2018-11-10 46 6

Location

Neyruz-sur-Moudon, canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

Participants

Expedition

I had been trying to do this for a while: find a geohash somewhere in Europe, and get there and back again in one day. For this, three things needed to be in place: 1. A reachable geohash (not in water, someone's house, or on the top of a mountain) 2. An affordable way of getting there on one or two days' notice 3. Something interesting nearby that I would visit even if I wasn't hashing I've often cross-checked Google Flights and geohashing.info on Friday evenings to see if I could make such a trip on the weekend, but opportunities have so far been very few. But this weekend, the stars were aligned correctly. There was a hash in a forest near Lausanne, there were still affordable flights available to Geneva, and I had always wanted to visit the old Montreux recording studio used by Queen plus Freddie Mercury's statue on the waterfront.

I booked flight tickets and a rental car and went to bed early. I got up very early the next morning and set off!

There

The car park at Schiphol Airport is divided into sections named after traditional Dutch things. I was in "Wooden shoe" today.
Our flight: a cute little Embraer 175 operating KL1925 to Geneva.
The sun rises as we fly over Luxembourg.
Landed at GVA. There's a weird dot pattern on the windows so you can't make clear pictures :-(
I had reserved a "surprise model" sinze that was the cheapest option. The clerk asked me "Would a Mercedes-Benz E Class be all right?"

The hash

Parked the Benz at a forest road.
It was a bit foggy, but not too cold.
The hash is somewhere up ahead.
Made it!
Lloyd celebrating.
Another view of the hash.
And another.
And yet another.

The sights

Freddie Mercury overlooking Lake Geneva.
The exhibition in the old studio.
The actual recording location!
Tried the local cuisine: a McRaclette with Rosti Fries and Apfelschorle.
The more traditional visitors to this town did not need to economise on their food like that :-)