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.
Manchester and Leicester
That evening instead of
going home, I went to Leicester to see old Uni
friends, James and Wayne. Nick travelled up from
London. A bit of a cock-up on my journey across the
Pennines.
It wasn't exactly clear
at Manchester's departure boards, since they don't
show trains, they show destinations, so I took the
first train to my destination. This turned out to be
a slow, cramped Northern Trains train. I should have
asked really, before I got on the train "Shouldn't
this be a Trans-Pennine Express?", but it didn't
occur to me that the two trains could leave within
minutes of each other. Anyway I got to Sheffield
about 15 minutes after my connection had left, so I
took the next train (Virgin), which only went to
Derby, and the train from Derby (MML) was cancelled.
I was an hour late in the end.
Anyway had a great time, some curry, some drinking,
some clubs and a nice walk around the old town. I
finally visited the city museum on New Walk, which I
had walked past countless times on my way into town,
when I was studying in Leicester.
I was expecting, yes, the dinosaurs, but not much
else. Instead, it's rather good with exhibitions on
the Egyptians, and endangered species and other
stuff, some of it tied in with recent BBC documentary
series. Good stuff for kids, although I didn't stay
too long as I had to go into town to meet up with the
others.