Well another update and another vacation back to one of our fav's Montreux and this time we got VIP passes for Freddie Mercury's exclusive birthday party.
So in 2022 we had tickets for the party BUT Foo Fighters announced Taylors Tribute Concert in Wembley which i managed to get tickets for, unfortunately the date for the concert was on the same weekend as Freddie's party, BUGGER! Never mind we'll try again another year. 2023 was a bust, OH POOP! 2024 we got our VIP passes, YAY!
This was our 5th visit to Montreaux/Vevey , 2017,18,19,21 and 24 and it was just as amazing as the first 4 visits. We were very happy bunnies indeed unlike our actual bunny Squidly who was left back at home alone but she was fine as she has the whole house to roam around and put food and water in every room, she'll never know we've been away.
Where's my food?
We were flying from Bristol but this year the flight times weren't that great but they were ok. So we arrived around 5pm in Geneva and then 1st class train on to Vevey where we arrived i think about 7pm. Bags in and out we go to pick up a few essentials, milk, biscuits, crisps etc but all the shops close at 6.30pm Mon-Fri so we used the Co-Op express next to hotel. Our room was soooo good, huge bed, new bathroom, microwave, sofa and very quiet which is just what we like.
As soon as we land in the airport, before the train, DRINKS PLEASE!
Our 1st class seats on the top deck of train, OOOOooooooooo.
Our room which was great.
Attached to the hotel was a cafe bar called Kymem. We decided to just kick back in there as it was now dark and it had been a long day from waking in Cardiff to arriving at apartment. It was a really quirky but nice place with all mixed furniture and mixed lighting and their food looked amazing, we must try some on another day.
A nice lay in, if you class 9am as a lay in and off we go to have a coffee then over to Montreux to see what's going on this year. There's usually so much going on that you just can't attend everything as you'd have to be out all day from 10am until midnight which is just long long day after food and drinkies.
We get over to the square by Freddies statue and it's a mass off people in Queen t-shirts or dressed like Freddie with a real feel good atmosphere and once again the weather is amazing, we've never had bad weather on any of our vacations to Switzerland.
The usual pose next to Freddie.
It's quite warm and it's only 11am, time for a bottle of Freddie beer, why not! Cheers!
"Everybody look, look, aren't we amazing, aren't we moody, we're so amazing we're chocolate and want to eat ourselves" NOPE! 😆
We feel so relaxed here whenever we visit and have zero anxiety, as a lyric goes from a Queen song about Montreux called A Winters Tale......"Oooh it's bliss"
Sian does the honours as my writing is like.....and i will quote my English teacher here...."It's like a spider has fallen in an ink well and crawled across the page"......thanks for the compliment Miss!
Awwww our first signing as the Pinnell's.
It's almost party time.
Is this seat for me?
I've only just noticed the sign under the chair, I think that the "Leg" part of the sign is meant to say "Bell".
We stay for quite a few hours, watch a few of the acts , drink wine and beer then have a slow wander along the lake front towards Vevey to have a few night caps closer to our hotel as it's a long day again tomorrow and Freddie's birthday party in the night.
As the sun sets it's time to head back to hotel and settle down to chill out, it's been a long day and long walks.
IT'S PARTY TIME FOLKS!
It's the day of the party and we're all excited and our costumes are ready to go but before the party in the evening we go and have a wander around in the daytime to get our steps in and just enjoy the warm sunny weather because when we left the UK it was wet and miserable.
We went to the Casino Barriere in Montreux as this is where the party is being held tonight to see what's going on and what the function room looks like but the room was shut and security stopping anyone peeking but the entrance foyer was all decked out ready for the evenings event.
The guy in this clip isn't an entertainer, anyone can play the piano, this guy is a tourist.
Another warm sunny day and it's time for a beer with a view at one of our locals "The Barrel Oak", Cheers!
A light lunch at Kymem cafe as we're rubbish at drinking when we've eaten.
A couple hours out and about then a quick shower and like Clark Kent we change in to our alter egos and off to the party we go.
As we enter the Casino it is packed out with rock fans, Queen fans and people in all manner of Freddie alter egos and costumes. This years theme was "Fabulous 80's". That gives a huge scope for costumes which was great. I thought Sian would like to have a Freddie costume as she loves him and i thought of an outfit that not many would choose. There was loads of "I want to break free" Freddie's, crowns and capes, Wembley outfits from Live aid and Kind of Magic tour and all the usual outfits but Sian was the only one in this stage outfit.....
T-shirt, leather shorts, even down to the red wrist band and of course the moustache, Sian looked great.
This is genuine and they actually fitted perfectly and not even tight, children's clothes for me from now on 😂
The bells on this chapel started to chime as we headed back to the tram stop, i'm freaking out now. All that we needed to see next was fire lit torches and pitchforks being carried by angry locals.
The problem i didn't factor in to this outfit was stardom. What do i mean? Well because i was the only person dressed as Axl and an outfit from the Freddie Tribute concert people were asking to have their picture taken with me. This for me was stressful. When the first person asked my anxiety went through the roof, i hate having my picture taken and then to stand with my arm around a stranger just intensified my anxiety, i hated it, i just wanted to retreat in to the shadows but how can you in a party and having to walk across a room to get to the bar, it sort of spoilt my night a bit, i just wanted to be with Sian and enjoy the party. Think in total it was around a dozen or more people approached me and after the first person i had a tight chest and went quiet, ah well, we carry on.
Here's a blast from the 80's past and this fan was from Sunderland.
The function room was packed as you can imagine with so many Queen and Freddie fans from all over the world wanting to be at party but with a very limited amount of tickets. There was even a group of 40 fans from Japan who had flown over just for the party and a backdrop on one of the walls was a Tribute concert drape which had been signed by all the rock stars who played on that day, that must be worth a pretty penny.
We find our spot next to the mixing desk ready for the Tribute band called "Galileo" from Italy who i have to say were really good. They weren't trying to be Queen, they were a band who played all the Queen songs, even deep cuts and the crowd loved them.
As the band played the beers flowed and it got just a tiny bit messy.
Sian before the band.
Sian after the band. The moustache is now a beard.
So, while the band played on we were people watching, there was dad dancing, mum bopping, Freddie try alikes and this guy when the band mixed "Another bites the dust" with "Billie Jean"
The outfit was different and he was going for it.....
The band went all out to give the fans what they wanted and they went down a storm and before we knew it the band had finished and it was time for the after band party with DJ Thor which we were looking forward to, one slight problem. After the band for some unbelievable reason they didn't have the DJ setup ready to go and on top of that they put the bright white house lights on......WHY?
This party has now been going for the past 10 years so you'd think by now they would have it all sorted out and flowing seamlessly from the band in to the DJ to keep the party going but no. The house lights came on, they dismantled the whole of the bands set up and they proceeded to set up the DJ gear. As the house lights went up it felt like that was it, end of night and it took so long to set up the DJ the room emptied and i mean from a couple of hundred down to 50-60 and in a large room like it was it looked completely empty so we decided to also leave. We were really looking forward to the after party but we waited 15 mins and the DJ still wasn't set up and the atmosphere was lost. The DJ should have been set up alongside band so as soon as band finished the DJ kicked in straight away but they failed. I believe it was the DJ's ego as all DJ's think they're god, don't forget, i was a DJ in Clubs and abroad for 11 years and i had God syndrome and Thor wanted to be God, on the stage, alone, front and centre, big mistake.
As we left the Casino to head home we felt a bit short changed. We were expecting and extravagant, joyous, atmosphere fueled celebration of Freddies life like his own parties but the reality was it was a room full of people drinking and chatting apart from when the band came on. Were our expectations to high? Maybe but we've had better atmospheres when we've just gone to a bar in Cardiff City centre.
And the posture of this guy on the way home says it all....
As we were a little bit merry i found a good use for Sians glowing necklaces....stepping stones to guide our way to the bathroom in the night.
Our last full day and it's cloudy Booooooooo! We were lucky all day though and missed any of the rain so we still got out and about. When you arrive at your hotel you get given free tram passes that you can use between Vevey and Rennaz and the tram runs along coastline of Lake Geneva and a distance of 11 miles. We had never visted Rennaz before so because of the cloudy day we took a trip out to see what it's like.
As we pulled in to the final stop of the line it was in the centre of Rennaz, there wasn't a soul in site, no bird song, no noise whatsoever, it was very spooky. The village itself was lovely and didn't look that old but we didn't see a car, a cafe or a person BUT just as we turned around to head back there was just one lone child on a little tricycle on the opposite side of the road to us......LET's GET THE F**K OUT OF HERE! I do not like this odd feeling at all.
Phew, we made it out alive and back to Montreux to watch special guest speakers who knew Freddie. On the stage was a musician who worked with Queen - Eddie Howell, Queens official photographer - Richard Young, Freddie's personal bodyguard - Terry Giddings and probably the most famous of his friends apart from Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon, his personal assistant - Peter Freestone.
It was a great afternoon and a little emotional listening to these grown men talking about Freddie and their happy memories spent with him as they're overcome with joy but also grief in the loss of a friend all these years later, all 4 shed a few tears as they spoke from the heart about flamboyant Freddie, it was great to witness it. Then something clicked, Freddie's personal body guard, how do i know him? SHIT, that's it. As you know, Oceanic was packed out every night all season with many many customers, that's it, Terry was a customer of mine. I remember the first time he came in the bar in 2017 and he was looking at all my rock star pictures. On my dead wall there was a picture of Freddie with a candle lit underneath it. This tall well built guy walked up to me after looking at all the pictures and said in a London accent "You like your rock music i see", "yeah love it" i reply. "Nice touch the memorial wall and glad to see Freddie's on there", without thought i say "Most probably the greatest front man of all time of any rock band" and then he stated "Want to shake the hand of the guy who looked after Freddie?" He didn't say it in a boasting manner or a look at me manner, it was just a polite question, i was a bit confused as i didn't know him. Then he explained, he was Freddie's personal bodyguard. I was a bit taken back and didn't know what to say so i just shook his hand. At this moment Sian was sat in the bar reading and my first words after the handshake were "My girlfriend would love to meet you, Freddie is her idol" to which he said "No problem". I introduced them and left them to chat as the bar was packed. It's a small world don't you think. One of Freddie's biggest fans, Sian, drinking in a small bar on a small Greek island then meets Freddie's personal bodyguard. What are the odds?
We stay there for a few hours while they speak then once it was over we were hungry and decided to go to a proper italian restaurant for a pizza and they were amazing, freshly made base with fresh toppings and mine had an added extra a soft dry fried egg, oh dear lord.
We go back to the market square to see the last band of the weekend but it's cold and we're a bit sleepy so we watch 3 songs and head of back to hotel to chill out in our room, anyway, the band wasn't that great, not as good as Galileo, they were from Hull but can't remember their name.
One last picture of Freddie for this visit.
It's hometime booooooooo but to make leaving that little bit easier Sian booked us into a lounge at the airport and what a headache. We didn't know where they were in the airport and made our way in to departures to find our lounge, it was a new lounge so we had high expectations. As we searched for the lounge we were told it was the other side of passport control at the C gate section. Here lies the problem. You can use the lounge for 3 hours before your flight, the gates in Geneva are A to D, your not told your gate until 50 mins before your flight. Our lounge isn't accessible before passport control and we don't know if were flying from gate C. Now our dilemma is do we risk going through passport control and into gate C section not knowing what gate we're flying from and maybe having to be escorted back out of airport and through security again to get to A, B or D gate or wait until gate is called and maybe only getting to use the lounge for 10 mins if we are flying from gate C?
F**K IT! Lets live on the edge and risk it.
Very new and posh.
There was just us and 3 other people in the lounge, very comfortable and deathly quiet which wasn't great, just a little light music or a TV would have been much better. Also the food was a let down, only a small cold selection as they didn't serve hot food during the time we were there between 2pm-5pm but we wrote to Aspire lounges and they fully refunded Sian, Woohoo, free booze and food for the 3 hours.
And that was it for another trip to Switzerland, finished all to quickly but another great vacation, roll on New Years in Munich.
BUT we're not finished there, we have more for you.....
We've been to see Blood Brothers at the Millennium Centre
Another serious selfie....
Our usual giant drinks.
According to TUI my bar Oceanic is still open?
Look what Sian found in the garden when we were sorting it out.
IT'S RANT TIME! I'm not the biggest fan of Christmas but don't you get fed up with it and can't wait for it to be over especially now Christmas starts in August, this is ridiculous. I date stamped the picture just to prove to you when it started.
And since when has the fictional character Santa Claus been dressed up in blue.
Train passengers who are so self absorbed they have no thought for anyone else around them. I was sat in a small compartment of the train with just 14 seats and in that compartment 2 absolute assholes were watching videos without headphones and it was driving my anxiety wild due to my hyperacusis, i mean you can buy a cheap pair of headphones in Poundland, i have when i've forgotten mine. These assholes weren't yuff's or scumbags they were in their mid to late 30's.
And look at how one of those assholes was sat, what a absolute dickhead.
When we went to see the Foo Fighters back in June and wanted to get an official tour poster but it was the worst tour poster i've ever seen. They produce a different tour poster for every venue and ours was the most shitty of the lot. It had no wow factor, not even a small link to Wales, it's not even a sheep it's a goat if that's what they were thinking.
So i created a better one.
BUT because i know how the ticket system works i was patient and waited and waited and waited, in fact i waited 1 hour 45 mins to get to the front of the smallest queue and then i waited some more, another hour in fact just refreshing the page as i know that people get thrown out of site, people give up on tickets they've been allocated but don't like where they're situated so they then go back in to circulation, people are on multiple devices with multiple tickets but don't want to buy them all, so the more patient you are you will get some and we got tickets.
And finally, a fluffy bunny story, our fluffy bunny, Squidly.
When i do work on the laptop or paperwork i sit on a stool which Squidly sits under as her safe place but if use it she makes me know its her stool by stopping me sitting on it.
For the summer when its a sunny day Squidly likes to lay in the sun that comes through the patio doors but to save her food getting heated up we bought her a picnic bench.
Squidly has decided she wants to get fitter and wants to use our treadmill but she's too little, she does keep trying but we leave it unplugged.
And that's it for this update, i can only apologies that it's taken so long but we are very busy people don't you know and thank you to all the blog readers for your well wishes on our wedding, we thank you so much, your all wonderful people.
So until the next update......
Serve All, Love All, Peace All......Kevlar and Mrs P, Out!
Hi Kev, re TUI and the Oceanic..wish your bar was still open ! but just come back yesterday and it’s called the Sunshine Bar and Grill 😬( obs didn’t go in there 😁)
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