70,000 (and SuBo) drown out the cynics: Amid the crowds and the pageantry only a sea breeze troubles the Pope




After all those threats and all that ranting from the secular lobby, it wasn't an 'aggressive atheist' who embarrassed the Pope on Day One of his British tour. It was the Scottish weather.

As the Holy Father stood alongside the Queen on the royal dais for the formal welcome at the Palace of Holyroodhouse yesterday morning, along came a burst of sea breeze from the North Sea and Pope Benedect XVI's little white cap went flying off its silvery perch.

Quick as a flash, the Pope grabbed his zucchetto and solemnly waited until the strains of God Save The Queen had died away before putting it back in his head.



And that, frankly, was the nearest we got to a glitch at the start of the first Papal visit to Britain in 28 years.

Mass appeal: The Popemobile seems to sail above the waving and cheering multitude that turned out to see the Pontiff as he made his way to the open air service at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow yesterday



Welcome: Cardinal Keith O'Brien greets Pope Benedict XVI as he arrives at Edinburgh Airport yesterday

Royal greeting: The Queen sent her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, to greet the Pope personally as he stepped off the plane

Fears of a lukewarm - or hostile - reception in the streets of Edinburgh proved unfounded. Respectable, sincere crowds, several deep, lined city centre streets cheering the passing Popemobile and then turning to each other to say 'I could have sworn he was wearing tartan'. As it happened, he was.



In Glasgow's Bellahouston Park, the Pope's first open air mass did not attract the same crowds which turned out for Pope John Paul II in 1982. But then no one ever thought it would.

Apart from anything else, they weren't charging everyone £20-a-head in1982.

But the estimated 70,000 who did pay were more than had been expected. And they were buzzing, cranked up by a support show of assorted Simon Cowell acts including local phenomenon Susan Boyle doing her 'I Dreamed A Dream' routine.



Meet and greet: The Queen and Pope Benedict leave to meet school children outside the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queen's official residence in Scotland

Palace: The Queen walks with the Pope to the morning drawing room at Holyroodhouse, with the Duke of Edinburgh close behind

High security: Police outriders protect the Pope as he travels in a motorcade on Princes Street in Edinburgh

Giving it her all: Susan Boyle performs at Bellahouston Park prior to the Papal Mass

The festival atmosphere in Glasgow was in deliberate contrast to the pageantry of Edinburgh. This is a visit to test the most pedantic scholars of protocol. Everyone has been calling it a 'state visit' but it is not. As Palace, Government and Vatican aides attempted to explain to anyone who would listen, it is a 'Papal Visit with the status of a state visit'. Think of it as the diplomatic equivalent of brunch. It is breakfast with the status of lunch.

In practice, this means that the Pope gets some elements of a state visit - a formal welcome from the Queen, meetings with party leaders etc - but not others.

Even his arrival was unorthodox. As he stepped down from Shepherd One - as his Alitalia jet was rather grandly renamed - there was no red carpet on the runway. Was this a snub?

No. The authorities were worried that the wind would wreak havoc with the carpet. In another break with standard procedure, the Queen did the Pope the honour of sending the Duke of Edinburgh to greet him personally off the plane.

She was waiting for him at the door of the Palace of Holyroodhouse having arrived, the night before, from Balmoral. Dressed in a coat of duck-egg blue and a matching (firmly-fixed) hat, she was also wearing the Cartier diamond and aquamarine jewellery which her parents had given her on her 18th birthday.



Prayer in the park: Pope Benedict's mass yesterday saw an estimated 70,000 turn up. This compares with the nearly 300,000 who were at the same park in 1982 to see Pope John Paul II

The faithful: A pilgrim prays as she waits for the Pope to arrive in Glasgow, left, while others wave Papal flags in anticipation of his visit



Blessing: The Pope kisses a baby through the window of his Popemobile, left, and waves to his followers, right



Pope Benedict XVI greets the journalists aboard the airplane to Edinburgh, left, and, right, releases incense over the crowd in Glasgow



Body of Christ: The Pope gives Communion, left, after consecrating the bread, right, during the open-air Mass in Glasgow



Before the royal dais stood the Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and her Scottish bodyguard, the Royal Company of Archers, plus 400 of the great and good. Anthems over, she introduced the Pope to a small greeting line including a smiling Archbishop of Canterbury and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Danger of a Godless society, by the Pope The Pope yesterday condemned 'aggressive secularism' and compared atheism to the forces of Nazism.

Speaking in front of the Queen after his arrival in Britain he made it clear he would not be cowed by a militant secularist lobby determined to undermine his visit.

In the end their threats proved fruitless as tens of thousands lined the streets of Edinburgh in a respectful fashion to cheer the passing Popemobile.

During his time in London today he will make a speech in Parliament but his visit has already left John Bercow red-faced.

Just hours before the Commons Speaker greets Pope Benedict XVI, his wife Sally, a would-be Labour MP, used social networking website Twitter to join anti-Pope attacks which have been led by comedian Stephen Fry.

The Queen and the Duke escorted their guest to the Morning Drawing Room, talking cars. 'You've got your own car here haven't you - your Popemobile,' she said as she led the Pope through the Palace cloisters past its colourful occupants.

Some guests might have been befuddled by such exotic specimens as the High Constables of Holyroodhouse in their blue suits and sawn-off hats or the Hereditary Keeper of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Duke of Hamilton. The Vatican, of course, has its own fancy dress brigade with the stripey-trousered Swiss Guard. The Pope must have felt quite at home.

Another state visit ritual to be observed was the exchange of gifts. From Queen to Pope came a facsimile edition of Holbein drawings. From Pope to Queen came copies of the 8th Century Lorsch Gospels.

It's a long time since the Queen has welcomed a head of state who, like her and the Duke, served in the Second World War - albeit on the wrong side. She was certainly not going to mention it. But there was no stopping her guest.

Having endured so much self-righteous pontification from the Churchbashers in recent weeks, it was time for the Pontiff to do some of his own. And he was not going to hold back. The German-born Pope praised Britain for its wartime stand against the 'the Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God'. There was no fence-sitting as he spoke of the 'sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the 20th Century'.

The Supreme Governor of the Church of England opted for a more measured message. 'We hold that freedom to worship is at the core of our tolerant and democratic society,' said the Queen.

Meanwhile, the Popemobile revved into life and the Pope was presented with a scarf of 'St Ninian's Day Tartan' created specially for the visit (St Ninian was Scotland's earliest saint and yesterday, handily, was his feast day). It moved at brisk walking speed through the centre of Edinburgh, a dozen shaven-headed heavies trotting along at close quarters while hundreds of police lined the streets.

If the mood in Edinburgh was enthusiastic, it was positively jubilant by the time he arrived in Glasgow late yesterday afternoon.



Opportunity: Pilgrims young and old turned out to see the Pope and a song from Susan Boyle



Coping with the elements: Pope Benedict XVI replaces his 'zucchetto' after it blows off in the windy weather, left, and right, in his finery for the Papal Mass in Glasgow



The crowds had been warmed up for a good three hours beforehand. Favourite hymns were interspersed with rallying videos and, of course, the canary of Caledonian Catholicism, Susan Boyle. As the Popemobile cruised slowly into Bellahouston Park, the 83-year-old Holy Father got the full Robbie Williams treatment from a surprisingly youthful crowd.

The hysteria duly ebbed away as the solemnities began. Once again, the Pope was not holding back in his homily.

Turning to the younger members of the crowd, he announced: 'My dear young Catholics of Scotland.

'There are many temptations placed before you every day - drugs, money, sex, pornography, alcohol - which the world tells you will bring you happiness. Yet these things are destructive and divisive.'

His words received a rousing ovation, not least because he rounded them off with a spot of Gaelic.

The last Pope could barely speak English. This one does Scottish languages which most Scots can't even master.

After leaving amid further mass hysteria, Benedict XVI arrived in London last night, welcomed on to the tarmac by Mayor Boris Johnson.

Today, he addresses Parliament. Don't expect platitudes.



Special occasion: The Pope takes a seat during the Mass in Glasgow, left, which some pilgrims had arrived for several hours before, right



London visit: The Pope can be seen through the window of his plane as he arrives at Heathrow last night



