Blogs from United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 17

Travel much more successful today. Caught the metro to Dubai Mall and then the Big Bus Tour to Dhow Wharfage for our boat ride on the creek. Came back to the hotel for a swim in the rooftop pool and now going to get ready for our Marina Dhow Cruise Dinner tonight. Hopefully have included yesterday's promised photo of the view from our window this time. Flying on to Johannesburg SA after lunch tomorrow.... read more

Up at 3:30, flight socks on and quick cup of tea. Picked up by taxi by Patrick at 4:30am. Quite busy on road especially around terminal 5. Dropped off at Heathrow terminal 3. Dropped off bags and through security. Saw A380 airbus outside waiting for us. Double decker. Boarded and took off 9:05. So big but rose effortlessly with seemingly little speed. Time passed quickly with lots of onboard entertainment and two meals. Landed early 6:45pm already dark. Made it through airport and onto metro. Came out at Dubai Marina and the 32degree heat covered us like a hot blanket. Hotel Marina Byblos thankfully near. Good room. Had quick shower and straight to bed, once we had mastered remote control light switches! Lokking forward to seeing our surroundings in the daylight.... read more

An amazing first day but not without its problems. Difficult to work out the bus stops for the Big Bus Tour which we had prepaid. There is a map for the 3 routes but you don't get that until you change your e-tickets for real tickets and we were misdirected by several people who should have known better. When you do find the bus stopping places there are no signs to tell you it is a bus stop. Not a service I would recommend to others although when we finally found the bus the journey was fine with a good commentary system. However, we had walked for an hour in the heat and then caught a taxi before we found the first bus stop! We went to the Dubai Mall (air conditioning ... YES!) where there ... read more

We have had breakfast delivered to the room again and it was just as good. It comprises of freshly cooked toast, butters and jams, coffee, cornflakes and muffins. What is there not to like. We declined the eggs of choice and sausages. We then made a visit to reception to find out what was happening about our washing machine. We repeated to the receptionist what the mechanic had said yesterday about it being a holiday and she was horrified he had said this to a guest. She assured us that someone would be up to have a look at the machine soon. Sure enough he arrived a few minutes later. He did not even come into the room, just said to leave it with him he would have a new machine with us soon. We left ... read more

As we got all packed up yesterday, we had the opportunity this morning to spend an hour on the roof before we had to leave the hotel and head out of Abu Dhabi. About half way between Abu Dhabi and Dubai they have recently opened a new service station called the Last Exit, probably because it is near to the border. The design of the area is all about the USA food wagons. Each wagon has its very own drive through area and coloured line leading you to it and then there are also a few parking spaces if you want to get out and walk around the site. The site is very different to anything we have seen anywhere on our travels before. From there, we continued on into Dubai. In Dubai this time, we ... read more