Happy Memories

I had a very lazy day in DC today.  With the continued stormy wet weather, I gave myself permission to not leave the hotel.  I'm always cross at myself when I don't go out exploring, but I'm really very tired, so I think it did me some good.  I could also tell I was coming down with something - I hope it doesn't develop into something nasty, but my throat is all raspy and sore.  Maybe this is why I've felt so run down the last few days.

Anyway - I had a late departure back to London.  Panic!  No Blip!  When I got to the airport I looked up and saw this Iceland Air plane.  I took one very quick shot.  It's not great - not even well focused.  But it's significant because it made me remember my wonderful holiday in Iceland in February.  What a beautiful and friendly country.  I can't wait to go back.  
You can see my Iceland Blips from Feb 25th to Mar 2nd. 

You can also see in this picture the unique (and oft-hated) 'people-movers' or 'mobile lounges' of Washington's Dulles Airport. (I was actually IN a people mover when I took this picture).  When I started flying in 1986 I was based in Washington and at that time the lounges still transported passengers from the main terminal directly to and from the plane's boarding door.  When the mid-field terminal opened later that year, they then transported passengers from the main terminal to the mid-field terminal and then the passenger would walk to whatever gate their flight left from.  In more recent years they have been replaced by an underground train, but the lounges are still used to the D-gate area as well as from all international arrivals.  The whole system seems very bizarre and like something from the 1950s (because it is!).  

From Wikipedia (Dulles Airport):
Inter-terminal transportation
Conceived in early planning sessions in 1959, Dulles is one of the few remaining airports to use the mobile lounge (also known as "plane mates" or "people movers") for boarding and disembarkation from aircraft, and to transfer passengers between the midfield concourses and to and from the main terminal building. They have all been given names based on the postal abbreviations of 50 states, e.g.: VA, MD, AK.


The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has begun to gradually phase out the mobile lounge system for inter-terminal passenger movements in favor of the AeroTrain, an underground people mover which currently operates to Concourses A, B and C, as well as underground pedestrian walkway tunnels (now in service to concourse A/B). The mobile lounges are still used to transport passengers directly from the main terminal to Concourse D. Plane mates also remain in use to disembark international passengers and carry them to the International Arrivals Building, as well as to convey passengers to and from aircraft on hard stand (i.e., those parked remotely on the apron without access to jet bridges).