the meal came, to my surprise, it was a full English breakfast:
and very tasty it was too. If I'd known, I wouldn't have had a little breakfast baguette from Pret a Manger (probably the cheapest eatery in T5) about half-an-hour before. Despite an effort with my paper towel, I got a spot of watery fat on my tie. Drat.
The rest of the flight was moderately uninteresting, a fair bit of turbulence on descent over a big wind farm, and a powerful, hard on the brakes landing. A quick phone call to the groom to check where I was going, and I took the express bus into town. I got off at the wrong stop though, I was sure I saw a sign saying Waverley, but it turned out it was Haymarket, so I had a good Google maps assisted walk into the centre. I was several hours early (just in case), so I went on a little tour of the Museum of Scotland, which was just down the road from the wedding chambers. I got a bit lost on leaving the Museum, but got to the Wedding in good time to set up. Before leaving I took a photo of the Castle from the Museum roof.
We got up there in-time from the 1 o'clock gun...which I didn't hear. Oh well!
The next day, after breakfast with the wedding party, I came to the main 'other' attraction of the visit.
The Scottish Parliament. The last time I was in Edinburgh, the building was under construction. I phoned up and booked a tour for 11:40, and in the meantime visited the Royal Palace across the road (Holyrood), where there was a renaissance painting exhibition.
The Parliament was designed by a Catalonian and was intentionally and obviously modernist: wood, glass, slate, concrete etc. I found the architecture to be a bit incoherent (for my tastes) at ground level, but the overall design, from the air, looks great. It is meant to be stalks and leaves and boats. Inside, there are St. Andrews cross motifs everywhere including in the concrete roof, and all the doors:
and lots of tasteful angles everywhere. My favourite architectural motif was the MSP offices, which have little contemplation booths on the outside:
In a parallel from my
tour of the Australian Parliament, the tour guide
explained how Scottish the materials in the building
were. There wasn't enough sustainable Oak in Scotland
for the flooring so they had to import some from
England France. Sadly, we couldn't take a
picture in the debating chamber, nor in the committee
room we saw, nor in the lobby (why??), so that was
it.
I got back to the station in good time for a great
train ride down the dramatic East Coast Mainline.
Near the top, we were actually by the coast:
Back in London, I decided to take a peek at St.
Pancras International (last time I was there in
November it was still unfinished). Wow, what a
difference and what a vibe! It felt lively and so
very big; walking all the way to the back past shop
after shop took a while, until I found the reserved
platforms just before the final 'circle' of shops:
SE Trains, for
'Javelin' High-Speed Kent
services
I think St. Pancras
International is certainly equal to T5 in ambience,
and of course, trumps it completely in terms of
accessibility and connectivity. I walked all the way
back to take a close look at the Eurostars, and well,
it's certainly summer, they were plastered in blood
and carcasses.
I remember the first time I saw the roof, I didn't
like the colour at all. Funny how the addition of a
clock accessory can change how things look:
It was also nice I think, to see how the western side
of the terminus is now a big window over the British
Library. Nice and airy, a great building.
Terminal 5 Trial Day!
I was at the Heathrow Terminal 5 trial today. I think today was perhaps a bit different to other trials. Perhaps not. (Above pic is of the Concorde at the BA Cargo centre, I took it on my new Digital Camera, last years FujiFilm FinePix F40fd).
The terminal is impressive in the check-in area and in the shopping mall with gates area (aka departures). There are some spectacular view of the end of the runways, but being at the end rather than the middle is not as good as I expected, perhaps it's better for T5B (which I didn't visit). The shopping area is very nice, fairly high-class, and today a few shops, restaurants and coffee places were completed (and open) and many others had the logos up and were being kitted out.
I was in a group of 40. We were told hold luggage was not being tested in our group. Instead we were to have 2 pieces of hand-luggage (including any bags we had with us). I was a frequent flyer going to Edinburgh. As I had hand baggage only and my notes said I had checked-in online, I and others went straight to security. The line at security was atrocious. The reason for this was only a few desks were open, but also, they were testing out the new finger print biometric security system:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/08/uk_biometric_air_travel/
It seemed like each person took at least 1 minute to be processed. You have to press 4 fingers of your left hand, "firmly" onto a green scanner and hold them there for several seconds (I understood this, since I understand the English spoken to me...) Then they take your picture, as well as doing the other checks. I think it took me around 20 or 25 mins to clear security - BAA needs to fix this before go-live. The x-ray on the other side of biometrics though was very clever, well the tray system was. Everything was sensor driven, even the rollers were powered and the trays automatically cleared away once you had removed your stuff on the other side (and not before). Those to be searched manually were automatically filtered off on separate rollers to the security person. Mine got stuck at the roller junction for this, blocking the trays behind, so there are perhaps some bugs to work out.
Through to 'air-side' and it's all...shops, loos and gates. Nice and airy, like an upmarket mall, but no time to admire much as I had to go to the gate since it was open for boarding. We went to gate 4, which either is unfinished or is really meant to be just a loading point for a remote stand. Anyway, fingers were checked again (no sign of FF fastracking...) and a bunch of us squeezed (yes it was packed) onto a Citaro bus. We drove around the terminal and ended up...at a remote stand where a BA A320 was waiting for us. (yes!)
We boarded normally, and there was a sandwich, apple, tiny bottle of water and a Nutrigrain bar for each of us, for lunch. I know we're meant to take photos of the in-flight meals for trip reports, but we were told no photography.
Boarding took a LONG time but the
crew were playing along with the pretence that
it was a genuine flight to Edinburgh, even the
captain, who sounded authentic. Once the flight
was full, the doors were closed, the crew did
the safety demo, and I got that tingle in my
stomach, from the excitement of being about to
fly. We pushed back and taxied backward about 20
metres and stopped.
Dunno what it is about the A320 series, but at that point I snoozed off. Far to easy to sleep on those planes, although this was was a bit tatty. I woke up to the seat belt sign coming back on and we were told that we have just landed at Heathrow, and we have just been on a flight from Manchester. We roll back to the stand and we de-plane, all maintaining the pretence.
I have now become a lady, and I am connecting to a flight to New York. That all goes fairly smoothly (I noted a few potential snags), and ended up at the gate, where there was, this time, no plane. Then we were given a third scenario, which was a fire drill in the immigration area. That was a bit chaotic, but that's the point of tests I suppose. Something else, the place was crawling with Police, apparently there were doing security checks necessary for T5 to be classified an air terminal.
At the end I must say I was exhausted. But it was a great experience, and I'll definitely try and fly from there once it's open in April.
Marathon Plus - first ride
The main news though is...no puncture!
I was at a meeting in Berkeley Square today. On the way out, the plasma TVs in reception were showing BBC and Sky News. Here's what I saw. Auntie Beeb had a look inside too!
And in other news, mudguards and replacement block sunglasses have arrived (not a moment too soon, the tree pollen today was terrible). I'm ready for summer now!
Links and stuff
A380 seating plan wow.
I think I'll take the bus tomorrow. Can't believe that Bike Fix didn't have my new tyres in today, this is the second time they told me to come and then not had them. Last chance on Friday guys!
Oh yeah, hope you like all the badges, RSS etc, I consider this site to be phase 1 complete now. All my pictures, I wanted up from my holiday, are up. Phase 2 is moving over all my travelogues from my old website - gonna put those in a new blog I think, then the old site will be deleted (bye-bye Freeway, twas over-kill for me!).