Strolling around Geneva - Part I

This was 4 years ago. It was a sunny day at Geneva but the temperatures were not that great since Autumn had just began.

All in all, I like Geneva as I find it a beautiful and calm (perhaps too calm) city.

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Lac Léman

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Grand-Rue

Galerie Grand-Rue

Nice, so many flags. Looks like a street from Middle Ages!

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Parc des Bastions

Where you can play some big chess!

Reformation Wall

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Place Bourg-de-Four

And this was where we had lunch.

More to come from Geneva...

Rungis

Près d'Orly, loins de Paris...

We arrived in Paris* at lunch time so I decided to go with the crew to the famous Belle Epine Shopping Center - for the very first time in 4 years - and eat there. Our hotel in Rungis is pretty much isolated from everything. Built in the middle of an industrial zone, we are lucky to have a McDonalds and the Metropolis disco nearby! But this time I didn't want to eat fast food.

And here is the "Belle Epine":

We decided to have lunch at the restaurant "Le Paradis du Fruit". Despite expensive (like almost everything in Paris), it tasted good. I chose something called "Merci mon amour"...

Then the crew split and each one went to its different store to go shopping. I wasn't looking for anything so I just walked around to see if there was anything interesting. The only thing I came across with was this store with my name... After that I decided to return alone to the hotel.

Leaving "Belle Epine"...

... on my way to the hotel,

and finally the hotel.

This was my room's view. On the left you can see the Metropolis disco.

Next day, another early. While flying back to Lisbon I took this photo.

And our CS-TNP "Alexandre O'Neill" after arrival.

La banlieue parisienne c'est pas interessante. But that's what we have... I should be happy, I have a job. I am.

* well, not really Paris...

Crawley

First of all, I love London. But Crawley is not London. Crawley is a town near Gatwick Airport and this is where we stay. As with almost every little town near the airports and far from the center of their respective main towns, nothing happens there!

Our hotel

Nice view from the room

Not so marvelous early breakfast

Crawley...

I think the only thing to do in Crawley is shopping. You have a big shopping center - the County Mall - but only the ModelZone shop caught my attention.

By the way, the first time I landed at Gatwick Airport was with my much missed L-1011. Better luck that time since we were on our way to Punta Cana!

Star Alliance 15th Anniversary

New sticker on CS-TNP A320 named "Alexandre O'Neill". Photos taken before going to Accra.

15 years

Rear galley

And some photos of other aircraft from the fleet:

Helsinki - Vantaa

CS-TMW "Luísa Todi" @ LHR

CS-TTJ "Eusébio"

CS-TTA "Vieira da Silva"

Airbus tail @ LIS

And CS-TNU near the hangars in LIS, in November 2009, before entering in commercial service:

CS-TNU "Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro"

Emirates - First landing @ Lisbon Airport

I can say I've been an enthusiastic spotter between 2001 and 2003. I even bought a Canon EOS 300 (analog) in 2001 or 2002. But everything has its time and today I only go "behind the fences" to chat with friends who also like aviation and have the perfect scenario for it but not being worried about the traffic coming or leaving. That means no registration log or photography.

However, last 9th of July, everything was different. For every airport it must be a honour to receive scheduled flights of the famous Emirates airline. Add it to the fact of the aircraft being the imposing Boeing 777 and that was sufficient to grab my camera and run to the airport. Emirates has also my respect after having flown with them last year.

While driving to the airport I saw this big banner:

"Lisboa welcomes Emirates"

The 777-200ER with tail number A6-EMH arrived on schedule:

Few seconds before landing

Emirates usually deploys their smaller capacity A330-200 on the new routes until the traffic is established but for some reason they chose to go initially with the 777 on the DXB-LIS run.

And now the departure:

Trying to go artistic... before lining up

A6-EMH lined up on RWY03

In the meanwhile, I also captured a photo of the aircraft which I hope to be upgraded soon!

CS-TOC arriving

It does not climb as fast as the Boeing 777 but it's still beautiful :)