TOURING DUBAI

April 30, 2019

It’s Beth’s birthday today! Beth and Marc woke up at 4:30AM and couldn’t get back to sleep so Beth tells us she went and worked out before meeting us for breakfast in our hotel! Overachiever! John and I managed to sleep in until 7:30AM. Our hotel was really nice, beautiful fluffy linens and a bed we just sank into. Breakfast was absolutely incredible, a buffet of everything from fruit and yogurt selections to a full on salad bar, grilled salmon, corned beef, veal and chicken sausage, beans and grits, pastries, fresh juices, it was incredible and at 119AED (about $34) a little on the pricey side but not really for a major city. With only about 12 hours in Dubai, we thought that the best way to see the city was on the hop on/hop off bus. What an epic fail. After spending inordinate hours in traffic and stopping at mostly all the big malls of Dubai (we didn’t get off) we tired of that and hailed a cab to show us the final sites. Dubai is a city of excess, it boasts the largest malls in the world and one (Mall of Emirates) is complete with an indoor ski area where you can actually ride a chairlift to the top and there are 5 different ski runs you can take. Also a luge and sledding. We had to see it to believe it but didn’t participate. Lunch was at Shake Shack of all things because we were there, we were hungry, and nobody felt like seeking out anything original, all of us groggy with jet lag and traffic fumes. Highlights of the day were a trip out to the Palm Jumeirah which is an artificial archipelago built in the shape of a palm tree and is full of high end residences and the Atlantis Hotel; the Burj Al Arab, a beautiful hotel in the shape of a sail that sits on a private island, only accessible if you are a guest; and the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Because it was so hazy we decided not to go to the observation deck. One of the last stops on our bus tour was the Old Souk, the original heart of Dubai but again we were all just so over being in the 92 degree heat and in traffic that we opted to return to our hotel instead. Dubai is a clean city and everything there is built or developed on a grand
scale always striving to be the largest, the tallest, the most outrageous. Impressions leaving Dubai is that it is a giant playground for the young and flashy crowd, I think the gorgeous bars and night clubs not to mention the activities are endless. With just having our 12 hour stay, and full of jet lag, we just weren’t in the right mindset to take advantage. So been there, done that, don’t need to come back was our overall impression. Everyone treated us with such grace and warmly welcomed us everywhere we went and we stuck out of the crowd, believe me! Off to our next destination, Johannesburg, on yet another red-eye leaving Dubai at 11:30PM, at least this leg is only 8 hours!

Beautiful Beaches here in Dubai, this is public beach

Lobby of our Hotel. “Radisson Blu Deira Creek”

View of the Financial District

View from our hotel Room

Gorgeous Mosque

Bad picture of the Burj Al-Arab but we couldn’t get closer. Tiger Woods apparently hit a golf ball off the top observation deck! Hotel caters to celebrities and the ultra wealthy.