I don’t like commercial flight, the loss of control is annoying to a man who drives his own home around South America. Monday proved the point but first a few last pictures of Leckmelm as I sat around waiting for Lucy to pick me up to take me to the airport. It had rained and it was cold but it was lovely and parting is such sweet sorrow.
Campbelltown Cottages, I’ll miss you too.
Calmac is the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides seen here pulling into Ullapool.
It was like a bad joke but when Lucy showed up I had just received word from KLM my flight was canceled. I was booked on another flight to Amsterdam in two days and after we called the airline they said they wouldn’t put me on a flight to Paramaribo in two days. I had to get to Amsterdam Monday night.
In the end Layne in Paramaribo and Lucy in Scotland got an alternative going and I was scheduled to fly out of Edinburgh at 6pm. We had to fly by car to Inverness 90 minutes away to make the train that would get me to Scotland’s capital.
It was a pleasant journey as it turned out. A wedding guest is met at Ullapool was on the train and we made friends with two other travelers next to us and the four hour journey passed easily enough through lovely Scottish countryside. And it left on time. The race was on.
This kind couple helped me on my way and gave me their lunch sandwiches they didn’t want. I bought a cup of tea and I was grateful for the food as things hadn’t been going well enough for me to organize lunch on this impromptu journey. I had been expecting to be in Amsterdam by now. It was a pleasant ride at 90 miles per hour but it had to end and I had to figure out the next stage.
Lucy had sent me instructions so a short walk got me to the tram (street car) stop with a ticket bought online and I was on my way to the airport.
Everything is online nowadays in Europe and everything is paid by credit card. I haven’t had a reason to use cash and I bought tickets and made reservations on the phone flashing a QR code to pass through ticket barriers. No human contact needed I guess.
But the Edinburgh airport made sure I got my steps in.
The gate had a sign above it I liked “haste ye back” which I shall be sure to do. Maybe with a more reliable airline than KLM.
The Easy Jet flight took off on time and I was sitting next to a mother and I think daughter laboring under some stress as the daughter, a teenager maybe, kept bursting into tears, and I had the feeling there had been a death or something in her young life. Unnerving but I kept close to my book. Easy Jet is a budget airline, my ticket cost around $130 I think, and apparently included an al fresco boarding system which offered a light spattering of rain for a bonus. My sister suggested I fly on this leg with my British passport hoping perhaps it might get me through the checks more easily. On this day if I had any luck at all it was bad luck. Passport control was packed and since Brexit the British are lumped into the “all passports” line which took an hour. Fantastic. I had hoped to arrive around three, check into my room at the Hampton Inn and take a train to Amsterdam to go for a walk. No such luck. Nice room but not much time to enjoy it. I have a wake up call at 5am to go back to Schiphol airport for an easy, problem free flight to Paramaribo. I hope.
