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Published: October 4th 2012
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FRIDAY 1 APRIL 2011 OMG - this is it! We are off on our dream 4 month trip around Europe. Dad Craig, Mum Katrina and our 4 kids; Jack 10, Madison 8, Sophie 6 and Harry 4.
We flew out of Sydney at 9.45pm on Emirates A380 bound for Dubai. The flight took 14 hours; 14 hours of anticipation and excitement of what lay ahead of us. We landed in Dubai at 5am with the bubbling feeling that we were here, we had actually started our dream.
SATURDAY 2 APRIL - DUBAI Dubai was foggy and very quiet at this time of the morning and we marvelled at the incredibly tall buildings that appeared before us. Out of the fog in the distance appeared the Burj, the tallest building in the world. It confirmed our arrival in Dubai. It wasn't long before we arrived onto the Jumeriah Palm where we were staying at the Al Sultana apartments. Unfortunately it was only 6am and the reception wasn't opening till 8.30am however the kids were just thrilled to be able to run out onto the sand and play on the climbing equipment after being cooped up all
night. Corky and I sat and marvelled at the sun rising out of the smog over the Arabian Sea and the revealing views of the city skyline along the coast. We had a direct view of the Burj and the Jumierah Beach Hotel, landmarks of this great city.
8.30am arrived but the office people didn't, I think it was a sign of what was to come. Finally when they did arrive we deposited our bags, confirmed that we did indeed have an apartment and then set off to explore the world famous Emirates shopping mall. It was still early and quiet when we arrived so we had some late breakfast of pastries and milkshakes and then set off to marvel at the opulence. It didn't disappoint! Soon enough we came across the indoor ski centre where we pressed our noses to the window and the kids begged to go in. How could we refuse!
We donned the ski gear head to toe and ventured through the doors that took us into a -4 degree winter wonderland. We tobaganned, we had snow fights, we slid down hills on tubes and enjoyed the fact that outside, the temperature was
around 30 degrees and people were wearing summer gear and looking in through the windows from the mall. Two hours flew and we realised we had had enough when Corky started to develop brain freeze from the amount of snowballs that had hit his head. The last thing to do was to get an ice cream on the way out. Little did I realise at this point that ice cream was to feature so predominantly during our 4 months, from common varieties to exquisite gelatos. That night we ate dinner in the restaurant at the apartments and even though we were all exhausted we were excited to have started our trip.
SUNDAY 3 APRIL - DUBAI We woke to a lovely warm day in the UAE. We got some pastries for breakfast and then jumped in a cab to the main part of the city where the Burj tower is located. There is one main freeway that takes you along the shoreline and there seemed to be no speed limit because it was free for all as to which lane could deliver you the quickest. We wandered through another amazing mall finding it incredible to see
all the women in burkas shopping for glamorous clothes in expensive stores. One minute I am looking in a store window at a dress displayed that had no back to it and the next minute behind me approaches a woman who isn’t even allowed to show her eyes to the world. How can one woman show so much in this community yet another not be allowed to show anything at all? Many of the men wore their arabian traditional dress with head gear. We booked our tickets to go up the Burj for the next morning because it was all booked out today and then we caught another taxi to the monorail station and from here we caught the monorail along the Palm Jumeriah to the Atlantis Hotel at the end. We weren’t allowed into the actual hotel but we could visit the shops outside in the foyer area. Here we stopped to get an ice cream at the Cold Stone Creamery – the event of actually watching your ice cream and accompaniments (in the case of the kids, Oreo cookies) been made was almost more enjoyable than the actual eating of it. Back to our apartment and then down
to the Marina for dinner. This area was beautiful, so many restaurants lining the edge of the marina with the backdrop of tall unique buildings. Sophie’s favourite was the building that twisted as it grew. Much to my disappointment, alcohol was not allowed to be served in any restaurant – basically there was no alcohol allowed in public however every 2nd person in all the restaurants were smoking the big turkish style pipes with a very sweet smelling aroma. The kids were fascinated, in particular watching an Arab puffing on one of these large pipes.
MONDAY 4 APRIL - DUBAI Today we went up the Burj tower to the 127th floor. The view was incredible but unfortunately a bit foggy so we couldn’t see the desert very well or up and down the coast. We had heard that the Prince of Dubai has plans to eventually build a total of 2,000 skyscrapers along the coastline here. Dubai is in a perpetual state of building and at one stage was a construction site to the most cranes in the world. From the Burj, we went back to the Atlantis hotel to go to the waterpark where we had several hours of fun up and down the slides, playing in the kids water area and riding the rapids on floats. Harry wasn't too sure about the waterways however I managed to get him onto a inflatable tyre with me to travel around the rapids with Jack and Madi on their own racing us. The Muslim women wore waterproof versions of the burka – head to toe. We went back to the Marina again for dinner and then back to our apartment for our last night. I enjoyed Dubai but will be happy to head to Europe tomorrow.
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