The European Vacation is finally underway - Melbourne to Dubai

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The whole family was incredibly excited to leave Melbourne and begin our long-planned vacation to Europe.

Our first activity was a 14 hour flight to Dubai. Leaving MEL at 10:25pm we were due to land in Dubai at around 6:30 in the morning. This would be a jet-lag challenge for Jake, Nick and Emily who had never travelled outside of Australia.

The flight was smooth and while we did not get much sleep, everyone felt reasonably good when we landed. To top it off the flight was an hour early, touching down at 5:25am - luckily our travel agent had organised an early check-in for us!

Dubai airport is amazing, It is enormous and very beautiful. You can quickly tell that there is a lot of money in the UAE. At 5:30am, the airport is quiet and we moved through passport control, baggage claim and customs very quickly. We took our hotel shuttle transfer to Ascot Hotel Apartments, looking forward to a shower and a lie-down before starting our busy schedule in Dubai.

And that's where the smooth start to our vacation ended! No early check-in is available and we are told we will have to wait until 2pm to check-in!!! After some discussion we are advised that if there are early check-outs, we could get into our rooms by 9:30am.

So, it's off for a walk to find breakfast and keep occupied. The only place open at 7am is the local Supermarket, Spinney's. Thankfully it has a very nice bakery and great fresh fruit. After breakfast we decide to try out the Dubai Metro and take the train out to the Dubai Mall and back again. The Metro system in Dubai is amazing - very fast, clean and punctual. In rush hour it is also very busy.

Back at the Hotel at 9:30, there's still no check-in, so a dip in the pool to rinse off and cool down in the Dubai heat is the only option. Hopefully by 12:30 we'll be in our rooms, we are told. After a swim we head off for another walk and back to the supermarket for lunch.

Everyone is really tired now and head back to the hotel hoping to find some pillows and a comfortable bed. But we are out of luck and the fun starts. The hotel manager informs us that we will be in our rooms by around 2:30pm - but in a different hotel. Heated dicussion, tears and two hotels later we are checking into the Seaview hotel in downtown Dubai.

Our travel agent will be hearing from us.

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Photos

Tired but awake in Dubai
The Beltrami kids looking reasonably ok after a long flight. Here they are standing at the Dubai Mall Metro station with the Bur Kalifa in the background.