Europe: Start voting now! SN3819 Brussels National Airport to Lisbon Airport
In this musical spectacular…
- Who wants to go to Eurovision?
- Where did my wallet go? Off to Birmingham Airport
- SN2038 Birmingham Airport to Brussels National Airport
- Some time at Brussels Airport
- SN3819 Brussels National Airport to Lisbon Airport with the AeroSmurf
- Into Lisbon and The Tuk Tuk Hostel
- Exploring Lisbon with a Canon 100D
- The Eurovision Song Contest
- Off to Porto with Comboios de Portugal
- Time at Porto Airport
- FR8513 Porto Airport to Birmingham Airport
- To the trains!
- Eurovision… Douze points!
SN2038 Birmingham Airport to Brussels National Airport
Brussels Airlines, Seat 10F – AeroSmurf
1068 miles flown, 228 loops earned.
La la la la lah.. Smuf aboard the plane…
Tail..
Cockpit
With the delayed boarding in progress, I boarded to the Aerosmurf… to be confronted with cuteness from the outset.
Spot the Smurf feet.
Welcome aboard #SNSMURFS
A Smurfy Trip!
I headed down to the exit row and got comfortable. The seats are the same as the previous flight – the Lufthansa NEK (Recaro BL3250), whilst is reasonable enough – especially in the exit row, and with an 18″ Seat width. Again – comfort in the air.
Red hedrests
Legroom (plenty in the exit row)
And even better with no one in the middle seat.
I popped my bags in the overhead locker, and popped things where I was expecting them to be. As I was settling in however, I was informed by the crew that my camera couldn’t be used in the exit row during take off and landing.
… really?
I popped the camera in the overhead, and decided to shoot the rest of this with the iPhone. Mainly because I couldn’t be bothered to argue with the crew today.
With not a full load today – I counted some rows free – SN3819 pushed back late from Brussels National Airport to begin the long trek to Lisbon.
Let’s get out of here.
The safety video played – and still made me chuckle – whilst partaking the important safety information (even if the cabin crew didn’t check I was wiling and able to assist). Good thing I checked the safety card to work out how to release the emergency exit…
Thankfully, it was a short taxi to the runway, and soon SN3819 – The Aerosmurf – took to the air.
With the Aerosmurf airborne, SN3819 begun its climb for the long routed run to Lisbon.
Climb-out
Contrails
The full window view.
In cruise
With the plane settling in for the short-haul leg, the crew begun their catering run – taking orders for hot items first. This was important, as there was something in the in-flight catering I wanted to try: The on-board Belgian Fries.
Ah. The Belgian Fries.
So what to eat? Of course – it was the Belgian Fries. Why? They 1) seemed the most interesting and 2) I was after something hot and 3) How bad could they be in the air. I put an order in, with a warning it would 25 minutes before they would be ready. I would pay when the trolley made its way around.
It would be a fairytale to have something like this in-flight. Which leads us to a Eurovision song – Alexander Rybak – Fairytale (Norway) 2009
With the trolley making its way round, I deployed the table.
Condiments were given to me for the fries
The crew came around with the trolley, and took the €6 for the fries, as well as a drink. Yes, I could have had a beer, but I prefered odd tasting water from Spa.
Eventually the fries arrived. The first thing I noticed was there wasn’t much of a smell to them.
For those who are afraid of that these stink out the cabin – these won’t. They do have a nice aroma to them – but at least the condiments wouldn’t stink out the cabin.
Opening the box lead to the only disappointment – namely the quantity of foodstuffs…
That’s…. not a lot.
So there’s not a lot of them in the pack. How do they stack up on quality? Not bad at all. Pretty much like your over chips. There was as selection of dips which could be asked for when ordering. I went with the spicy one – which adds a fair bit of flavour at 33,000ft.
I took my time eating them – hell, I paid €6 for this privilege, and I’m taking it for all it’s worth. But all too quickly, they were gone.
Ovenable, Microwavable and 120gramms of fries. Could had jammed a few more in there y’know.
With my hunger somewhat satisfied, I settled down to enjoy the rest of this 2 hour 40 flight.
The Spa duo reminds me many moons ago when I went to Belgium for a study trip (I ended up in Spa… nice enough place of what I remember of it).
I can do arty me.
Thankfully, the Belgian Fries didn’t require me to use this
I watched the world go by for a bit – and decided that the call of nature needed a visit. So, this is a feeble excuse to walk around the cabin and look at the Smurfy touches. Firstly the rear bulkheads.
I don’t imagine paint on a plane would work…
In-flight fraternising in the air???
The Smurf feet are a lovely touch to the cabin.
Gotta do the social thing y’know.
A Smufy trip indeed.
The dedication plaque.
After a visit to the small room (and I swear it gets smaller as I travel), I took my seat again and got comfy.
The flight itself had its fair amount of bumps – especially over water – so the captain was rather liberal with the use of the safety belt. With the cloud level being rather high, the plane coasted its way to Lisbon.
After a while, we started descending – indicating we were on approach to Lisbon.
Aerosmurf reflection into the engine nacelle.
With the cabin tidied down and secured the plane begun vectoring into Lisbon.
With the plane descending through the low cloud layers, the greater Lisbon came into view.
The undercarriage released – indicating we were on final approach. With a gentle bump, SN3819 landed at Lisbon Airport safely.
With the plane safely on the ground, it begun a long taxi to the terminal area.
Taxing away.
TAP Airbus A330
Air Aligire Boeing 737-800
Upon taxi, the Smurfs theme played. Well – what else could they play realistically? Thankfully the taxi was short – and soon enough, the plane parked at the gate.
It honestly didn’t look like we were at a jetbridgge gate – we were.
Adam texted in stating he was parked next door and would be heading off in a few minutes. All well and good. With everyone getting off the plane – I took my leave of the AeroSmurf too.
I thanked the crew and headed off.
Merci AeroSmurf.
Overall: Brussels Airlines have got a wonderful product here with the AeroSmurf. Some clever design work has gone to make the hardware some of the best – and put a smile on any weary travellers face. The in-flight catering was of a good quality – if lacking in quantity, and the crew was… a mixed bunch to be honest. A little more warmth and communication would had gone a long way from making it a good passenger experience to an excellent one.
Next: Into Lisbon and the Tuk Tuk Hostel
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“I’m in love with this blog post,
even though I’m now hungry
‘Coz I don’t care if I read it twice
Belgium fries, a muh-ust”.
😛
10/10 for surrealism 😉
I was afraid the AeroSmurf experience would be as over-the-top as EVA’s Hello Kitty planes, but it looks like they managed to have fun without overdoing it.
But €6 for that sneeze of potato is a bit steep. What does that sauce taste like? It looks like the sauce you get with supposedly-saucy sushi.
“spicy” sushi. Autocorrect is my nemesis.
It’s a spicy Mayonnaise. Noting that will make you head for the water bottle straight away – but still gives a little bit of zing