Well, Wadi ya know - Lausanne to Muscat 2018 Day 1

[BONZO]

Eyes down look in for another mad cap dash around the globe and this time it’s Switzerland to Oman – as you do!

Some background:

Basically, we’d found a really good deal flying from Geneva to Muscat in World Traveller Plus (BA’s premium economy) with the possibility of using Avios to upgrade to Club World (BA’s Business Class) if there was availability. We played around with dates and checked the weather forecast. All looked good and so we booked! We were just going to have 4 nights in Muscat as it's pricey!

We decided to fly out to Geneva the day before to do some sightseeing – but as we’d been to Geneva before we decided on Lausanne as it was a 45 minute train ride from Geneva.

The title of the trip report will become clear in later parts!

Usual cast:

Me: Shaun
Alison (who edits and adds comments to these reports before I post them!)

Tuesday 16th January

We were up nice and early and we were on the road by 05:30 for an predicted hour long journey, so far so good, just a dash round the M25 and park up – simples! There was just a slight delay of 5 minutes showing on the M25 then wham! – Total standstill just before Clacketts services. A quick check of Google maps showed about a 25 minute delay or so and there was nothing we could do about apart from wait it out.

We mulled over what options we had if we were significantly late but eventually traffic started moving again and we were on our way.

Phew – we wouldn’t have loads of time at the airport but could definitely fit in a quick visit to the lounge for some breakfast!

We parked up in POD parking and hopped on a POD up to the terminal (we love PODs!) and then went through security and into the lounge (we’d checked in on line so had electronic boarding passes and we were travelling hand luggage only so no bags to check in).

Alison just grabbed a bowl of cereal and a coffee but I’d got a bit confused with time and thought we had more time available than we did – hence plating up a full English with some toast! Alison looked horrified when I came back from the buffet! (As it turned out I had just enough time to eat it before we needed to head to the gate).

The gate was a dreaded bus gate, so we headed downstairs and jumped onto the bus for the long ride out to what felt like Stansted (but was actually just a remotely parked plane!)

We took our seats in the front row and whilst boarding I thought I recognised someone but couldn’t quite put my finger on it, all would be revealed later. The flight left on time and we settled down for a light breakfast and coffee. Alison had an omelette and I just had a croissant and yogurt and we both had coffee.

We landed a few minutes early and as we disembarked there was a man on the air-bridge with a sign saying Paloma Faith, so that’s who it was I recognised from earlier. Anyway, it was straight through passport control and eventually picked up our free tourist train tickets to Geneva and bought tickets onto Lausanne. The tickets cost 28 CH Francs each and the journey would take about 45 mins, hugging Lake Geneva on the way so it would be quite picturesque.

The trains to Lausanne run quite frequently and luckily we only had a 2 minute wait.



With typical Swiss efficiency we were on our way after having our tickets punched several times but not quite as much as the Amtrak inspectors do.



Off the train at a chilly Lausanne, followed by our usual arguing with google maps offline, we found our hotel overlooking the lake, The Movenpick.

The girl at reception was exceptionally charming and as we’d thought, our room wasn’t quite ready at this time so we just checked our bags in and went for a wander around town.

Just down the road was a small coffee bar, so we stopped for a drink and politely asked for a coffee with milk and another coffee.

Something got lost in translation and we ended up with a small coffee and a glass of milk!



We walked back to the hotel and luckily our room was ready and joy of joy, we lucked out with a lake view. We took in the views and watched the weather go by and gasped occasionally at the size of the waves being generated.



We also took the time to have a chat to youngest DD Laura who had an interview for a new role at work today. (Unbelievably, when we were last on holiday in September she had an interview then too!) She works as an actor and trainer at Shrek’s Adventure in London and a vacancy for the team leader’s role had come up. It was too soon really as she’d only been in the trainer’s role since October but thought she’d apply anyway just for the experience.

Anyway, she said it went well (she has a real knack of interviewing very well – don’t know where she gets it from, both Alison and I are rubbish at interviews!) and she’d hear in a couple of days.

There was no time to waste as we only had 2 half days here in Lausanne so being in near peak physical condition (haha), we stepped out along the road to the Olympics Museum. There was a big countdown on the approach




We approached up the steps from the lakeside road and took in the various outside displays.


We paid our entry fee of 18 CHF each, and started to look around the first exhibition, which was a huge PR job for the upcoming winter Olympics.

After we’d got our fill of Pyeongchang we moved onto the exhibits proper themselves. Really well set out interactive exhibits, marking the start from the ancient Greeks through to the present day.

The highlight of the trip was looking over the extensive collection of sporting memorabilia including Torville and Deans Bolero outfits, Usain Bolt’s shorts and various running shoes from famous athletes amongst a vast array of items.

Towards the end there was an option to play some interactive games which was really good fun. As expected mid week out of the main tourist season it was quite quiet.





We finished our touring around and stopped in the TOM café on an upper floor of the museum for a coffee and a beer. Who knew that coronese beer was actually Korean? Well now we all do. We dodged the worst of the rain and walked back to the hotel through the museum gardens, taking advantage of some photo opportunities



We walked alongside the lake


But I got a bit close!


We lingered in our room for a while, mesmerised by the view of the lake and the gusts outside and then made a move for the Holy Cow burger restaurant in town via the Metro.

Luckily, we’d noticed that the hotel had included 2 x duration Metro tickets with our room card so that was a really nice touch.

Holy Cow was a hip and happening joint for the local youths so we increased the average age by a number of years. The food and local beer was superb although expensive as most of Switzerland appears to be.

Alison had a chicken burger with lime mayo and fries with a bottle of water and I had a lovely Mexican burger with fries and a beer. The total cost was 40CHF (about £35).



On the way back to the metro station we stopped for a quick starbucks to get out of the pouring rain then checked out a nearby place for breakfast for the following day but it looked too upscale (read: expensive!) for us.

Inspired by our earlier visit to the Olympic museum we took a quick dash from the Metro to the hotel that Mr. Bolt would have been proud of and headed to bed.

[RT7]

Always wanted to visit Muscat, looking forward to reading more.

[Melbatb]

Your trips are always such an interesting read on different places. We had a day trip to Oman last year when we were in Dubai which we thoroughly enjoyed!

[Glee Fan]

Shame about the weather but a good day nevertheless. Great view from your room! The Olympic museum sounds really interesting.