Vienna & Dubai

Vienna! I was looking forward to going to the opera for 3 euros, but apparently in July and August they go on holidays! The Vienna Boys Choir was on holidays until Sept too. I am going to try and see them when we are staying in Munich.

We were only in Vienna for about 4 days. 1 1/2 days before we went to Russia, and 1 1/2 days after, before we went to Dubai, so we weren't exactly bored though.

Above is the Hapsburg Palace, home of the Kaisers (emporers) - including Marie Antionette as a child. Around the palace are extensive gardens, similar to Versaille again. There are 3 mazes too, see the pic below, and a playground with lots of cool things in.

Chris found that he got shorter and fatter around this time.
I saw a squirrel in the grounds. He was very friendly, but very fast!
After we were left the palace we found a sports center and there we 10 trampolines that you could pay to use. We had lots of fun bouncing around for 1/2 an hour as you can see.
I have the skills to be on The Matrix. he he.



Chris can jump high....
But other than that...


...he is definately not as good as me!
I did try to teach him though.
After we saw the palace we went to a few art galleries and wandered around the town. There are lots of horse-and-carts everywhere.
We saw the crown jewels too, and they were very impressive.
There were lots of religious icons and bits of bone that were supposed to belong to saints, and bit of wood that were supposed to be parts of the Cross, that were inside glass, and decorated with gold and jewels. Some things were a bit freaky, like a mummified hand in a little glass case with huge decorations all over the place. Weird.

From Vienna, we flew to Dubai with Emirates. The passport queue in Dubai International airport was crazy and it took forever to get through. We finally got out of the airport at 3am, and the temperature was 37C! Yes, that was not a typo. The humidity was about 75% and it felt like I needed to have a shower asap after just walking 15m from the airconditioned airport to the hotel BMW that picked us up.

Our return flight to Europe with Emirates that we booked way back in January included 3 free nights (we extended for 2 more) at the 5 star hotel Le Meridian in Dubai and it really was 5 stars! The bed was SOFT, just like at home, and there was a TV! How I have missed watching my dear TV and all my favourite programs. Russian soaps, and Greek dancing/kissing game shows just don't cut it! I indulged and watched all the repeats of Law and Order and even Oprah and Dr Phil that I could. I went a bit TV mad.

On the other hand in Dubai it was impossible to go outside and walk anywhere. In the day time it was 45C, according to BBC, but the barometer at the pool said 51C. Combined with the humidity it was absolutely shocking. We did go outside for a couple of hours every day to swim in the pools, but we were breaking into a sweat just sitting in the shade doing nothing. They have to chill the water in the pools too so it is cool enough to swim.

We didn't take any pictures at all while we were in Dubai, just because there was nothing that looked good enough to take a picture of! The hotel was great, but I was not going to take a picture of the hotel room. Outside the sky was a dirty brown for the whole time we were there and visibilty was poor. We took a taxi to the Mall of Emirates, and the city centre mall near the hotel and it was not possible to see the sky line at all. We could very faintly make out the Burj once, but that was it. Take my word for it and visit Dubai in the cooler months.

Aside from that I think Dubai will be a fantastic place in a few years. Right now the subway has not been built and in the afternoons the traffic is impossible - it does not move in one direction. Maybe it was because you had to drive because it was too hot not to, but it was just shocking. On our second last day we waited 1 1/2 hours for the hourly shuttle bus back to our hotel (held up in traffic) but it was still faster than the queue to get a taxi! You should have seen the line!

We didn't do anything else in Dubai, because it was just too hot, but I'd love to go back there in November in a few years. There is lots to do.

Now we are in Istanbul and in 2 days we are going to Cappadocia, and then Antalya, and then its back to Munich. I am taking lots of photos now for the next blog!