visit – Climb to the Stars

News of special interest to my Belgian readers, cross-posted from the Solar Impulse Blog. Thanks for helping spread the word about this blogger programme, time is short (happenings are next week!)

Now that the HB-SIA is safely parked in its hangar in Brussels airport, we’re getting serious about finalizing the details of the blogger programme.

As announced, there are four occasions we can invite you to take part in:

Plane visit: Elâ and I will host a small group of bloggers and podcasters on Monday 23.05 morning 9am at the Solar Impulse hangar for an informal visit of the plane. A chance to meet up, chat, ask questions, take photographs, etc.
EUFORES/EREC cocktail on Tuesday 24.05 evening: an occasion to brush with political celebrity, this cocktail is an invitation-only “intimate” event of about 300 people for which we have a certain number of passes to distribute to bloggers. This will take place in the hangar where the plane is.
Green Week side event with European Commissioner for Environment Janez Potočnik on Wednesday 25.05 evening: this event is slightly more accessible to the general public through Green Week, but we will save you the hassle and bring you in as our guests, again, through a certain number of blogger invitations. This event will also take place in the hangar, of course.
Breakfast discussion with André and Bertrand: Saturday morning 9h30-11am, come to the hangar for a discussion table with André and Bertrand while we all have breakfast together! A chance to ask your questions, talk about anything related to the project, film, photograph, blog, tweet, you name it. For 60 minutes, we will leave the two founders of the project at your mercy 😉 (we trust you’ll hand them back in once piece so they can get to work on what’s left to be done after this, though!)

All are still open (I’ll update this post as needed) but be quick, space is limited. So far, we are able to accommodate all those who have contacted us (you’ll be hearing from us soon), so if you want a chance to meet the team and see the plane for real, it’s worth applying.

We’ll of course have stickers and a certain number of booklets about the project (particularly for those of you coming Monday and Saturday).

An extra opportunity we’re throwing in for you is that if you come to one of these four occasions, we would like to invite you to write a guest post on the Solar Impulse blog. No obligation of course, and we’ll set a time limit (upto July 6th), but we think it would be cool if we open up the blog to other bloggers.

Please use this form to apply for the exclusive blogger/podcaster programme.

If you aren’t a blogger or a podcaster, Saturday afternoon will be open to the general public (you’ll have to sign up though). Keep your eyes open for more news on this blog, or sign up as a Friend in our supporter program and we’ll let you know. If you are a “2.0-type” photographer, it’s worth applying too if you make your photos available through Flickr under a creative commons license (meaning, you allow bloggers and other online people to use your photos to illustrate their writings, as long as they credit you, of course).

Our main aim with the blogger programme is to help spread information and enthusiasm about the Solar Impulse project. So when you take part in the programme, we expect you to help us with that by:

producing publicly available content about your experience and the Solar Impulse project on your blog or podcast in a timely manner (we’ll link back to it on our blog, of course)
making your photos available under a creative commons license (let us know if this is a serious issue for you)
and it’s always appreciated if you disclose that you participated as part of the blogger programme!

What’s next?

If you’re not around to come and see us at Brussels airport, you might still have your chance. Early July (you know how we roll now, we won’t be able to tell you the date until the last moment) the prototype is flying to Paris for Salon le Bourget.

There won’t be much to see at take-off and landing (Paris and Brussels airports are huge, you’ll be better off glued to your screen watching the video stream!) but there will be short in-flight interviews with André (we’re waiting to see how many slots we can secure for bloggers) and probably a press conference upon arrival (to be confirmed). We’re also seeing if it’s possible to give access to the press conference to certain bloggers/podcasters. More soon.

In Paris itself, the plane will normally be available to the public in the afternoons — but it’ll basically be a path around the plane with many many thousands of people streaming by. So we’re thinking of doing something similar to Brussels: a private visit with a small party of bloggers and podcasters one of the mornings, and another discussion table (like in Brussels) with André and Bertrand. The rest of the time, Elâ and I would be available to receive you by appointment. All this is to be confirmed, of course, but like that you know what we’re planning!

I’m also busy thinking about introducing an “official Solar Impulse blogger” status. It’s still pretty fuzzy for me (so suggestions welcome!) but it would basically entail a certain number of privileges and requirements for the bloggers/podcasters in question.

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[fr] Quelques notes en vrac au sujet de Lisbonne. Résumé: ça se passe très bien.

This post will be updated on-the-go. Come back.

– Big city. Really big. Jorge, my kind host, says 3 mio inhabitants. If my memory is correct, that’s roughly three times as big as Zürich, the largest Swiss city, and a half of Switzerland’s total population. I had no clue. IIRC Pune had 3 mio inhabitants [when I lived there](/logbook/).
– Praça do Principe Real: very nice and calm square. Lots of benches to sit down, and even tables!
– Stairs. More stairs. Hills! Lausanne doesn’t even come close.
– Red and green lampposts.
– People queue for the bus, “UK-style”.
– Beggars, some maimed. I’ve seen lots of beggars in India of course, but maybe they just came in as a bundle with the rest of the culture shock, which is why I never had the feeling I had been particularly stricken by the amount of people begging. Here, I am. People sleeping on doorsteps.
– Hot. Summer-hot. “Where’s the shade” and “can’t we just live naked” kind of hot.
– Colourful. Day and night.
– Two classes of kindergarten kids. One with yellow hats, the other with blue hats.
– Mad drivers. Not the Indian kind. You can’t just jump in the middle of the road and expect them to swerve around you or slow down. You can’t start walking on pedestrian crossings like in Switzerland, secure in the knowledge that you have right of way. I regularly find myself hoping that the driver headed right for me doesn’t consider me expendable.
– Healthy helpings in restaurants for the moment.
– Nice supper last night at the Granja Velha, Rua dos Douradores 200 (Baixa).
– Nice “nouvelle cuisine” style lunch at Porco Preto, just off Praça das Flores. Complete with warm cheese and strawberry jam.
– My next digital camera will have integrated GPS-based geotagging.
– Mir. de S. Catarina has a nice view. Unfortunately it seems to be the haunt of a bunch of guys who try to strike up conversations with tourists. I realised that I’m pretty good at playing deaf, or at pretending that I don’t understand English (or French, for that matter). I just tell myself I only understand Hindi 🙂
– Seriously thinking about not over-doing it, hence this little expedition back to my “couch” before I head out again at the end of the afternoon. It’s too hot outside, and I also need to take a break from new things, or I’ll overdose. I’m also here to relax, and I think I’ll enjoy it more if I don’t spend my whole time walking through the town and playing tourist.
– [More photos on Flickr.](http://flickr.com/photos/bunny/sets/72157594300268379/)
– The flight of stairs to my host’s appartment just keeps getting longer and longer each time I go up.
– Weird magic locks (turn three times to the left, once to the right, jiggle the key, do a little dance and the door will open). Well, not quite, but it did take me 10 minutes and a phone call to get in.
– Lots of francophone tourists.

Tag: visit

Solar Impulse Blogger and Podcaster Programme for Brussels — This is it! [en]

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Scattered Lisbon Travel Notes [en]

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