Breakfast at the hotel is basic but perfectly fine, I’m happy because they have Rusks and Tim is happy because he can make toast, smiles all round. First up this morning we head to Madam Tussauds Wax Museum. In front of it there is a huge open square where buskers are already setting up (including the worst busker we’ve ever seen, wearing coloured tights and just standing in weird positions, maybe his morning coffee hasn’t kicked in yet…)and on the side of the square are horse and carts for hire. We see people walking around, very tired, still wearing white from the party last night. Big night for some! There is already a long queue waiting to get tickets, so glad I bought them on-line before we left home so we get to bypass the line! ... read more

Javier and Carmen were sneaky this morning and snuck into our area in the inner city with their cars to pick us up, sneaky, sneaky! So the plan was to get loaded up with our gear and get out really quick before the police saw them. That was the plan… Everything was all prepaid so all that was left to do was pay for one bottle of water and bolt. But then the hotel tried to charge for breakfast, got that sorted and then it was 2.25 Euros for the water so I paid that, then the printer didn’t work and he scuttles to another office for our receipt, finally he comes back and says he needs 2 more cents! Finally, 20 minutes and 2 cents later we are on our way! So we drive to ... read more

Breakfast at our hotel was basic but still had everything to keep us satisfied; it just didn’t have the 30 plus choices from every corner of the globe that we probably wouldn’t have eaten anyway. Went for a walk around the Cathedral opposite the hotel. Just that alone is a huge area. There were more souvenier shops than I’ve ever seen in the one area, literally every second or third shop was a souvenier shop with the highlight being all things Flamenco, I expected everything to be about the Bull Fighting. There were plenty of horse and carts on the offering for rides. They looked a whole lot healthier than their counterparts in Egypt and Jordan. We never took up the offer of a ride and so can only imagine what the price would’ve been, bit ... read more

It’s Aquaventure water park day today! Because its attached to the hotel, lucky us get it included and it also means we don’t have to queue up behind the 100 plus teeny boppers who have obviously got no school today! The only thing we need to pay for is a locker, but with hindsight we didn’t need to get one. After putting all our stuff away in it we had a walk around and saw that most people left their gear under the pool lounges, so we trek back and leave only our good camera and my purse in there, I know, we could have just left them in our room - duh! So we claim our piece of Dubai land to call home for the day, even if it is only 2 square metres, and ... read more

What’s going on back home? For some inexplicable reason, Australia actually made it onto CNN News because apparently we now have a new Prime Minister (ess), what tha!!!! Women now officially rock Australia! It’s made even more cool because I’ve spent the last 3 weeks in countries where women are lucky to be spoken to, let alone run the country! DUBAI CITY TOUR After breakfast we are picked up for our tour of Dubai. At the start it is just the 2 of us but we are told there are 6 more people to pick up. Our driver is Shoki, he is from Pakistan and has been living in Dubai since 1992, so he has seen Dubai grow a lot. He tells us that Dubai has become what it has in the last 38 years. There ... read more