Brilliance of the Seas in Muscat

Our guests who had booked a shore excursion of Muscat from the Brilliance of the Seas two day visit to Muscat were not alone as on the next quay the Costa Luminosa docked for a single day visit . We decided to leave a bit later than normal to visit the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque as we hoped that the crowds would have thinned a bit when we arrived.

Costa Luminosa with Brilliance of the Seas

Museums and Mosques

Before we cruised into Sharjah, my fellow lecturer, Dr Alan Borg, who after retiring as Director of the V&A Museum has more time to give us an insight into the decorative arts, gave a very interesting overview of the architecture, both old and new, of the Arabian Peninsula.

Dr Alan Borg

Arriving into Sharjah we walked

Walk in an Omani Wadi

A few days stopover during long distance flight via Oman is a great way to make the journey more comfortable – and see a new country (if you haven’t come before) .

Walks in an Omani Mountain Wadi

Over a couple of days Oman tour we journeyed up to Oman’s mountain heights where in cooler air we took a nice wadi walk.

Then

Eid Mubarak from Oman

Eid Mubarak from Oman

Descending over Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque into Muscat

The 22.35 Oman Air flight turns out to be the last flight scheduled from Heathrow each day.

For the national airline I was disappointed that the In-Flight magazine was riddled with errors about Oman. The standouts were in an article about Bandar Khiran and its “placid bay” with “no sound pollution, vehicle pollution” . While the main photo was of Bandar Khiran; one of the others was of the residential area of Wadi Kabir (not a bit of water in sight should have been a give-away for the team responsible for the article ) and the other of Bandar Jissah – both many kilometers from Bandar Khiran - but both labeled up, Bandar Khiran

Oman Air Bandar Khiran

For any unsuspecting reader who relied on the “How to go” section – they would urgently need an accurate “How to get back” as the “How to go” section is seriously inaccurate !

Key factual errors were added for good measure about the Mausoleum at Qalhat ‘Bibi Miriam’.  This was stated to have been built for a lady ‘Bibi Miriam’ – but was in fact built by her for her Turkish husband, who was the ruler of Qalhat & Hormuz at the start of the 14thC.

Despite all that I managed to get sleep and woke to the announcement that we were descending into Muscat .

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Swinging round we approached from the East and descended past Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque to land about 45 minutes early .