Bordeaux - Paris - to Dubai - Thursday 7 September

We were lucky we didn't have the early start on our final morning that some people did (ie 3:30am)! We enjoyed our breakfast and farewelled our lovely waiter, Nicolai.



Then we did our final packing, with suitcases needing to be outside our cabin and our cabin vacated by 9am. We then waited in the lounge with other departing passengers, for our taxi to arrive at the appointed time of 10:40am. We farewelled the Barrows when they left for the airport at 9:45am and to pick up their rental car for their independent travel. Our taxi was nearly 15 minutes late and the trip to Bordeaux St Jean railway station was slow in the traffic, but the driver was very nice. We arrived around 40 minutes before our train was due to leave, and along with some fellow passengers from the boat who happened to be on the same train AND the same Emirates flight out of Paris, panicked a little about how to get our big suitcases to the right platform (sometimes requiring the use of stairs) and onto the train in the 20 minutes time you have between the notification of platform, rushing to that platform (there are so many) and the train leaving. We were upstairs on the train, in First Class, but left our big cases below, but some people lugged bags up the narrow stairs to the top. Actually we were very grateful for the assistance (three times) from SNCF train staff directing us to the right place even before the train arrival platform was announced, and assisting to get one of our cases up the stairs to the platform (no ramp etc where we were at the time).

The train was a lot more comfortable than the one we'd travelled on from Paris a week earlier. Also, this time I was able to charge my iPad, and the wifi actually worked! We dined on a banana each (scrounged for us by Nickolai) and I enjoyed a couple of GF muesli bars that I'd carried all the way from New Zealand. We also had a few leftover chocolates that were left on our pillows each evening, and that we hadn't eaten.





The train arrived 20 minute late at Charles de Gaulle Airport, and we had four minutes to get ourselves and our luggage off before the train continued on, all this while others were trying to board the train with their luggage!

We thought we were in for a long wait from 4pm till 6:50pm before being able to check in, so headed to a McDonalds for some sustenance. But then discovered that check-in now commenced four hours before the flight, not the three hours as listed on our tickets. After queuing for 20 minutes (with my cpap machine, we're not allowed to do online check-in), we finally got to the counter, only to wait another 20 minutes while the person fluffed around trying to get someone to look at my cpap medical paperwork (on the Emirates template), even though I'd been told by Emirates staff at home that they'd noted everything on my file and there'd be no problems at counters. A senior staff member eventually came along, barely glanced at the letter, didn't look at the cpap or its lithium battery, and waved me through. Then it was on to passport control, where one person was checking through EU passports, and one was checking everyone else. We kept getting held up by what seemed to be Chinese people getting in the EU queue, and being escorted down to our person, whereby they were able to jump the queue, Sheesh... oh well, it didn't mean we got on the plane any later or sooner, I just hate standing in queues with my knee. Keeping moving isn't so bad.

As it was, our flight was delayed 30 minutes due to the late arrival of the incoming flight. Eventually we were under way, and it was nice to find that there was an unoccupied next to me in our centre row of four seats. There was someone on the other end, but this seat gave us both more comfort. I managed to get a couple of hours sleep on the 6 hour 50 minute flight from Paris - without using the cpap - a miracle, but it was effectively the middle of the night so my body clock was ready. I didn't bother to photograph the GF dinner as I was too tired and the meal was not a good one - another of those everything-free meals. Very dense, dry fish with tomato paste, some poorly made mashed potato, two tiny circles of carrot, two soft sugar-snaps, an inedible bread roll, and a friand. I'm over GF aeroplane food, compared to the good meals I see David getting.

Dubai to Nice & Nice - Saturday 12 August

The flight left Dubai on time. David and I had the arranged central row of four seats to ourselves, he at one end and me at the other. Before we took off, the air hostess wanted to know where my oxygen supply was. I said I didn't have one, I wasn't carrying any, only a CPAP machine. Oh, she said, it listed me as having an oxygen supply for goodness sakes... Anyway, that got sorted... Our second breakfast for the day was served shortly afterwards - continental. I was losing interest in food by now, I certainly wasn't hungry!



I struggled to keep my eyes open to watch a boring movie called 'Lost in Florence' (helps you get to sleep?) and then half draped myself across the seat next to me with the arm rest up - a bit tricky though, as we were told to keep our seat belts on because of air turbulence. Without using my CPAP I napped on and off for the next hour or two, quite uncomfortable, but did feel somewhat refreshed afterwards. David told me he'd had a bit of a sleep too, at the opposite end of the row, but had been disturbed by the poor chap opposite him on the aisle vomiting profusely into a duty free bag. Apparently his doctor had prescribed something to stop this - it obviously wasn't working as he continued to vomit throughout the flight! This left us both hoping that, if the guy has a bug, it doesn't spread around the plane...

Dinner for me consisted of the fish with tomato paste again. I couldn't eat it all. The little cake was nice, and I couldn't face the lovely looking bread roll that felt dry to the touch.



We were picked up by the arranged driver, Kevin, and dropped efficiently at out hotel, although we nearly ended up at the Grimaldi (a few doors down and more fancy), rather than the Mercure Grimaldi! Our room wasn't ready so I hesitantly accepted another one. The wifi signal in here looks a bit weak though... The Barrows arrived in Nice by train shortly afterwards. It was supposedly a bit cooler here today, at 23C with beautiful clear blue skies.

A trip to the little supermarket next to our hotel was interesting, it had a very strange layout, and the service certainly wasn't up to NZ standards. It took a while to find the few bits and pieces needed for breakfast in our room. But it was fascinating to see all the different products. There were no plastic bags allowed at the checkout either - they're banned, but we made good use of a bag from the fruit and vege, so there's a bit of a gap in the law on that.

Our first dinner out in Nice last night was at Chez Papa. It was lovely sitting outside to eat, and we managed to largely avoid the smokers prevalent here - cigarette butts everywhere)! The waiter was very entertaining, and very helpful with the menu. Needing gluten free restricted me quite a bit, but I still enjoyed a steak with truffle mashed potatoes, and David loved his Tuna Tataki (basically almost raw tuna, lightly seared on the edges). Everyone's plates were clean by the time we finished. The wine (a Chablis) was good and although we didn't want any desserts, the waiter insisted on pouring us some liqueurs - a lemoncello or a myrte (black currant). I was a bit plonked by then and could just about have fallen asleep at the table! All in all a very entertaining evening and great to enjoy it with the Barrows.

Flights to Nice - Friday 11 August to Saturday 12 August

Julie, our chauffeur, drove us to the airport nice and early, and there were no queues for check-in. The Emirates lady at the check-in counter was wonderful. She was able to change our seats from Dubai to Nice, to give us a whole row, later. She said that the flight had lots of space and she had put us at each end of the row and she was sure no one would be put in between. Hopefully my GF meal will still find me.

My GF meal made a nice change from previous Emirates flights out of Christchurch. It was a moist chicken breast with a nice gravy. The bread roll was quite reasonable and would have been really nice if warmed up. The spread was lactose free as well. The dessert consisted of the obligatory fruit salad, but was nice.



The plane left Christchurch on time but there was a delay of 40 minutes being able to get into Sydney. I watched a movie ('Paris can wait') and actually had a 20 minute cat-nap and felt much better for it. Snacks were handed out later and I scored some shortbread when I asked for something GF. We were off the plane for just 45 minutes and then re-boarding for the 14 and a half flight to Dubai.

The flight out of Sydney was very full and there were a lot of young children on board, but they were pretty good in the circumstances. We had our second dinner for the day, this time fish with tomato paste for me. The dessert was different but a bit dry.



This time I watched the movie 'Southside with you'. I can recommend the area we had our seats in (row 48 up the front of the plane), with two good areas for standing and moving about to stretch. There are even five toilets up the front, three of which are more spacious. Not so much queuing! I'm making this note for my own possible future reference!

I used my new portable battery-operated CPAP for this flight. It was a hell of a rigmarole to set up, but only because of the limited space around me and the fact that the seat in front of me was lying back and I couldn't reach or see what I needed easily. In the end I got some good snatches of sleep over a four hour period, and it might have been more if it hadn't been for the Aussie woman with the loud voice in the row behind.

'Midnight' snacks were brought around, including for me, with this being the first time for me that a GF snack has simply been given without a request. I had no appetite to eat it (a beef and chutney sandwich). Another three hours trying to sleep resulted in a few moments here and there. Breakfast was an omelette with asparagus and mushrooms, fruit and ordinary yoghurt, and the lactose-free margarine. I couldn't face the bread. We won't go starving on these flights!



We got into Dubai Airport on time, with their impressive systems for moving people quickly through to where they need to be. A huge mass of people moved quickly through the screening area, and then it was along walking ramps, up escalators, up lifts, along corridors, on a transit train, more lifts, more corridors, and finally to our gate B19. Our seven hour flight leaves in an hour and a half.

Dubai to Christchurch - 15-16 October

Luckily we arrived at the airport in plenty of time, because there was a huge stuff-up with our tickets. Actually, the tickets were fine, but the person at the counter kept insisting that we were flying back via Bangkok, and then on to Sydney, and then home to Christchurch - bollocks! So, after initially queuing and then being told that stress-inducing information, then being sent to queue at yet another counter to sort it out (as I refused to accept it), and then back to wait in the by now even longer queue at the original counter, a supervisor got to the bottom of things and dealt with it by talking it through with our original person by phone. In the end, we really had no time to look at buying anything of significance in Duty Free, or having a coffee etc, and arrived in a harassed state at the Gate for our Emirates flight.

We had bought new bottles of water each at one of the Duty Free stores, but suddenly found ourselves in the now extremely crowded Gate area, where security people suddenly set themselves up with temporary tables and began searching all passengers’ luggage, and any water bottles had to be dumped even though we had already passed through the screening. We gulped down our water, and finally made it on board, and on our way home, via Sydney!

We arrived safely home on Wednesday 16 October!

Dubai - Monday 14 October

We arrived in Dubai just before 1 am, and got a taxi to take us to our hotel, the Sheraton Dubai Mall of the Emirates (previously named Pullman Mall of the Emirates). Luckily, our price had been locked in when we originally booked, as we’d never be able to afford to stay there otherwise. It’s just that this hotel is so convenient, being attached directly to the Mall - very handy when you have loads of shopping to carry!

This hotel is very luxurious, and similar to the last time we stayed here, the staff are waiting so politely to help you in any way - the service is incredible. The views out over the city should have been interesting, but unfortunately the smog marred everything - so, no photos this time.

After enjoying our breakfast from the sumptuous buffet upon arising later in the morning, we split up from the Barrows, and headed in different directions to browse around the Mall. We seem to end up buying shoes when we come here, and did so again. We weren’t too much in the mood to buy much else, but did get another carry-on bag very cheaply at one of the department stores. It was also interesting looking around the supermarket in the mall, and we were especially pleased to see the meat cabinets full of New Zealand lamb and beef!

We had an enjoyable dinner that evening with the Barrows, at a restaurant in the mall's food court that did a great job of my gluten free meal.

After packing all our goodies, we had an early night, ahead of the early start the next morning for our flight home via Sydney.

Dubai to Christchurch - Monday 8 August/Tuesday 9 August

It was a case of 'gobble and go' for breakfast at the hotel this morning. None of us slept well, so fingers were crossed for some sort of sleep on the long flight. We were in a taxi by 7:40 am and at the airport 15 minutes later, faster and cheaper than the other night, with more cars on the road.

However, check-in was another story. We arrived more than 2 hours before departure, and spent the next 50 (yes 50!) minutes in total at the counter, and that was with NO queue ahead of us. Jan and Steve went to the counter for Silver and higher Skywards members and we went to Economy check-in. What a farce of a system. It took ages for them to check through regarding our 3 hour stopover in Sydney. I eventually left the counter, and we waited for Jan and Steve who were at the counter for a full 40 minutes. They were having a problem with the same matter, but the operator was taking a really long time trying to figure out how long the stopover would be. Crazy. Finally that was sorted, and then I realized that Steve had been issued with two boarding passes, one for each leg of the flight, whereas we only had a pass for the first leg to Sydney. So, back to the counter I went. They needed proof that Steve had the on-going pass, so he had to come too. Then the operator had to go down to her supervisor because the second boarding pass for us simply wouldn't print. It was sorted after another 10 minutes, and by then we had to get moving to our departure gate.

The sound system at the gate was not at all good, and only Steve picked up on the fact that our names were being called. We didn't hear where we were to go, but Jan slipped through the queue and found out that all four of us had been upgraded to Business Class using our Skywards travel miles. Halleluia! Steve had asked for upgrades but been told it was all booked up. Well done, Roger, our Travel Agent?! This was a new experience for us and it certainly was several steps up from Economy Class, but I'd never pay for it, and couldn't afford to anyway! David and I were seated next to each other at the back of the upstairs part of the plane, and the Barrows were together a little further ahead. The plane finally left about 40 minutes late but made up the time.

My eyes were on stalks, but I couldn't go to sleep till after dinner. I had expected that my Economy Class GF meal would be brought up to me, but no, they managed to put together something I'm guessing was much better, and the food was served with a tablecloth and plated up nicely instead of in containers. No dessert, but a beautiful cheese board and special dried fruit. The pre-dinner snack had been nuts, which of course I was delighted with because normally I can't eat the plane snacks on offer. I even got a couple of glasses of bubbly and a GF brand of gin. Yay!

Now, time to settle down for a sleep.... .... ... No such beep luck! There was a little girl on the plane (probably aged about 3) and she had a loud, piercing voice that moaned on and on, and penetrated the whole cabin. The minute her mother or father stopped doing something with her she was crying, grizzling or making a scene. This went on for over an hour. Finally I dropped off to sleep, only to be awoken 5 minutes later by the sound of her piercing voice squealing right beside our seats at the back of the cabin where there was a large space with a bar and snacks. Her father had taken her there to get her away from their neighbouring passengers, and she'd squealed right by me, just after I nodded off. Geez! And still she continued with her noise. She had that sound of a spoiled brat, just trying to get her way. David said there were a lot of people in the bar area complaining about the noise. This was a naughty, spoilt child, not one in genuine distress.

I made another attempt to get to sleep an hour or so later, only to be jolted alert by an angry conversation in the bar area behind me. David and I both listened in to the mother of the child, letting rip at one of the hostesses. She was carrying the child on her hip and getting really angry that none of the staff had made an effort to support her with this difficult child who was hungry and disturbing the other passengers, and she needed some food urgently blah blah blah. It was not nice to hear. Then the mother stalked off back to her seat without the child. Not sure what happened next, but I saw food heading their way shortly afterwards. The same child was screaming for her father all the way down the ramp out of the plane in Sydney later. I must say, I was wondering what the law on smacking would be on an airplane over the Indian Ocean!

The flight from Sydney was back in a 'regular' plane, not the more spacious Airbus 380. The row in front of us was empty so David and Steve grabbed it, leaving Jan and I with a full row too. My GF meal was another lactose and everything else free effort and made me feel even more grumpy after the severe lack of sleep. The meals seem to get worse, the closer to NZ we get. David gave me his cheese and chocolate. I managed to doze off for 20 minutes and was completely out to it when they announced about needing to fill in landing cards, and woke me up. Never mind, nearly home!

It was great to see the blue sky as we came in to land. We could feel the cooler temperature as we disembarked - brrrrr. While waiting to have passports checked, I found myself looking at the building structure and evaluating where I would stand if there was a quake...

It was great to have Simon picking us up and delivering us home. And Ross looked pleased to see us, and cooked dinner and cleaned up the dishes too. An early night for us, with lots of blankets to keep us warm! It was great to be home, and I'll be looking forward to a lie-in, and relaxing on Saturday! It's been a wonderful holiday, but there's no place like home sweet home!

Dubai

We slept in till 8:45 am this morning - the longest sleep in for the whole holiday! Just kidding - actually it was really 6:45 am Prague time that our bodies were working on :-(


The photo above shows the view from our hotel window, through the glass. The mist/murk/haze is all over the city so it was hard to get a clear photo.

The shower had us flummexed, Jan and Steve too. It was over a bath, and we had some hysterical laughter trying to turn it on without getting wet with cold water from above or from the side, or having water all over the floor. There was no way any of us could get it warmer than a coolish body temperature. The bathroom is behind a full glass wall, and so you can see whoever has gone to the toilet or who is having a shower, from the rest of the room. Seems to be a pattern or maybe a new fashion trend, because our room in Prague was similar, but on a smaller scale. Jan said it took them a while to realise that there is actually a blind that can be pulled down over the glass wall.

Never mind, we got up and found our way to the luxurious restaurant for the buffet breakfast. Staff were waiting to greet or help us from the moment we stepped out of the lift, to where we entered the restaurant, then waiting on our table, and helping at the buffet. There is always a friendly 'good day madam/sir', 'can I help you madam/sir', 'you're welcome madam/sir'. Actually, by the end of the day it was getting too much - it's not natural. Then Jan and Steve went to enquire about a short tour of Dubai, and ended up having their own 3 hour tour in the hotel limo with a hotel driver. They enjoyed that.

In the meantime we sussed out the 24th floor swimming pool area with fabulous views, then headed down to the 1st floor where we could walk straight into the huge Mall of the Emirates.


Everything was quiet at 10 am. The place is so clean and tidy, the floors are all tiled and shiny. The stores and staff are all immaculate and eager to help. There seemed like a lot of staff just standing around in shops. Anyway, we bought some Clarks sandals for me, and a couple of other bits and pieces and just generally looked around. We found the ski slope at one end of the mall! Interesting!

We were going to eat at the food court but discovered that, being Ramadan, most of them were shut, or open only with food not visible, and any food purchased had to be taken away and eaten in private. I got a salad and David got a steak roll and we headed back to our hotel room to eat and have a break. We had noticed that there is no seating at all throughout the mall areas, nothing. It must be a deliberate strategy to stop loitering. Very tiring for us though, but great that we didn't have far to get to our room.

We tried to do the online Check in for Emirates, but yet again I had problems with this and ended up having to give them a call. They couldn't solve the problem either. So we're just going to hope that showing up 2 hours before our flight (rather than 3) works out. David and I got partially checked in, but it wouldn't let us add the Barrows. We wasted an hour trying to sort it out, to no avail.

After lunch we headed back to check out the last small section of the mall that we hadn't covered earlier. Well! We walked into one particular shop and came out about 2 hours later! Jan and Steve caught up with us there, and had the same problem getting out :-) There was so much good stuff, and it was at the most reasonable prices we had seen at the mall. Michelle, I hope the S sizes I bought you aren't too big... Very tricky to know.

Dinner time approached and we ate in the 50s style booth area next to the main restaurant because we weren't wanting to eat an expensive meal at the buffet. They did a great gluten free meal for me, of steak, veges, béarnaise sauce and fries. The service was outstanding. David had an incredible grilled toasted sandwich that he wouldn't let me take a photo of (it looked gorgeous) but he says he'll be dieting from Wednesday...

We had to have a swim in that beautiful pool so at 9 pm we all headed upstairs and David, Steve and I relaxed in the pool for half an hour, and enjoyed the marvellous views of the city, all lit up.

Then it was back to our rooms to find space in our already chocka luggage for the new purchases... An early wake up call tomorrow for our long flights home...

Prague and flight to Dubai - Saturday 6 August

Our last breakfast in Prague, and I only felt like eating the refreshing melon and some yoghurt, plus a cup of coffee. That dinner last night might be a good way to start a diet! Not a great night's sleep either, I ended up extending my walking pole and hammering on the ceiling above... It did the trick :-)

We had done a little packing, and had a taxi booked to take us to the airport at 12 pm. It was handy that checkout didn't need to be until that same time, because we wanted a short local look around, then showers, before finally packing. It was another hazy and very hot day.

We headed back up the short distance to Castle Square, and then in the opposite direction to the Castle. We found our way past the Loreta Church, in time to hear it strike 9 am with its bells playing a hymn.

Then a little further on we came to the Strahov Monastery and Church. Boy, was it hot! The guys decided to sit in the shade, but Jan and I took a fancy to looking at the Library. About 45 minutes later we emerged after viewing some amazing exhibits, including items in a collection that led to the idea of museums in the first place. Two rooms housed the library books dating from the 10th to the 17th century. The time, skill and effort that must have gone into hand-printing the words, and illustrating these books, usually Bibles, is amazing.

We had a quick look at the Monastery Church, through a grilled window because it was closed, and it looked beautiful. We then moved around to the garden area behind the monastery for some amazing views over the city (still looking very hazy though).

After this we took the downhill road to join up back with the road we were staying in. We sat in the shade of a small cafe's umbrella, across the road from our hotel and sipped smoothies to try and use up some of our Czech cash. We headed back to the hotel to shower and finish packing, then before we knew it, our taxi was there to whisk us to the airport, 25 minutes away.

We were about 40 minutes early for check-in, so Jan and I sussed out what food we could afford, and I could eat, to use up the last of the Czech money. It was back to McDonalds for me :-) ! We didn't mind the long wait till the flight. I found that, although my seat was supposedly a window seat, there was actually no window for my particular seat - just the fuselage. Luckily, I was able to turn right around and see a little of the view out the window for the seat behind me, with some obstruction from the wing. But I could see enough to get a great view of the Vltava River flowing through Prague, and the bridges crossing it - lovely!

Special diet and children's meals always get handed out first, and mine arrived, containing a delicious and genuinely wheat-looking bread roll and cream crackers (that style anyway). I questioned this and the hostess told me that some items had fallen on or off my tray so she wasn't sure how accurate its gluten free status was, although the hot meal was pre-labelled as GF so that was safe. I couldn't bring myself to eat the roll or crackers, and asked another hostess later, who went and checked. Again, uncertain, and upon conferring with a male steward, he felt he'd seen those crackers only on lactose-free meals. No one else on the flight was GF, so they couldn't compare. Interesting. So, I left both items, and had David's cheese and chocolate instead.

I spent the rest of the flight catching up on the blog, which I'd got behind with because of the migraine. This was time well spent because you soon forget the detail of what you did and saw, even a day later, and I do want to keep a record to refer back to.

We arrived a little early in Dubai, just before midnight. The screen on the plane had told us that our luggage would be found on carousel 11. It said it several times, Steve saw it too. So, that's where we headed, and waited and waited, also wondering why so few other passengers were waiting... Eventually, Steve went to look around and found our flight's baggage listed as sitting on carousel 3, and our bags were there - BAH! Off we went, through the gate for people who had nothing to declare, and wondering what we were supposed to declare anyway! My word, Dubai Airport is a stunning airport architecturally. And their system of organising huge numbers of people to get into the excellent taxis is wonderful, too.

We got to our hotel (the Pullman Mall of the Emirates) after a 20 minute drive. Our 'Executive King' room was on the 20th floor so the views across the Dubai haze were great, night or day. We weren't sure about wireless Internet access, it looked very expensive in the hotel information (not in a folder, but on our TV screen), but Jan found out that it is free for those of us in the Executive rooms. Buffet breakfast was also included in the price. We both had a good night's sleep.

We're Home!

Home to a sunny, 'warm' 9 degrees. We got our bags quickly, picked up some duty free goods, and went straight through customs (even with me declaring some gluten free food and them scanning our bags), grabbed a taxi, and were home in 15 minutes. Amazing! Just driving home reminds us of what a fabulous city this is to live in. Home Sweet Home!

I have now added photos to the Venice and Dubai albums, and created a new Food album and added photos to it too. I'd like to point out that I LOST WEIGHT on this holiday! All that walking and the heat.... and David stayed about the same (in spite of his big, bready lunches that he wouldn't let me photograph, and occasional four courses at night). I'll add more photos to the Crown Princess album tomorrow.

Thanks for reading this blog, and sharing the journey with us!

Dubai

Firstly, an update on Venice: After a quick beer and a wine, during our long walk we did indeed get our ride down the Grand Canal in a vaporetto. We initially caught one going the wrong way and quickly hopped off, and onto the next one going down the canal. It was the 40 minute ride, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We had dinner in a cafe beside the canal - it was a pleasant spot to sit, but the meal was awful (or at least my one was). Veges were grossly over cooked (looked like they'd been prepared a week ago!), and I did indeed get the whole fish, literally, on my plate, with nothing else done to it to make it look attractive or taste nice. Oh well!

We caught the aligaluna boat to the airport, after a final wander for an hour or two, and arrived at the airport around 12.00 pm. The ride was stunning, across the lagoon with a stop at the Lido island, and stopping at Murano too.

The airport was utter chaos - what a dump for checking in - all crowded and jammed up. I took a photo of a health warning (relating to the Swine Flu) about avoiding crowds, and then looked around and took a photo of the crowd around me. My gluten free meal on the flight was disgusting - severely burnt (you could smell it before you opened it) red peppers and eggplant with nothing on them - ugh!
We arrived in Dubai, the flight being late, and waited a while to be transferred by Arabian Adventures to our hotel, where we arrived at about 2 am. Wow, what a lovely room after the one in Venice (smallest we've ever encountered) - Dubai's was the biggest hotel room we ever had - even the door was big. Actually, everything in Dubai is BIG.

After breakfast, we headed out on a 4 hour tour of the city, with someone else staying at our hotel - a woman who recognised me because she used to work in the Avonhead Health 2000 (Barbara). She's on our flight home, too. The tour was a bit of a let-down because we were driven around by an Indian gentleman (probably a relation of the hotel worker who organised it) and his English was shocking - and, all he wanted to do was to take us to the Dubai Mall! And of course, we were expecting to see more than that! All in all, quite frustrating, but we did see most things, but had no information about what we saw. I'll look it up when I get home!

We did spend the afternoon at the mall though, after the tour, and were amazed by it. We got some good shoe bargains for David, had a nice salad lunch, and picked up some other bits and pieces, as well as having a good look at a lovely supermarket there. I have photos of it. It took us 50 minutes in a taxi to get back to our hotel from 6.30 pm because of terrible traffic jams. Luckily taxis are relatively cheap there. I had to show the driver a card the hotel had given me, so that he knew how to get there - he had to look at it several times...

We got back to our hotel and headed straight to the swimming pool on the roof (8th floor) for a swim. The water was almost body temperature, it was lovely, and the air temperature was still well into the 30s around 8 pm. We then had a light dinner at the cafe in our hotel, and headed to bed around 10.00 pm feeling relaxed and ready for a good night's sleep...

At about 10.30 pm there was a knock on our door from the hotel management, to tell us that all power to the building (and surrounding ones) had been cut. So, we had no power at all, and couldn't use the phone, and no lifts were working. Our torch had already been packed for our 5.00 am wake-up time to catch our flight the next morning. We just hoped it would be sorted before we had to take our luggage down from our second floor room. It gets worse, a terrible noise soon started up right below our window, and it went on till about 1.30 am - really loud! It was a truck with a power generator being used by the important building next door - aghh! It just about sent us insane. The only light we had was from my iPhone so we weren't game to try and find our way out and down the stairs (wherever they were) to ask to be moved by the management. The power came back on, but the generator noise continued. But, now I was able to phone Reception, and they immediately offered to shift us from our room. They appeared 15 minutes later and helped get our bags up to a room on the 7th floor. It was quieter there! What a relief too. The decibels would have been at a dangerous level. So, by 2 am we were in this new room. It took us an hour to get to sleep after that, and then..... at 4.10 am the moslem droning chant came booming out across the city and woke us again! I presume it was some sort of alert or call to prayer at dawn. OMG! Back to sleep for half an hour, and the alarm and wake-up call came on at 5.00 am. Need I say any more!

We had time only for a quick bowl of cereal (I had my gluten free cereal, luckily), toast for David, and a tea/coffee, and our shuttle arrived to pick us up at 6.45 am for the trip to the airport....
At the airport I managed to speak a little with Andrew, Michelle, and Gran via Skype, but the connection wasn't very good. The plane took off 45 minutes late because two passengers didn't show up to board, and their luggage (which had been first on the plane) had to be found and removed. Then the LONG flight home began. It sounds like a terrible day, but we did survive and it makes a good story.

I agree with our travel agent, Roger Thomas, that the stops in Bangkok and Sydney for refuelling provide a welcome respite and opportunity to stretch our legs, even if we only get 30 minutes and have to remove all our hand luggage and do a circuit back through security to get back on again.