Total travel and transit time Dubai to Lyon: 12h30m
Walk: 5km
We landed on time in Dubai and for the first time in a while, we exited via a sky bridge; we normally park at the other end of the airport and get bused to the terminal. Made our way through the transit area to Starbucks adjacent gate B21 to hopefully meet up with friends from Canberra who are doing a European trip and were also arriving in Dubai today from Melbourne. We had arranged to meet, but after waiting for 20 mins we suddenly realized that because they were staying the night in Dubai, they would have to go through to arrivals and not through the connections route, thus making it impossible to meet. Not to worry, we hope to catch up to them in Canberra over the Christmas period.
We then had quite a hike to find the nearest Emirates Lounge to our departure gate of C1 (we decided that it was the furtherest gate walk in the world!). Eventually got there, found two seats and settled in. First thing on the agenda for Wendy was a good coffee, and they do have excellent coffee in the Emirates lounges. This lounge adjacent C9 is quite tiny when compared the really large one on the A concourse, but has all the necessary food and drinks, including Moët (far too early in the morning though) and an ice cream cart of all things. We did avail ourselves of that though as we had just walked a fair distance.
We boarded from gate C1, however that was only two minute walk away. The plane left on time and arrived at Lyon a few minutes early. The flight was ok and the newly revamped seats in the B777-200LR are really quite speccy with lots of room to move and a really large TV screen. Business class was only about one third full so the staff were not overworked. We managed to get a bit of sleep on this leg, which was good as we both really needed it.
For reasons unknown, there were only two immigration booths open when we first walked into the immigration hall at Lyon. However they summoned some reinforcements which sparked some progress to proceedings. There was also no aircon in the arrivals hall, and everyone was getting a tad restless. The four extra other officials arrived and our passports were stamped and we were through. Wendy’s bag was going round and round on the baggage carousel, and our bikes were ready and waiting to be collected. We walked out of the building and straight into a maxi taxi. About 40 minutes later we were checking -in at the Greet Hotel Lyon Confluence. We have a nice spacious room, big enough to be able to unpack two bike boxes.
After plonking all the gear in the room, it was off to the train station to buy tickets to St Nazaire. This is where we hit our first hurdle; the only route we could get was via Paris, and then we would have to take the wheels off and put each bike in a bag from Paris to St Nazaire. We thanked the man for his assistance but we needed to think about what to do. It wasn’t until well after we’d gotten back to the hotel that we realized we would be traveling on a Sunday, hence the lack of trains. We do have a number of options available, but will have a better think about it tomorrow after a good nights sleep. Both our brains are a little fuzzy after all that flying.
Our second hurdle was trying to find the Orange telecom shop. After an extra 2.5 km, we finally found it, only to be told they don’t sell pre-paid cards anymore and gave us vague directions of how to get to a place that did. He didn’t know the name of it but was a tobacco shop. Whilst looking for that, Greg found a shop that sells mostly phone cases and asked there. We finally got the name of the shop - Tabac. We eventually found this shop and purchased two new sim cards, then made our way back to the hotel.
It was time to unpack the panniers and bike boxes, and put the bikes together. Both of us are still a bit rusty after all that flying, and agreed that we didn’t need dinner, so did not go out again. A nice shower and non-moving bed went down very well thank you very much.
Emirates Business Lounge near gate C1
Our wings
Our seats
Room 405 at Greet Hotel Lyon Confluence
Greet Hotel Lyon Confluence
Greg re-assembling the bikes
