Grant0549

Basically a lazy day.........after the early morning run and gym visit.......breakfast........sunbathe by the pool.......afternoon tea........sunbathe by the pool, followed by steam room/sauna! Then pre-dinner drinks before we headed to Dubai Mall again (pic 1) to, primarily, see the Fountain light and sound show (pic 2) - which didn't photograph very well! Also took a pic of Burj Kalifa, the tallest tower here (anywhere?). Then, while waiting to get into the Cheesecake Factory, I took a pic of the huge aquarium (again not easily photographed). Believe it or not, I had a very tasty burger at the Cheesecake Factory! Took s couple of more pics in the mall and of the Waterfall - a spectacular fountain - and Burj Kalifa (from the pedestrian walkway),pics 4, 5, 6, before catching the metro back to the hotel......... ..........to get ... read more

it was a long flight, a very long one............we arrived safely in Dubai at 05.00 local time after about 15 hours in the air. Took some melatonin tablets, which are supposed to help adjust your body clock and managed some sleep on the plane. Took a taxi to our hotel, The Shangri-La and was there by 6 o'clock. Unsurprisingly our room wasn't ready........but we offered an upgraded room complete with Horizon Club privileges, at an additional cost of course. Given that we didn't want to waste the day, we took it. Very well appointed room on 38th floor (probably not that high by Dubai standards!) with an uninterrupted view to the Gulf (Pic 1). The Horizon Club membership gave us access to a small gym and pool on the 42nd floor. After sorting ourselves out a ... read more

It was a bit noisy last night! Went to mass in St. Stephen's.......and got chosen to take the bread and wine up! Interestingly, the readings were about the journey of Abraham. Took some pics in Anzac Square where the War Memorial is (pic 1) before coming back for breakfast. We took the bus up to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens ( as opposed to the City ones) near Mount Coot-tha (pics 2, 3) where there was a tropical dome, Cactus House among lots of other stuff. Got the local service bus again up to the Mount Coot-tha lookout (pic 4), where we had a snack lunch.......a small (?!?) bowl of potato wedges. The bus was a bit late arriving for the return journey and we looked to keep out of the sun (another hot, sunny day on ... read more

Hi, folks. Problems with the internet last night..........left Port Douglas yesterday and drove to the airport at Cairns where we caught our flight to Brisbane. We arrived 3'ish and picked up a car to drive to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast. All went well until Noosa fell off the road signs........but we duly asked a friendly service station guy who confirmed that we were headed the right way. Got to Noosa, or Noosa Heads as it is more commonly known......and our pre-printed directions really fell apart! I'd assumed that Noosa was only a smallish place - wrong! I'd assumed that our hotel was a small boutique one - wrong! Our directions showed it to be near the Sheraton - wrong! Anyway, we got there in the end and were very pleased with our suite, especially the ... read more

Up at 3.50.......now 14.30.......might have to head down to pool for a snooze, and a swim of course! More than one novel experience this morning.........started this blog on the bus, which was obviously Wifi zone.........and had our first balloon flight. Picked up at 4.20 as promised.....a few other sleepy people on the bus........we made our way up to Mareeba in the Tablelands......got there at 5.40'ish, meeting the bus from Cairns there - 14 of us in total. We were doing the 60 min flight which was in reality 2 30 min flights. Lots of mosquitos around but the bus driver had a spray......had to walk, in the dark, through long wet grass........but it was well worth it in the end! Again the weather was very kind.......warm, even at that time, a bit cloudy......and there was very ... read more