We caught the train from Oostende via Brussels Zuid to the airport and went to Brussels Cafe for dinner - I had the very pleasant ricotta tortellini and Hoegaarden to drink - normally the only place in Belgium where I drink Hoegaarden is "T'awd Stee-amer", my favourite Zeebrugge pub.
Our flight was BD236, scheduled departure time of 17:05. We checked in with plenty of time to spare, and were given seats 14D and 14F, at least we wouldn't be on the back row again. We bought a bottle of jenever each and then went though security (where I always end up being searched!)
Once in the departure area, it was time for some spotting. For me it was a very good haul, as I am not lucky enough to be a regular spotter, I bagged many firsts on photo and video.
A couple of general views of the line up in BRU.
A new one for me - I had not bagged this Transavia livery before.
Two different Freebirds equals two more newbies!
BMI's flight to Heathrow gets push back.
I had never seen Helvetic before but one was parked very close to where we were sitting:
Pinkie gets push back, no idea where Pinkie was going.
Two other delights, which were more distant so I could only capture with the more powerful zoom of my video, were my first-ever Vueling and the Lufthansa CRJ "Little Europe". So all in all, it was a very pleasing afternoon for me.
Our flight was to depart from gate B09, and I was quite pleased to see that I would be going in my first-ever logojet - a "Star Alliance"-painted ERJ145 G-RJXI.
G-RJXI at gate B09.
At 16:51 we were called to board.
Boarding the flight. It was a full flight, unlike the mostly-empty one of the previous week.
We were greeted by the steward Gareth and another cabin attendant called Elizabeth was also on board.
We had a wing view, and another interesting bagging:
This unusually-coloured aircraft was operating the flight to Leeds Bradford.
The Captain welcomed passengers aboard. She was called Hazel and the other pilot was called James. I thought it was great - a woman flying the plane while a man served the food and drinks! She said that we would be flying at 27,000 feet and the flight would last about fifty minutes.
We pushed back at 17:09 and taxied to runway 25R (?). We took off and 17:18, and below there is a video of the take off.
The aircraft climbed smoothly at first.
View just after take off. There was not too much cloud at this point.
As we climbed higher we hit some turbulence, and flew into clouds.
Going into the cloud.
As we flew through the cloud, we had quite a bit of turbulence. However, soon we were above the clouds.
Above the clouds.
The crew started serving the inflight snack. Normally I would avoid BMI sandwiches like the plague, but we didn't know what time we would eat again so I attempted a beef and salad sandwich.
The beef and salad sandwich.
The sandwich was soggy and doughy lumps stuck to my fingers. I ate half of it and by then I had had enough!
There was a choice of the beef, cheese (avoid at all cost on BMI), ham or egg.
Soon after the meal we started our descent into East Midlands.
Views as we came towards East Midlands.
It was quite clear on approach, and certainly calmer than the ferocious crosswinds we had last year.
Videos of the approach. Sorry that it is in four parts, I was having problems with the camera battery.
We touched down at 17:12 and taxied to the terminal, where a bus was waiting to take us to the arrivals area. We were through passport control very quick and our luggage was waiting for us when we reached the baggage reclaim area.
We caught the bus into Derby and then the train to Leeds, another horrible East Midlands Trains experience - paying for first class and enduring a carriage with messy tables, drinks in cardboard cups with wooden stirrers - an absolutely crap train company if ever there was one!
The flight was great, and so was the holiday, but in December we are sailing to Belgium and I don't know when my next flights will be.
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