We arrived in Glasgow Central station.
Glasgow Central inside.
We had booked a hotel in Glasgow, the Hospitality Inn (don't go there, we had problems with the lifts, we told the staff and they didn't care less, they knew the lift was faulty but refused to take it out of service!)
We were flying in the evening, and as Glasgow was horrendous for viewing and photography, we decided to spend some time looking round the city ecntre. We had a meal of fish and chips and then the time came to catch the train to the airport (well, to Paisley and then a taxi to the airport).
The outside of Glasgow Airport. This was also the last time we ever flew from Glasgow. The last time I saw Glasgow was returning from a university field trip. We were passing in the bus when a Sabena ARJ landed at the side of us. Several weeks after this I had my first ever Sabena flight.
We checked in (or attempted to check in!) We handed our ticket to the clerk, who checked through the passenger list.
"You're not on the passenger list", she told us.
"WHAT??!!??"
"Although your ticket says 'status OK' you are not on the list."
"@@**&&%%"
"We want this sorted before you go checking everyone else in!"
After some phone calls to her colleagues, we were eventually issued with our boarding passes, a window and a middle seat.
After this, we never listened when travel agents told us that if we were "status OK" then there was no need to reconfirm flight reservations. And this policy served us well when dealing with a certain other airline two years later! Since 1993 we have always reconfirmed our flights.
We went into the departure lounge and at last I managed to see some aircraft!
An Air France 737-200 prepares to leave. Also in the photo is an Aer Lingus Fokker 50. I think this was the first of the type I ever saw.
We saw our 737-400 arrive, and I was pleased to see that I would be completing my "collection" of Icelandair's 737s. This was their newest one TF-FID "Heiðdís" and the only one I had not been on.
TF-FID almost at the terminal. Also in the photo is an Air 2000 (now First Choice) 757 and an Air UK Fokker jet. The approaching ARJ/BAe146 is believed to belong to Sabena.
It was a nice evening, and after waiting a while we were called to board. It was an outside boarding, and some disabled passengers were being helped to board, so we waited on the tarmac. A Sabena ARJ/BAe146 was parked next to our aircraft. We always used to see Sabena as we were flying off on our holidays, either parked next to our aircraft or taxying for take off in front of us.
On boarding we were greeted by the friendly crew, and I was pleased to see that we had the exit row (13 on the 734). The flights to Iceland were often full, and this was no exception. An Icelandic girl was in the aisle seat of our row. After the safety demonstration, we were off. This aircraft was much better than its stable mate TF-FIC, and we were soon airborne. The flight was around 90 minutes. The pilot announced that we would be flying out over Benbecula in the Hebrides and heading over the north west Atlantic before landing into Keflavik. I always remember flying over Oban on Icelandair flights, I used to recognise the folly on top of the hill.
The inflight meal was the same as usual on Icelandair, and I had orange juice to drink.
The flight was nice and light, and we approached over the familiar steaming ground and lava fields to make a smooth touch down in Keflavik.
After clearing customs and having a look in duty free (they have one for arriving passengers in Iceland) we went to catch the Flybus to Hotel Loftleiðir and then a taxi to our hotel.
The following day we had been so concerned about the problem at check in that we headed to Kringlan shopping mall, straight into the Icelandair office and asked them to check all our other reservations for us. They did, and there were no more problems showing. We went away to enjoy the rest of the holiday totally unaware of what the following week's flight home would bring.
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