When does your holiday begin? Mine actually already starts when I’m dreaming about going away. Looking at all those nice destinations online and deciding what should be my next destination. Checking out several options online, checking the weather, the hotels, reading about the destination. Deciding if it would be a good destination. Now I’m also checking if it would be a nice destination for my mother, since she has some problems walking.
Once the destination, the hotel and plane tickets are decided, I read up on the destination, I check the most recent reviews on trip advisor and make a list of what to pack in my suitcase. My friends always laugh at my list, but I think that my lists are super convenient. That way, I’m able to travel light, since I don’t overpack. And anyway, I’m a ‘list lady’ – it helps me to feel more in control of my life…
Because of the ever changing Covid-19 regulations and the possibility of taking a PCR test, we decided to start off our holiday a bit earlier and we booked the Van der Valk Hotel near Brussels Airport. We wanted to avoid the stress and this way, we were close to the airport in case a PCR test was needed all of a sudden. We enjoy the Van der Valk chain. They have a nice vibe and I like their restaurants. This year, they decided for a pink Christmas and went over the top…
But for me, the real excitement starts when I get to the airport. Brussels airport has been my home away from home and my workplace for 15 years and I still get that butterfly feeling when I’m there. Also a lot of mixed emotions of course, because of the bankruptcy of Sabena, my divorce and the terrorist attacks, but mostly happiness and excitement. Now the real countdown to our Christmas holiday has begun. And, same as each year, Brussels Airport did its best to create a warm welcome by creating a magical atmosphere in the terminal. The strange Covid-19 year we have witnessed has had a profound impact on the aviation industry as well as on the entire airport community.
They set up two Christmas trees of an impressive 5.5 metres in height , with the help of some fifteen of Brussels Airport’s partners, to create the idea of a ‘collaborate Christmas tree’. Everyone is in this together. They are entirely made of recycled and recovered materials from the airport community. They have been built as an engaging “installation” that symbolically reaffirms the importance of circularity and collaboration at Brussels Airport. Materials deriving from the airport’s partners were used in unconventional ways to create delightful and festive decorations certain to warm the hearts of passengers, visitors and staff alike. No fewer than 2,000 items of widely varying description recovered by airport partners and found around Brussels Airport make up the decorations of this exceptional and original Christmas tree: cups, tarpaulins cut into ribbons, tote bags, plastic bags, etc.
Eva, the nice lady from the special assistance has safely brought us to our place – hooray it is one of the Tintin planes and …off we go…Tenerife, here we come.
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