I am of the opinion that if you are flying to a foreign country, especially a “first world” one, you simply must travel via that country’s national airline. You’ll be eased into life there – announcements will be in the country’s language as well as English, the food might be from the country or otherwise reflect their cuisine, the amenities kit that you get in business class will be made by a designer from there, etc.

On Brussels Airlines, the kits bear the Aesaert label. Inside, you’ll find a sleep mask designed by Elisia Poelman and some lotions from Nomige – all Belgian companies, founded by Belgians. If you’re drinking, their specialty cocktails were created by Manuel Wouters. The menu itself is the work of Michelin Star Chef Arabelle Meirlaen, to which Sofie Vanrafelghem and Jan De Clercq have (respectively) selected beers (all Belgian, duh) and wines to accompany them. Again, they’re all Belgians.

I have to say I really enjoyed the food and drinks. There’s this idea that airplane food is crap. When you consider that they have to make hundreds of meals every day that have to meet certain space and heating requirements, you have to cut them some slack. You can always, after all, put in a request for a special menu like vegetarian or Kosher. Those are going to be prepared in smaller numbers, so you can expect a little better quality in general. Things might be different in Economy class, but if I’m going to be spending more than four hours in the air, I’m going to cough up the money for Business class (or whatever the airline calls it).

Oh, the safety video? It’s performed by the Belgian band Hooverphonic:

This is probably as good a place as any to slip in some comments on the weather. As a tour guide told me, Belgium generally has two types of weather: Raining and “It’s going to rain”. I understand that it rains in the Brussels area some 200 days out of the year. Well, I missed the rain (arguably because I brought an umbrella with me) – but not a heat wave. Daytime temps got up around the nineties, with bright sunshine. This is something the area is NOT accustomed to – more on that next time when I talk about my hotel. The heat broke later in the week, so the weekend temps were in the upper 70s. The nights actually got a bit chilly.

Like almost all of the world, Belgium uses centigrade temperatures. Here’s a handy reference to help you understand the numbers:

15°: Chilly. Wear a jacket.

20°: Perfect shirt-sleeve temperature.

25°: Warm. Short sleeves are called for.

30°: HOT. Do what you can to stay cool.

35°: DANGER – Heat Advisory in effect.

Next time: my hotel, more on heat, and the deal with water.