You know you are in Scotland when .....

May 07, 2012

...... you are walking in the hills and hear bagpipe music in the wind!

For those who have not heard, I am in Scotland for a week. Most of the trip has been funded by the organisation who have put the meeting together. In brief the meeting is to discuss options for improving the quality of fisheries data collected by developing countries in order to ensure the sustainability of their fisheries. The meeting is tomorrow and I will give more details about it in tomorrow's blog.

While this trip is an amazing experience the long haul flight north was something I was dreading. It started off with the flight from Durban to Johannesburg being delayed by half an hour. Fortunately for me this made little difference but there were a number of people who did miss their international connections. The long haul flight was not too bad and I think it was the best food I have had on any flight so well done to British Airways on that one. At about midnight I gave up trying to sleep on my own and took a little tablet which made me nap for fairly long stretches at a time until 4:30 when everyone was woken up for breakfast. The only complaint (besides the flying time of course) that I had was the temperature in the cabin. It was at an awkward level so it was too cold without my jersey and too hot with the jersey. So I spent a lot of time putting on and taking off my jersey.

A plane flying next to us and the moon's reflection on the sea

A beautiful moon

Coming in to land over London

We arrived in London to sunshine and seven degrees but there was no time to think about the weather as I thought I might not make the connection. Even-though my flight arrived at terminal 5 and departed from terminal 5, I had to catch a train to go to border control and then through another security check. I got to the gate with about 2 minutes to spare before boarding started. While we were waiting to take off I saw the plane in front of us abort his take off with a dramatic screech of brakes and burning rubber. Apparently the pilot had spotted some debris on the runway and called off his take off. The runway was then shutdown for a full inspection and we had to wait about 30 minutes before we could go. The pilot made up the time though once we were in the air and we arrived in Edinburgh on time. The weather was cloudy and cold but luckily there was no rain.

After collecting my suitcase off the carousel, I went and found the airport bus to go to the city. I was lucky in that almost as soon as I bought my ticket the bus arrived. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the bus provided free internet access so I could check my emails while all the other passengers where boarding. I got off the bus at the Waverley Station and thought that instead of using my phone's GPS to find my hotel I would use a little map that I picked up at the airport. Unfortunately the map was a bit of an artist's impression of what roads were where. I knew I was heading in the right direction though and eventually, without resorting to the GPS, I found my hotel.

I was by then desperate for a shower and a bit of a nap but the hotel receptionist told me I could only check in at 14:30, it was only 10:30. She was very sweet though when I said that I was exhausted and really hoped that she could make a plan. She promised me that she would give me a room as soon as one became available but the hotel was full so she could not guarantee anything. She took my suitcase from me and pointed me to the ladies' toilet downstairs so that I could at least wash my face and brush my teeth.

Once I had a bit of a bird bath I settled down in the foyer to wait for a room. I was joined by a guy from Nigeria who is here for the same meeting as me and who was in the same predicament too. We sat chatting about this and that and at eleven the receptionist came to both of us and said that they had sorted out rooms for us. I was so happy and couldn't get to the room quick enough.

The room is really fabulous and what made me exceptionally happy was that there is a bath as well as a shower (and they are separate). I quickly unpacked my clothes and had a soak in the bath. That made me feel a whole lot better so I headed out into the city. I wanted to see how far it is to Holyrood Palace where the meeting is tomorrow so I headed in that direction. After figuring that out I went to the Holyrood Park and walked all over the park. The wind started to blow while I was in the hills and the rain came down in stops and starts and, to set the Scottish scene completely, I could hear a bagpipe band playing somewhere in the distance. I eventually discovered that the band was at the Holyrood Palace grounds. It was a really lovely and fitting sound. Below are some photos I took on my walk.