Conditions were okay for shooting in the morning but again like Saturday there was a distinct lack of interesting movements again with mainly just common ones that we had seen on the previous three days.
As with Saturday all aircraft landed and departed on only the nearer runway but a lack of variety made the day drag a little and by the time of the Pulkovo TU154 arriving the cloud was building up so we headed to the Main Terminal to check out the viewing deck there but just on arriving the rain had started so after a coffee we headed down to Departures and checked in for the Buzz flight which departed on time taking us back to Stansted.
Boy was I wrong about the prices, there was a smallish plate of Penne pasta sitting just about nose height behind the counter so I thought that'll do nicely and asked how much and the reply was "It's GBP£5", I said "Eh! did you say GBP£5" and he replied "Yes", I could buy a packet of Penne at home with at least 5 times this amount in it for GBP£1.
Now I have to say that I am not a tightwad and always buy one meal at an Airport during a visit but it was completely over the top to be charging GBP£8-60 for a plate of Penne (not exactly a big plate either) with a coffee for me and Cappuchino for my friend.
The B.A.A. (known to some as the British Shops Authority) are renowned for packing in lots of shops in their Terminals but at Stansted they really hold you upside down by the ankles when it comes to the purchase of food.
I was distinctly underwhelmed maybe there was a 30% tax slapped on everything due to the GBP£5 billion that they are trying to raise for the new Terminal 5 construction at Heathrow and I was expected to make a contribution, they add travel tax onto your flight ticket so could this be a new "nosebag" tax?, who knows so I just had the coffee and thought that this had to go into my writeup for the trip.
So off we went on our Ryanair 737 at 21-50 back to Prestwick which left on time and arrived after a smooth flight, well that was a good trip now over and well worth going in my book. The Friday was excellent with sun nearly all day and the night time oppertunities gave me my first real go at taking these kind of shots so I learned quite a bit about that and have more understanding of what to look for and how to go about it in the future.
So that's my second trip report for "Fred hits the Road" from Dusseldorf (again) and the next one will be for my one day trip on the 7th of March to Dublin to shoot the French Rugby charters arriving for the Ireland v France match.
I hope that this write up might be of help to those who have not visited this excellent Airport before and gives an idea of what you can expect if you decide to go there.
We arrived just about opening time for the Railway Terrace at 9am and the weather was reasonably bright but the forecast was for heavy cloud and rain coming in during the day and this proved to be correct.
TC-SUA 737
Sun Express
(Dusseldorf 19-1-03).
D-ACPC CRJ700
Lufthansa
(Dusseldorf 19-1-03).
RA-85695 TU154
Pulkovo
(Dusseldorf 19-1-03).
With three hours to go before our Ryanair flight back to Prestwick I headed to the Restaurant looking forward to a seat and something good to eat, I spotted a restuarant of which there is a similar one in Glasgow Airport and as I thought prices were an arm and a leg so having noticed a self service foodcourt with hard seats (looking much cheaper) I headed in that direction, picked up a tray and made my way towards the nice smells.
Page 1
(Wednesday 15th January 2003 photos) (1 photos)
Page 2
(Thursday 16th January 2003 photos) (13 photos)
Page 3
(Friday 17th January 2003 photos) (20 photos)
Page 4
(Saturday 18th January 2003 photos) (9 photos)
Page 6
(DUS- night time photo comments January 2003 photos) ( 10 photos)
Page 7
(Dusseldorf maps from my July 2002 visit) (14 photos)
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