Day 2 - Tuesday 6 April - Dubai

Dubai continued....
Got a taxi over to the Mall of the Emirates - a very big shopping mall that has an indoor ski slope - never even imagined such a thing! Found the most gorgeous white gold and diamond bangle and almost blew all of our souvenir money in one hit (and probably most of our eating money!) Went to the gym together and then had a couple of drinks in the Fox and Hound bar - bit disappointing though I’m not sure what Graham expected really from an English pub in a Middle East country! Dubai is a fascinating city that sees some very old parts, but most of it has been developed in the last 30 years. Only 13 years ago the main road to Abu Dhabi was only single lanes each way - now it is seven each way!
Tallest building in the world as seen from our taxi
Ski Dubai - they even wear their burquas into the ski field!
Kay outside the ski field
seemed a bit odd to find such a thing in the heat of Dubai - but it is so rich it seems that if they haven't got something, they just build it! Even the bus stops are airconditioned....

The ceiling in the Mall of the Emirates. There is a dress code in this mall, but we noticed many people ignoring it... we also noticed groups of teenage girls doing what they would here - like a mall crawl - Guess bags and all! designer jeans covered by their abaya and hijabs... still very stylish - but quite surreal for us. Hard to reconcile no drinking alcohol in public with the drinking that goes on in the hotel bar.

Dubai - Monday 5 April 2010

Left Sydney at 9pm.
Sydney to Dubai - uneventful, though long trip - the airbus was fantastic - Graham slept quite well.
Arrived in Dubai at 5.45am and got onto a city tour at 9.00am….. didn’t really take in much, but it was good for keeping us awake. Visited Dubai Museum in the old part of town, a gold souk, drove across to Jumierah Beach and saw the 7 star hotel that is in the shape of a sail. Had lunch in the hotel’s Chinese restaurant - one of the best Chinese meals we have had - and then fell asleep at 4pm and woke next morning at 8am! felt good .

We finally found the person supposed to be driving us to the hotel - he had kept our name under the desk so we couldn't see it! took a photo in case I lost him again!

View from our hotel room - the Marco Polo situated in Deira, part of the 'old' town

A peacock outside 'his' palace - seen from our tour bus

Burj Al Arab Hotel - a seven star hotel that costs $200 to go and have a look inside and $350 for breakfast!

Looking at it from the beach was enough for us!

One of many mosques in Dubai - the day is punctuated by the call to prayer, starting at 4.30am each morning.

Typical suburban street

Juxtoposition of old (forfront) and new - I thought this symbolised Dubai - old and new on top of each other.

Dubai Museum - this part of town is ancient (over 5000 years old - it started as a tiny settlement and grew from there)

Graham in the Dubai museum

A view across the creek - the architecture was interesting - seems to have many beautiful buildings, but not designed with reference to each other or the rest of the landscape - just to be 'over the top' - kept reminding us of Las Vegas.

A traditional dhow on the Dubai Creek.

Planning

So - it took us weeks to plan what we wanted to do - after the arguments and one trip to the travel agent, we narrowed it down to Italy for almost four weeks and Greece for three.... so many lovely things to do, but we wanted to be able to chill out and watch the passing parade, not just rush from one important monument to another (though we still did quite a bit of that...)

We decided on 2 nights in Dubai on the way over, to minimize jet lag; 10 days in Rome, a week on the Amalfi Coast, a week in Spoleto in Umbria; 2 nights in Florence then back to Rome for one night before flying to Athens. In Greece we decided on 3 nights in Athens, 4 nights touring the Pelopponese - Nafplion, Olympia and Delphi, another night in Athens before heading to the islands - Mykonos (4 nights), Naxos (4 nights) and Santorini (3 nights) before returning to Athens for 2 nights and heading home via Dubai - just typing it makes me feel exhausted!!!!

Leaving: Easter Sunday 4 April 2010 returning 28 May 2010. Hoping the house would still be there when we returned!!!