In praise of the Edinburgh Airport Bus

It may seem a rather lowly topic but I have no shame in making my first post in a long time being about the Edinburgh Airport Bus.

I had my flights cancelled at Heathrow on Sunday completely out of the blue and, to be honest, the BMI powers that be could have been a little nicer about it. The exact phrase was not "your flight is cancelled, go collect your bags and clear off" but it wasn't far away.

How and where we were to clear off to was unclear. Trains and tubes were poorly signposted with helping hands few and far between. Eventually the masses figured out where they were all meant to be going but by then the dark clouds had gathered over most of our respective heads.

So given my recent two week experiences in the States where people have courtesy, pleasantries and "have a nice day"s dripping from every pore I did receive something of an inverse culture shock upon returning 'home'.

But thankfully, Edinburgh undid all of London's poor work.

Upon setting off on the easy to locate Edinburgh Airport bus, the driver was full of information, explaining where we would be stopping en route to Princes St and what connections people would need to get to Glasgow, Stirling, Fife etc. Further to this, if we had any questions (and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit I had one despite having lived here for 10 years!) then we were to just amble up to his side and ask away.

Glorious stuff. And the added bonus is that the tourists get an early treat of a Scottish accent so they know what they're in store for in the days or weeks ahead.

So I raise my new American deer-stalker to you Edinburgh Airport Bus. I just hope the EARL tram project will do as fine a job once the money is spent and the tracks are laid.

First impressions are very important after all...