Airports I Have Known

There's nothing I can tell you about traveling through airports these days. I was taken with the sign I saw in London, though. It's the first photo, and I think it says that body needs come before spirit needs.

I can tell you about the neatest/sweetest airport I've ever been in. It's the Barra Airport, of course. I flew in from Glasgow last week on Flybe, Europe's new inexpensive airline. The plane was a Twin Otter; the copilot was also our flight attendant. She reminded me of Dianne Fogelsong--trim, bright, attentive and very competent.

The plane held a few of us, in very small seats. Thanks to the good weather, I could see islands pass under me, and then the water of The Minch, then the Barra Head Isles (small, uninhabited islands used only for grazing sheep) and then the landing strip of Barra. Planes land on Traigh Mhor, Gaelic for Large Beach, and the beach is huge and covered with cockleshells. The arrivals and departures of planes depend on the tides. We left our prints in the wet sand, then crunched shells as we made our way to the airport proper, most of which is really a cafe/tearoom. A single room for coming, going, eating, chatting, ticketing, security checks--think of that! There is one fast rule, though. One must stay off of the beach when the wind sock is up.

I took off from that airport on Monday. I had to fly to another island, Benbecula, to catch a flight back to Glasgow. Being up in the air, I was astonished at how many islands there are--how many dots there are that make up one Benbecula and one Barra. And, of course, how many dots it takes to make up my own life! When I am on an island, it's the biggest dot I know. When I get up in the Twin Otter, I see the distinctiveness of each dot. Were I to be a plane flying very high above, the demarcations would be too small for the eye to see, and it would all look like one. Hummmm