GAMES athletes and spectators left hand-written notes praising the event before jetting out of Glasgow Airport for their journey home.

Members of Team Ghana did an impromptu jig when they spotted a bagpiper walking through the terminal building on giant stilts, while Canadian competitors gawped when they arrived at the airport to discover Highland cows grazing outside.

Airport bosses laid on a Scottish-themed farewell when more than 2000 athletes and officials as well as spectators led a mass exodus out of Glasgow.

Another 2000 and more will fly to the four corners of the world during the next 24 hours while airport staff also deal with tens of thousands of holiday-makers during the busiest period of the summer.

Glasgow Airport splashed out almost £20million on a major facelift in time to welcome the stars of sport from 71 countries around the globe.

Thousands of pounds were spent on a "fond farewell" to athletes who had enthralled more than a million spectators in and around Glasgow and up to 1.5billion global fans who sat glued to televisions.

Brian McClean, head of communications and public affairs at the airport, said: "There was a tremendous atmosphere in the airport.

"For us, it was important we provided everyone with a fond farewell by creating some theatre in the terminal and there was something to see at every point of their journey through the airport.

"We had pipers, and a ceilidh band, but the athletes seemed most surprised when they were met with Highland cows grazing at the front of the terminal.

"Our memory tree also proved very popular with athletes and passengers alike all leaving a note of their abiding memories from the past couple of weeks."

He added: "The airport itself will take so many memories from our time as the gateway to the Games and it all got under way on July 16 when Sir Chris Hoy officially opened our new international arrivals area.

"The large scale improvements to the airport will be our legacy from the Games and we can now look forward to further world-class events such as the Ryder Cup and the MTV Europe Music Awards."

Competitors and officials were still flying out of Glasgow late into the night.

They were heading to more than 50 countries and thousands had to fly to hubs such as those in London, Amsterdam and Dubai, to catch connections to take them home.

gordon.thomson@ eveningtimes.co.uk