Douglas; Friday, 25 July, 2003

This trip started with me completing the full set of London airports. The flight from London City airport is strange as you take off from land recovered from the docks, the runway surrounded on both sides and at the end by water and then take off over the sky scrapers and tower blocks of Docklands and SE London. It does however prepare you for the landing at Isle of Man international airport (the only airport on the island) where the runway virtually starts in the sea, you are certainly very, very low before you see the end of the runway appear.

This trip started with me completing the full set of London airports. The flight from London City airport is strange as you take off from land recovered from the docks, the runway surrounded on both sides and at the end by water and then take off over the sky scrapers and tower blocks of Docklands and SE London. It does however prepare you for the landing at Isle of Man international airport (the only airport on the island) where the runway virtually starts in the sea, you are certainly very, very low before you see the end of the runway appear.

The ride by horse tram is slow and sedate, a comment of the speed of life and most definitely aimed at tourists. The electric tram, although looking like it is aimed at tourists, is one of the main transport links on the island. On a nice warm summers afternoon sitting in an open sided carriage as it winds its way up the cliffs leading out of Douglas it is very pleasant, but I couldn't imagine commuting in it. The less than 10 mile journey to Ramsey takes 75 minutes, not good if you're in a hurry, but it is worth it as the scenery is spectacular and as you travel up towards Ramsey, tracks clinging to the sides of the cliffs you can clearly make out the coast of the mainland. From one spot you can make out the very south of Scotland, the north west coast of England and the north coast of Wales.

Ramsey is a very pretty little harbour town in the north of the island and well worth looking around, though as I arrived in the early evening there was not much open to look at. After spending a couple of hours in the town (including dinner) I wandered back to the station and caught the last tram back into Douglas.