Netherlands: Almere Centrum

Almere, June 2025

Usually we don't stay at Almere but our hotel was overbooked so they sent us to another one in Almere. I never heard of Almere before - in fact I don't know any other city than Amsterdam in the Netherlands, nor I can't remember anything else from my first visit to the country in 1986. I was a little bit annoyed because I planned to visit the Anne Frank House Museum in this layover. I read her diary earlier this year and I was curious about it. Anyway, I'll wait for another opportunity...

It seems that Almere is the most recent and modern city in the Netherlands, entirely planned from the scratch. The first house was finished in 1976 according to the Wikipedia. This city is composed of six distinct districts: Almere Haven, Almere Stad, Almere Buiten, Almere Poort and Almere Oosterwold. Some parts of the planned city are yet to be constructed, like the district of Almere Pampus.

We stayed in Almere Centrum which is part of Almere Stad. Almere Centrum is all about shops, pubs and restaurants and modern architecture.

The district sits nearby an artificial lake, Weerwater, so you can even find a small beach or strand like the locals say. We were there the day before the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. The weather was sunny so the locals were truly enjoying the longest day of the year:

On the return flight, we took the A320neo with the Star Alliance livery. Here already parked after our arrival at Lisbon Airport:

Forte do Castelo & Mangal das Garças

Belém, May 2024

My first time going to Belém while working on the A321LR. I took a friend with me so the layover could be more bearable to me. Since I had company it was easier to explore the cultural side of this city.

This is a panoramic view of the city from my room:

Surprisingly this a city with lots of high-rise buildings!

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Forte do Castelo

Forte do Castelo (also Forte do Presépio) was our first stop. The original fortress was built by the portuguese in 1616. Today it serves as a museum, including an indoor section with a collection of historic artifacts found since the early days of the occupation of Amazonia by humans.

I don't have photos of it but the indoor exhibition is called "Museu do Encontro".

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Catedral da Sé

This church, also called "Catedral Metropolitana de Belém" was our next logical visit since it nearby "Forte do Castelo".

Located at the same square of this church is the "Casa das Onze Janelas" which seems to be a very popular venue among my fellow colleagues. We saw the exterior of the building but I can't remember exactly why we didn't get inside - whether if it was closed that day or if simply it wasn't on the top of our priority list.

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Mangal das Garças

Although I already visited this park and covered it on a previous post, for someone who is visiting Belém for the first time (I took a friend with me on this layover) this place is an absolute must.

The biodiversity is incredible: flamingos, herons, lizards, turtles, etc

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Farol de Belém

This time I thought it was it was a good idea to go to the top of the old beacon of Belém. There is a lift that takes you there and the cost of the ticket is nothing. On the other hand, the views over the city and of the park are absolutely stunning. It's really worth it.

After going down to the park again, we had lunch at the restaurant "Manjar das Garças". In 2017, this restaurant was a buffet type but since the pandemic it seems to have evolved to the à la carte standard. The food is still delicious and I do recommend this restaurant.

Sunset while flying between Brussels and Lisbon

In-flight, May 2025

Just a few photos of yesterday's flight:

Aircraft the Airbus A319-112, tail number CS-TTR, named "Soares dos Reis".

Visiting Universal Orlando Resort

Orlando, September 2016

As I wrote in a previous post, despite the main goal of this trip to Florida was to visit the Kennedy Space Center, I spared two extra days to go to the beach. Why wouldn't I do that after an transatlantic crossing heading to Florida?

But... my friend had other ideas and convinced me going to the Universal theme parks. It took a long time to persuade me since I was not attracted, in my idea, to that kind of fun.

We bought tickets to the two contiguous parks of the Universal Orlando Resort: the Universal Studios Florida and the Universal Islands of Adventure.

Although both parks entrance are paid, you can explore the Universal CityWalk for free - there are shops, restaurants and entertainment areas.

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Universal Studios Florida

We started exploring the Universal Studios Florida first. I didn't take many photos since I was more committed to have fun and enjoy the parks, which was totally a new experience for me. The park was crowded and we only had standard tickets without privileges to priority lanes. So we had to wait in line and make some choices of what we would like to see/experience.

I kept a record of the Rides we were taking but I'm not sure I wrote down them all:

• Transformers: The Ride 3-D
• Revenge of the Mummy
• Harry Potter: Escape from Gringotts
• Men in Black: Alien Attack
• Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem
  
• E.T. Adventure

E.T. Adventure is clearly the oldest ride and you can feel that. Anyway I enjoyed the peacefulness and nostalgy feeling of this ride.

I must confess that before this visit I never took much attention on the Harry Potter saga of felt attracted to it - neither had read the books nor had seen all the movies. But I think that started to change in this moment.

The Diagon Alley sure is impressive:

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Hogwarts Express

The way to get to the other park - Universal Islands of Adventure - is to catch the Hogwarts Express, a mover for people with Park-to-Park tickets, which was our case.

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Universal Islands of Adventure

So this was the second park to be visited. Contrary to what happened with Harry Potter, I was always drawn to the Jurassic Park saga. So I couldn't miss it:

... a couple of photos of "Poseidon's Fury" attraction:

It seems that this attraction is now permanently closed.

Now a final photo of the Hogwarts Castle:

I must confess that Harry Potter: Forbidden Journey ended up being my favorite ride of all I experienced in these theme parks. You really get the feeling of being truly flying on a broomstick. It was me that insisted to being a second time on the line to repeat this ride.

This is the list of the rides/attractions we experienced in this park:

• Jurassic Park: River Adventure
• Skull Island: Reign of Kong
• Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
• Poseidon's Fury
• Harry Potter: Forbidden Journey

All in all, and contrary to my expectations, I ended up totally enjoyed the experience of visiting theme parks.

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Return flight

But soon it was time to return back to Lisboa, and the very same A330 that took us to Florida, would fly us again home: CS-TOH "Nuno Gonçalves".

It was nice to see the Eastern Airlines retro colors on this 737.

Crossing the Atlantic eastwards...

... and finally back in Lisbon...