Well so much for trying to post weekly! How do so many people manage when I can’t? Discipline I expect. To be fair to myself I have been in the USA and Canada for three weeks since my last post. One thing is for sure – it is extremely difficult to blog whilst travelling every day. So where was I and what was I doing? Before telling you please also be aware that some posts below are not in their proper order! To make matters worse I don’t know how to put them in the correct order. Apologies to everyone.

We left Edinburgh On Wednesday, 25th May from Edinburgh airport (previously known as Turnhouse Aerodrome) at the very civilised time of 10.00 am. To Heathrow Terminal 5 and then to Washington Dulles Airport. Until January this year I would have done almost anything possible to avoid Heathrow. Previously it was an assault course and was very tiring and stressful to get to connecting flights. However, Terminal 5 is a very large, bright, airy place that is almost a pleasure to experience. I say almost because of all the ‘hoops’ passengers have to jump through these days – online check in, bag drop, check in at the airport if one cannot do so online, pre-security (scanning one’s boarding pass before reaching security), passport control, then actual security (take all coins and other metallic substances from one’s clothing). Security varies from airport to airport. Some demand that one takes off one’s shoes, belts, jackets. Some are interested in shoes whilst some are very interested in belts. Some American airports has full body scanners which ‘x-ray’ the passenger and is intended to speed up the process of getting through security. You can refuse to be scanned by such a machine but if you do you will be subjected to a full body ‘pat down’ in full view of everyone else. This takes about five minutes and the public employee (paid for from our taxes) seems to have the power of a Supreme Being. In order to illustrate this I shall, briefly, relate my experience of flying home from Boston Logan Airport. I was directed by a government employee to stand in a line to get to the security ‘conveyor belt’ and was happy to do so because that was the fastest moving. Unlike the other security lines this one could not see the ‘conveyor belt’ from the entrance it was only once I was some way into the lane I could see that I was heading for a body scanner. Once I had placed all my items in three trays and placed them on the ‘conveyor belt’ to go through the x-ray machine I said that I was not willing to go through the body scanning machine. Oh dear… One might have thought that I was a terrorist, a criminal, for daring to exercise my rights! I was told to stand aside, in a place, where everyone else could see that I was a ‘problem’. The ‘security guard’ shouted and I mean shouted into a radio “we’ve got another opt-out” pause, “what was that, repeat?” In reply, “Yes, I said another opt-out, get someone to do this guy” and was made to wait there for ten minutes before anyone ‘dealt’ with me. Oh hum.. the joys of international travel…

Remember also that one must be at the gate a certain time before the flight which is typically 30 minutes for a domestic flight and an hour for an international flight. If, like me, you have a fear of being late

Notice I say ‘almost’ anything to avoid Heathrow (and to a certain extent Edinburgh) airports and this is because most airports are, for me, pretty souless places. If you enjoy shopping Edinburgh is okay and Heathrow Terminal 5 is as good as any although in total it does not quite compare with some others I have used, for example, Singapore.

Terminal 5 works best if you use British Airways as it is the airline’s national hub and so a flight from Edinburgh arrives at T5 and international and other domestic flights (with a few exceptions) leave from the same terminal. For me, the flight from Edinburgh – Heathrow T5 – Washington Dulles with British Airways was very smooth and uneventful. I would also recommend the use of executive lounges particularly if one has a stopover between flight of more than a couple of hours. They provide free snacks and refreshments, newspapers and magazines, wi-fi, power points, and comfy chairs. Membership is not particularly cheap but if one is a regular traveller an annual membership can be had for about £150.

More later