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I do like Lufthansa, their solid product and the Miles&More program in general. But over the last few years Lufthansa has been lacking on a few things.

Seats and Inflight Entertainment
Both the Business and First Class seats (not that I am a frequent user) are kinda old. In fact the Business Class seat does not offer a horizontal bed but a flat bed at an angle - aka a slippery slope. Lots of airlines have been upgrading their hard products over the last few years and finally Lufthansa will follow.

Most people expected that with the new Airbus A380 Lufthansa will upgrade the Business Class seat or at least spread them further apart so that the existing seat could be turned into a full horizontal bed. Unfortunately it did not happen. As a result there was no reason for me to specifically book a Lufthansa A380 Business Class when it became available.

A few weeks ago Lufthansa pulled on of their trusty Boeing 747-400 out of the rotation and had part of the Business Class cabin upgraded here in Hamburg. Since a few days the plane is flying back and forth between Frankfurt and New York (JFK). A few lucky status customers booked in Business Class can ask to be upgraded to the new seat. Customers have to sign a non-disclosure agreement thus not too much is official at this point but it's going to be great.

The First Class cabin upgrade is already known as the product is flying around in the Airbus A380s. Lufthansa is planning to upgrade the existing First Class to the new product over a period of a few years. As other folks already stated some other airlines managed to get this done in a much shorter time. First up will be two Airbus A340-600 from Munich and one Airbus A340-300 based in Frankfurt. Chances you'll end up in an upgraded First Class seat by the end of the year thus appears to be pretty slim.

The non-Boeing 747 got personal TVs and full AVOD (audio/video on demand) in Economy a while back and now even the 747s will be upgraded, albeit at a slow pace. One plane has already been upgraded somewhat as a proof of concept and one more will follow this year.

Neue Europakabine
On the short- and medium-haul product (i.e. everything that is on narrow-body planes like the A320 series) Lufthansa introduced new service classes within each cabin class depending on the time of day and distance covered. Essentially Lufthansa tweaked what exactly will be offered in terms of snacks and drinks on domestic and intra-European flights. So far I haven't had any reason to complain about what is offered - but then I usually fuel up in the lounge before the flight.
New economy seats are supposed to make an appearance soon as well. Lufthansa managed to pack more seats in the very same planes by throwing out some galleys/toilets and slimming down the seats. Seat pitch - and thus comfort - should stay the same, though.

Internet
Years ago Lufthansa offered Internet on transatlantic flights. Connexion by Boeing - which powered the product - unexpectedly went bust and brought the service to a halt. Now Lufthansa will gradually introduce Flynet II (the second version). Apparently 50 Mbps down and 1Mbps upstream (from the plane to the ground) are possible with the help of several geostationary satellites. Flynet is apparently already present in a few Airbus A330 planes which are used on transatlantic routes.
A trustworthy source lists four A330s from FRA (D-AIKB, D-AIKF, D-AIKH, D-AIKI), three A340-300s from FRA (D-AIGA, D-AIGP, D-AIGX) and one A340-300 from MUC (D-AIGB) as Flynet II equipped.

Miles&More
The good point here is that there are no real changes so far in this year. Other loyalty programs have been or are about to be integrated but the core product stayed the same. I am somehow expecting an inflation in the value of miles as we've seen with for instance the Flying Blue program. I've recently spent most of my miles on various trips around the world which will take place next year.
On those trips I try to sample a few new products while also experience the awesome products that I learned to love (i.e. All Nippon Air (ANA) Business Class, Air Newzealand Business Class). Those upscale airlines have really amazing products which they protect by not offering too many award seats or none at all. I specifically booked a few flights which are operating with old seats right now (i.e. Asiana between Seoul and London, ANA between Tokyo and Paris) hoping that by next year the aircraft will be upgraded just as Lufthansa is currently upgrading their product. This seat blocking is fortunately not present in Business Class on Lufthansa, albeit First Class award seats are only available upon request for status customers. After all I might feel the urge to try the new Lufthansa Business Class at some point.

I booked this trip well ahead, not only because it was cheap months ago but also because I wanted to experience the Semane Grande aka Aste Nagusia - a week of partying in Bilbao. By booking the flights early I could also score a cheap but decent room at the same time. I imagine that last minute rates must have been skyrocketing with all the tourists visiting Bilbao for Aste Nagusia.


On the outbound flight I took a route via Düsselorf whereas on the trip home I connected in Stuttgart. I never had the chance to fly through Stuttgart so I was happy that it was an option. Once in Bilbao I noticed how many different routes would have been available. Bilbao is very well connected for a city which is merely 50% larger than Kiel (which has no commercial airport at all).


The airport was supposed to be interesting. A fellow traveler pointed out that the airport does not have an arrival hall - and she was right. Once you picked up your belongings you'll find yourself outside in the nice (in my case) weather. I took the dirt cheap bus into town. There is absolutely no reason to spend any money on a taxi as long as you are staying in the downtown area.


I exited the bus at the first stop and walked the few meters to the Guggenheim museum - the presumed highlight of Bilbao in terms of architecture. It turned out that the river was lined with interesting individual buildings and the city itself was generally beautiful as well.








Right after I took this picture I should have gotten inside for some food ... but I did not. Later all places were crowded with drinking and eating folks preparing for the night. I ended up getting one of the typical local sandwiches instead.


I walked along the main drag where the celebrations would happen later that night - as every night throughout the week. As my hotel was close I did some shopping for water and snacks before checking in and relaxing for a while.


Before dusk I returned to the Guggenheim hoping for some decent shots but it wasn't as good as I expected.




The small old town streets were lined with groups of people flocking around bars. Some even had text books for their songs of were putting on free dancing shows for everybody. Others went a bit over the top and built a canon complete with speaker system and huge amplifier.


There were lots of kids running around although later in the evening the streets were really crowded and kids disappeared. I enjoyed another kalimotxo (red wine and coke), watched the fireworks display and an hour later and called it a day.

With some job interviews (both interviewees were late) keeping me busy beyond 6PM I did a mad dash to the subway only to find myself in an overcrowded car with lots of tourists and even more luggage. Once airside at Hamburg I scanned the usual gates for friends to invite to the lounge but to no avail. A few phone calls and another Mövenpick ice cream later it was time for boarding.
Travelers from Zürich have or at least had to clear passport control in Hamburg but the last few times there was no such thing. As a result and due to a low load (9 in Business, 75 in Economy) we left early and got into Zürich a few minutes ahead of schedule. More time for another ice cream and drink at the Smoker's Bar.





A mere eight minutes after takeoff the food was served accompanied by numerous drinks to choose from.









The following hop to Basel was weird. It was even shorter than my Cebu (CEB) to Bacolod (BCD) flight in the Philippines. It took us all of 19 minutes for the 45 miles. To no astonishment I was the only customer in Business class - and I did pay for it. I got the usual bottle of water plus chocolate and ended up chatting with the purser for the entire duration. It turned out that he will also work my return flight on Sunday.

As instructed before by the hotel staff I called them upon arrival at Basel airport for the shuttle. Due to the late night arrival a regular taxi was sent to pick me up and get me to the hotel. Instead of going for an Intercontinental property (I ditched Hilton) I slummed it in a newly opened Ibis low end hotel. Thanks to a promotion the rate was around 35 Euro per night after rebates.



Staying in Saint Louis (France) means that getting into Basel requires a short train ride. At 1.90 Euro a cross-border train isn't expensive at all.



I had to wait a bit for the train and got some french breakfast in the meantime consisting of an almond croissant, a chocolate croissant and a large coffee.

This weekend I'll fly down to Zürich connecting to Basel with enough time to grab some more Mövenpick ice cream in the Zürich lounge. I haven't anything special planned in Basel (besides sightseeing) and will fly home on Sunday. Checking the loads on the various flights I noticed that the Sunday flight looks well-booked.


The flight is on Swiss (LX) metal (shown as LX 1038 above) meaning that while they allow customers to book a seat under the Swiss seat number they stopped offering seats to their partner (Lufthansa, LH5167). In my book this is a good indication that things are looking tight and Swiss is trying to reserve a few Business Class seats for operational upgrades. Operational upgrades are free upgrades for good customers from Economy to Business. Airlines constantly allow to overbook the lower service classes (i.e. Economy). They expect to sell more seats in the back and free a few up by moving customers to the front of the plane (Business). Otherwise those seats would go empty. So basically they are making customers happy with the upgrades and manage to sell more seats in Economy - a win win situation.

I'm already in paid Business Class on my outbound flights but the return looks like it could be a lot of fun. Swiss just today stopped selling the cash upgrades to Business Class as well. Up to today I could have bought a Business Class seat for an additional 60 Euro.

As you can see above there is a decent alternative flight combination BSL-MUC-HAM with seats available. There are additional flights in the evening (i.e. connecting in Frankfurt) so getting home should not be a problem at all. On the BSL-MUC-HAM route Lufthansa is the operating carrier. While Lufthansa appears to have a sufficient number of seats available they in turn also reduced the number of seats available on the very same plane through Swiss. On Sunday I will volunteer to give up my seat on the direct BSL-HAM flight in exchange for the indirect route and perhaps a nice cash compensation (VDB - voluntarily denied boarding). Actually I will not check in before hitting the airport. That way I could become subject to an IDB (involuntarily denied boarding) which would increase the compensation.

post trip update:
On Sunday I took the 1 Euro bus to the airport. The bus was cheap but then my cross-border train ticket was only 1.90 Euro. During check-in I inquired about the load factor and volunteered to be offloaded. The agent was happy that she found someone who would take a detour and free up a well needed seat on the Basel-Hamburg flight. She protected me on flights via Munich but said that I should check with the gate agents to see if they really need me. So at this point I surrendered by perfectly good window seat 5F in trade for a standby boarding pass. The denied boarding compensation (DBC) would be 250 Euro in case they need me to get into Hamburg a few hours late.



I retreated to the virtually empty lounge for some more Mövenpick ice cream. After a bit more than an hour it was about time for boarding I and the final decision on the compensation and rerouting.



I left the nice lounge - which lacked a bit of food to nibble on - hoping for either an upgrade or the bump to the Munich flight which would leave about an hour later. I approached the gate agent and she thanked me for volunteering but told me that while they are fully booked they managed to squeeze me in and got me the seat 1A - Business Class again. Business Class was only one row with three folks on revenue tickets thus I managed to score the only upgrade on board.



During the flight a small but tasty snack was served - not bad for the length of the flight and given that it was an afternoon flight. While I'd love to cash in 250 Euro the upgrade was great as well.

When the opportunity came up to get a free stay at the Lindner Seepark hotel in Klagenfurt I couldn't resist booking a Park Suite. Priced at 733 Euro for the room itself I would receive quite a treat - plus breakfast and a five course dinner. Since revenue tickets to Klagenfurt were in the 460 Euro range on Lufthansa/Austrian I decided to spend some of my miles on an Award ticket. For whatever reason the return leg wasn't available in Business Class so I had to slum it in Economy. The roughly 80 Euro premium for four Business Class hops might have been worth it but then I would hardly get anything more than a drink and snack anyway.

friday afternoon: Hamburg to Klagenfurt
I left work - obviously not to early, not to get you any ideas of my working hours - and took the subway straight to the airport. At check-in the Lufthansa agent told me that my flight might be delayed due to mechanical problem. My connection was tight but now it turned into a close call. I grabbed a coffee, cake, some Mövenpick ice cream (nice recent upgrade at the Lufthansa lounges) and took a seat on the outside viewing terrace - eagerly waiting for my trip to begin. Once on board the slightly delayed flight we were told the reason for the delay. I like to be not kept in the dark, esp. when the reasons are beyond the usual. Our plane was on a Munich-Moscow-Munich-Hamburg-Munich rotation and picked up quite some dust in Moscow. The captain considered the smelly smoke to be reason enough to swap the plane for a new A320 - the one we had to wait for.

In Munich our gate was in use, leaving us no option but to take a remote stand. A bus trip was the last thing I could use with the delay. I walked to my departure gate where Air Dolomiti was already boarding the Klagenfurt flight - again from a remote stand. The little ATR72 wasn't fully booked and my first Air Dolomiti flight was a pleasant one. The small snack was worse than the Do&Co catering of Austrian but better than the pathetic excuse of a sandwich KLM serves on the Hamburg to Amsterdam route.

In Klagenfurt I took a cab to the hotel - not too cheap at 30 Euro. During check-in the woman at the counter quickly got me a room. I went upstairs and figured I ended up in a small room with children crib and disabled-friendly amenities - no the Park Suite I reserved. Downstairs the clerk tried to convince me that I booked that room. Luckily I had proof on my phone. Since the hotel was fully booked (Eros Ramazotti did a concert earlier that night not far away) I got upgraded to a First Class room. Still not entirely happy I decided to call it a night and care about it the next day.

saturday: 50-60km bike trip to Velden and back
I intended to rent a bike and cycle around the Wörthersee but the more I read about it the more I figured that the northern route around the lake wasn't that interesting. Instead I would drive south from Velden and then back to Klagenfurt through the mountains and along the Keutschacher See. In the morning there we two short rain showers which did not really bother me as before noon the weather turned to a nice 23-25 degrees Celsius with lots of sunshine.











Within the first hour of my trip I had to stop at the Süduferstraße due to a cow. The cow apparently fell down from a meadow above the street and ended up on a small patch of grass a few meters up from the road. The vet had to use multiple tranquilizer darts to get the cow to calm down and let itself be rescued.









Thanks to the mountains on the trip back I was somewhat exhausted and happily went to the superb hotel Spa area for two hours. Afterwards I grabbed a nice Thai shrimp salad (with heated sauce) at the hotel restaurant and called it a day.

sunday: Klagenfurt city

After breakfast I took a bus into town. Shops were closed but with lots of tourists walking the streets it wasn't too bad.















I returned to the hotel with enough time to take the bus to the airport (well, three to be specific). Instead I went back to the Spa and eventually took a cab to the airport. The driver told me that more people went to the Lindner for a cheap or free room. At the airport everything went smoothly until a thunderstorm rolled in right when we were sitting on the tarmac ready to leave. My 30 minute connection time at Vienna was at risk. Finally we left and with a shorter than expected flight into Vienna we landed 20 minutes before the departure of my Hamburg flight. Austrian/Lufthansa organized a direct shuttle transfer from the inbound flight to my outbound plane which also sat on the tarmac. On the ride the flight manager called the ground agent telling her that I was also upgraded to Business Class. As a result it was a small dinner and white wine on the flight home. In Hamburg I was astonished to see my luggage on the belt among the first pieces of luggage - even with a 20 minute connection at VIE.

Not too long ago I spent Miles&More miles on a Business class trip to Singapore and Bali. With that trip coming up next January I still had to find a place to spend my longish vacation at next year. The Cook Islands were amazing and it was quite obvious that I will end up in the same region again.
Award places on premium airlines were hard to get. In addition I could not make up my mind on the island to fly to. I even thought about going back to the very same place on Rarotonga and Aitutaki (Cook Islands).

Another idea was to combine two South Pacific islands by paying for an add-on ticket out of my own pocket. After all the Miles&More awards are somewhat restricted preventing a side trip to a second South Pacific paradise.

On the carrier side I tried to get on a Swiss longhaul flight (i.e. Zurich-Shanghai) hoping that by next June the flight will be updated to the latest Swiss Business Class product. This turned out to be rather hard to accomplish with no availability on Auckland-Shanghai-Zurich. Everything I found required a stopover in Shanghai rendering out my two islands approach.

Finally I compiled a list of nice-to-have airline combinations and off-the-beaten-track routes (i.e. Singapore-Perth-Auckland or Vienna-Bangkok-Singapore-Auckland) and moved the parts around to come up with the following itinerary.



The outbound flight will be straight to Auckland on All Nippon (ANA) and Air Newzealand. I simply love the flat beds, food and general attitude of the personnel aboard Air Newzealand. ANA did not disappoint, either. The seats are a bit dated but the food is top-notch. ANA has been working on the seat and if everything works out the flight I've booked will be upgraded to the new 2010 Inspiration of Japan concept.

In the South Pacific region there is no substitute for Air Newzealand. Only few routes are on Boeing 777 thus I'll be on older 763s. Service should be the same and I won't have to sleep on the daytime flights anyway.

With the award allowing for a multi-day stopover anywhere on my way to Samoa or back I decided to spend some time in China; Shanghai to be specific. Air Newzealand will bring me there - once again on a full flat bed Boeing 777. After a few days in Shanghai I'll take a short flight to Seoul on Asiana. I'll be in Seoul for another day and then hop on the final longhaul Asiana flight to London.
Asiana is also a well-known airline that I never had the opportunity to fly on (beside a short regional Toyko to Seoul hop). Asiana recently announced a brand new Business class product which rivals some First Class products. My booked flight is not yet on one of those planes but hopefully they have upgraded all their Boeing 777s to the new seat by June.

In April I accumulated more than 65,000 status and award miles by flying quite a bit across the US countryside. Due to irregular operations I did not receive all the miles I was supposed to receive. On the fully integrated partners of Miles&More I'd just log into the website and claim the miles online. A mere 24 hours later they usually show up automagically.
With United and US Airways I am already used to fax some statement giving the reason for the missing flights along with copies of the boarding passes. For the past trip I already did this twice with mixed results.
This time somebody knows what to do and entered the flights. Now I am waiting for United/US Airways to confirm that I was supposed to be on the flights (Zur Verifizierung beim Partner).



As you can see Lufthansa is quite good. They noticed the UA 425 flight I took from Minneapolis to Denver. I got put on the flight due to a delayed connection in Chicago. Since they credited Minneapolis-Chicago-Denver they removed the non-stop. Sad to part with 2,252 miles but in exchange I'll earn another 10,000 thanks to the agents work.
I am not sure what the UA605 reference is (NATIONAL-O'HARE INTERNATIONAL). The flight supposedly operated between Washington DC (National, DCA) and Chicago's O'Hare (ORD). Let's see what happens as I've never been on the flight.

I have my longhaul flights all booked ready to head to South East Asia. With a few destinations on my mind I try to squeeze it all in and find cheap flights. As I've been asked how I do research and book my travel I'll elaborate a bit on it over the time I need to gather all the information.


I'll arrive in Singapore and intend to connect to Kuala Lumpur right away instead of staying in Singapore - after all I'll attend a Flyertalk gathering at the end of my vacation. Next stop will be Siem Reap - home of the Angkor Wat - for a few days. Since Ho Chi Minh City is just around the corner I came up with the idea of going there as well.
Obviously flying round-trips between the cities all the time would eat up quite a chunk of vacation time. Tanks to all the low cost carriers in the area (Air Asia, Tiger Airways, Jetstar Asia, Silkair) one-way flights are abundant and cheap. Everything - but the Vietnam Airlines Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to Siem Reap flight.

The next few days I'll spend calculating routes and costs taking into account that the low cost carriers don't fly daily. For now I'd even consider flying a ridiculous route like Siem Reap to Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh City if I can save in excess of $200. A good source for information on carriers serving particular cities is Wikitravel. Each city page lists the airports and carriers - the information usually is up-to-date.

If the Siem Reap and Ho Chi Minh City combination turns out to be too expensive money- and time-wise I'll ditch Ho Chi Minh City for now and fly to Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) instead. That would give me a reason to do a proper Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Laos/Cambodia tour some time later.

What is already set is a trip to Denpasar aka Bali. This is part of my award ticket and I know the Business class flights on Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways will be fun.

Klagenfurt - yes, that town right next to the Wörthersee - will be the destination for my next weekend trip. The reason was not that the flights were cheap - au contraire they were rather expensive. Lufthansa was asking a whopping 460 Euro which made me turn to my stash of miles and book an award ticket. I managed to get my hands on a Park Suite at the Lindner Seepark Hotel for free thanks to a short promotion. Including two free 5 course meals, breakfast and free entrance to the Spa area it will be a relaxing weekend. The only thing I've planned so far is a bike trip around the Wörthersee on saturday.

About a month ago - in the middle of my relocating progress - I flew to Larnaca, Cyprus for a day. Condor runs a plane on a HAM-LCA-HAJ-LCA-HAM giving you more than enough time to drive up to Nicosia for a nice touristy day.

I slept well on the flight and not having any luggage I was landside in Cyprus in no time. The sun was shining and a pleasant 25+ degrees Celsius added to the good mood. The plan was to pick up my rental car and do the one hour drive to Nicosia for a full day of exploring in the last divided capital of Europe.


The car was OK, although sporting some stains and wobbly mirrors. Right hand drive is not a real problem and I did not end up banging my right hand into the door too often.



The drive to Nicosia was - totally unexpected - not bad in terms of driving style nor road conditions. Nicosia felt safe and with only few locals and tourists roaming the streets wasn't too busy to begin with. The deeper I got into the alleged shopping paradise the more the streets were bustling with locals. I went up to the highest building in the area - a tower-like business center with a small museum on top. The views were OK but the windows were so dirty that most of my photos went straight to the bin.





The border separating the Greek from the Turkish side runs straight through the city and fortunately since a few years a mid-town border crossing eases travel between the two parts for tourists and locals alike.





The main drag ends right at the border crossing. I was kinda hoping to get my passport stamped but even with all the opportunities it never happened - and I asked! When crossing the border you receive a small piece of paper which allows you back onto the other side later. The whole process takes merely five minutes.





Leaving the border posts behind you'll be right in the middle of a bazaar area with a few interesting food outlets. Somehow I did not feel like eating kebab that day.

















Finally a restaurant got my attention and I sat down for an amazing lebanese salad with crunch bits of bread sprinkled with lime and oil as well as some chicken.







My time was only limited but I assumed I've seen a good part of the Nicosia attractions. Another hour later I was back in the Larnaca area, topping up my car and stopping by at the main beach drag of Larnaca.





Larnaca is a bit disappointing. I wouldn't like to spend a week there for a beach vacation - but them I won't spend a week at the beach to begin with.
Back at the airport I had enough time to shower in the lounge (I love to be able to shower in the lounge!), grab a few bites of local food and watch a soccer game waiting for boarding to begin. The better part of the flight home I slept - after all I just moved my apartment the day before in some 30+ degrees heat.

Cyprus for a day: definitely doable. Next time I'll drive west and discover some of the coastal towns.

Air Berlin and oneworld announced that Air Berlin will join the oneworld alliance. Press coverage here: International Business Times.
Now that's gonna be interesting. Air Berlin basically moved from a Low Cost Carrier (LCC) focusing on intra-European tourist traffic to a serious international airline which dared to attack Lufthansa on some of the most profitable domestic routes. Every now and then I have to fly Air Berlin instead of my preferred Star Alliance carriers, i.e. when Air Berlin is more than a 100 Euro cheaper on the Hamburg-Frankfurt route for a Business trip. I never started collecting frequent flier miles with them as there are only few benefits. Air Berlin does not have lounges nor short-haul Business Class which might be worth a shot at an upgrade.
Once Air Berlin is part of oneworld customers of other oneworld airlines would expect Air Berlin to offer lounges at their destinations. Most airports I know have contract lounges close to the Air Berlin gates which could be used - Air Berlin would have to pay, though. Personally I hope to be able to credit some Air Berlin miles to my British Airways account (which is also part of oneworld) and bit by bit get closer to my award ticket to the Easter Islands.

Before I even start to sort and post any gorgeous Dubrovnik pictures I should clean up my photo queue esp. the Nizwa trip late last month.

The second day in Oman I got myself a rental car at the airport with the intention to drive to Nizwa which is about 90 minutes away from Muscat in the Omani desert. I got to the airport, found the small Sixt rental booth and waited about 20 minutes for my Nissan Sunny. Apparently there was nothing bigger available. When the helping hand of the agent turned up with the car it had a flat tire. Another ten minutes later he showed up with a new(er) Nissan Sunny. With 54444 km on the clock it wasn't anything spectacular but should be able to do the trip. I kinda was hoping for a nice upgrade as Sixt Platinum. To make things worse the contract had a mileage restriction and showed the wrong meter reading. The fuel tank wasn't topped off. Color me underwhelmed for that experience.

I took the car to the next gas station to get some gas and water (for me). Off I was driving straight into the desert. Roads were much like their UAE counterparts with lighting, speed cams and good conditions in general.





The ride was quite relaxing (as long as the a/c unit was on). For whatever reason the car made itself heard and required a tire change. It's been a few years since I last changed a tire and the heat outside did not help either. I actually burnt my hands in the process but was over with the tedious work 15 minutes later.



First thing to do when I arrived in Nizwa was to find a restaurant to have a local bite to eat. With only few options I turned to the Lonely Planet approved Bin Atique restaurant serving up traditional Omani dishes in a local setting.







I was ready to explore and headed across the street for the fort area. I passed the closed souq bound to the fort museum.





Throughout the entire trip I've only seem some six to eight tourists which made it a pleasant experience.















Before continuing outside I spend the better part of an hour inside the fort reading upon the history and looking at numerous exhibits. Finally I took the long way up the stairs into the tower.













Soon later I started my journey back to Muscat and eventually back home via Istanbul and Berlin. Once at the airport I returned my car but did not get any sorry or whatnot for the flat tire and general bad shape of the car.
I had some trouble getting airside at the airport so many hours before my flight. A Oman Air official checked me in and printed my Turkish Airlines boarding passes, though. Thanks! A few days before the trip I thought about booking a fast roundtrip to a random destination to kill some time in the evening. I should have booked one of the 30 Euro Oman Air roundtrips since that would have gotten me into the airport right away. With a few hours to spare I headed for the lounge which got the better online reviews for the showers but was once more disappointed by the offerings. I started to raid the buffet for something edible.

I spent my leftover Omani money on a pizza and some cheap cigarettes before some lounge-hopping. Eventually I settled into a lounge chair and caught up on Flyertalk, emails and the web in general.

I started off my first day in Muscat with breakfast at the hotel. The hotel got mixed reviews for the breakfast and I found it to be somewhere in between a nice try and mediocre. I left for the harbour area to start exploring.



The taxi dropped me off at the fish market where locals were trading everything from small crabs to huge tuna. While in the front row unprocessed fish was traded an entire section of the covered market was occupied by men cleaning and cutting fish for the customers. Quite interesting to see how fast those men cut down fish.
The fish market is in the northern corner of the small corniche which is lined with merchant houses, a mosque and the famous Muscat souq.



I walked along the corniche towards the souq on the southern end of the corniche.






In front of the souq a sign confirmed what I've already guessed while walking around in the sun. It was already quite hot.








After walking around for almost an hour I got myself some water and a cold mango juice at one of the many coffee shops.



I wanted to walk back through the souq to the waterfront where I wanted to grab a cab back to the hotel for a nice break. After all Muscat proper is quite small and I would have enough time for more exploration later in the day. I ended up chatting to a spice vendor in front of his shop for an hour. He had amazing mixes of roasted spices. Not only did I taste and buy a lot of things but we also traded a few recipes. I told him about my figs with feta cheese creation (baked in the oven with fresh ground pepper and some honey) which he loved and wanted to try asap. I've asked him for some pointers on what to see in Muscat and Oman. He got me interested in the Nizwa region which I looked up on the Internet and in my Lonely Planet book. Later that day I put in a reservation for a small car the next day.

Next to the hotel one of the few large Lulu Hypermarkets just opened offering an amazing array of fresh cooked food as well as prepackaged local salads and fresh fruit. I did some shopping and took the loot to my hotel room.



In the evening I hailed a cab to take me to the old town area. The driver dropped me off in a region that somehow matched the destination but then wasn't. It was one of the few rip off things that do happen. Well it happened which means I'll be safe for the rest of the year. In the end I walked a bit and took another cab ... I might have lost 2 Euro but did not care too much.

Relatively few people live in the palace area and as I was a bit early for sunset most of the tourists (not that there were so many) had yet to arrive.

My Oman trip was about to happen and I headed for work early with my small suitcase and camera bag in tow. My plan was to grab lunch with colleagues and hop on the subway bound to the airport. Lunch did not happen so I took a late train to the airport. On the way I came up with the idea of trying the Cindy's burger restaurant inside the plaza. Without further ado ...



Now that is a crappy burger with simple ground beef in the shape of a meat patty. One of the sauces was clearly a regular thousand islands dressing. Pricewise it wasn't that bad for an airport but from a quality perspective any Burgerking meal is better. I went upstairs to the lounge, grabbed a cold one and sat outside in the sun waiting for boarding to begin.



On the flight a full meal was served and Do&Co did not let me down. I rate the meal being better than most transatlantic offerings that United, US Airways, KLM and Delta dare to serve passengers.



In Istanbul I had little time on the ground, barely enough to transit, stop at the lounge for a water and head to the boarding gate.



It got dark just the moment we taxied to the runway. As we were gaining altitude the sun rose again giving us a mere 10 minutes of sun - right in time as we were passing downtown Istanbul for some photo opportunities. During the four hour flight we passed the oil fields of Northern Irak which in the night are clearly marked by the towers burning excess natural gas - a byproduct of the oil production industry.

We arrived on time and with hand luggage only I made a dash to the visa counter to buy my visa on the spot. The cab ride through the night was a pleasant one although the driver tried to overcharge a lot before even asking where to go - a reoccurring theme for the entire weekend.



The hotel was good with brand new Samsung everything: A/C unit, flatscreen TV, fridge, microwave, ... Even the toaster and coffeemaker were Samsung-branded. Unfortunately they came with the wrong power plug and have never been used. I turned on the A/C to cool down the room a bit before getting some more sleep. Some 40+ degrees at night are not too pleasant to sleep.