Saturday 23 March 2002
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Charles de Gaulle airport. More pictures here. |
The Charles de Gaulle airport is certainly fascinating to look at. The section we're in is made of nothing but glass and steel support members (painted white). At that, right angles are relatively rare. It was a good idea to carry two cameras - the Canon Sureshot was a given (it's so small) but I decided to bring the Canon FT with only one lens: the 19-35mm zoom. It's wonderful for architecture and I knew I'd be shooting a lot of that, but I didn't expect to start so soon. Interesting place - I hope the pictures turn out!
There's not as much smoking here as I expected, but people do seem to do it where and when they please.
Renault makes a car called the "Twingo." Air France has bought a lot of them.
Our flight left CDG at 1525, arriving in Edinburgh at 1615 Edinburgh time (a 1:50 flight). I can't sleep on these flights: I wonder if I could even sleep in first class. Coach class certainly sucks.
Edinburgh's airport is very small (especially compared to ATL). It probably only has gates for 20 planes. We had no trouble entering the country. The immigration officer urged us to cheer Scotland on in its rugby match against France, which was taking place that afternoon.
Frank picked us up in Edinburgh (in his new Saab), thank god. We weren't in shape for much beyond dinner and bed. He took us back to their flat, and then out to the "seaside" for a short while.
We went to the Starbank Inn for dinner. The Starbank is a prototypical British pub. Small tables, lots of people drinking and smoking and talking. Even a couple guys wearing kilts, although we suspect this was because of the rugby match against France earlier in the day. Frank assured us the food at this pub was better than most, and it was indeed very good. They dispensed with one of the classic British cliches immediately by not overcooking the vegetables that came with my Steak and Ale pie. Frank and Catherine both had Smoked Haddock with Poached Egg. It came in a sauce, and was excellent.
We were completely exhausted, went to sleep at 2200.
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