Greg and Deb's Travel Blog

I lied, this (maybe) is the last post of our 7 week adventure.

Our flight boarded after a final carry on search for liquids. Seemed an ad-hoc thing, a little disorganised.

We were on board, they had closed the doors and the air bridges were drawn back when Deb noticed someone , not a worker, at the end of the air bridge, apparently wanting to get on board. There was a delay of maybe 20+ mins and then we noticed about another 4 to 6 passengers got on?

The flight had a few bumpy bits but was generally ok. We both got a few hours sleep which was good.

We landed at about 9:10pm, and were home at about 10pm. And that’s our Turkiye, Portugal, Spain and UAE pilgrimage 2025 done and dusted.

In the 48 days we were away we did a bit over 522,000 steps, not too shabby for a couple of retirees.

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The beginning of our last day in Dubai.
We had breakfast at 8, the same as yesterday. Delicious again served by the very cheerful Rowena.
This morning we did a tour “Culture on Wheels& Cultural Brunch through the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding (SMCCU). We arrived at the SMCCU at about 8:55 and joined the rest of our tour group, about 15 all up. Our guide was Kalid or (maybe Kalif?), a young Emirati, we all got on our ride for the morning a 36 seat “Heritage Express” air-conditioned bus. Continue reading →

Another slow start to our day, a late night/very early morning arrival into Dubai will do that.
We had a leisurely breakfast out on the creek foreshore, watching the Dubai world go by, particularly up and down the creek.
We both had Shakshuka, a Maghrebi dish of eggs poached in tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion and garlic with a few spices thrown in. (hopefully Deb has a pic on fb – see the link at the end of this entry).
Our first expedition out was a ride on an Abra (Abra have been used on the Dubai Creek for centuries to transport goods and people) across the creek to have a look around the Gold Souq, the Spice Souq and the Grand Souq Deira. It Costs 1 AED (about 45c Australian) each way, paid in cash to the driver. It took about 5 mins to cross over on the Baniyas – Old Souq boat. Continue reading →

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Adiós Barcelona, hola Dubai.

Yes, we said good bye to Barcelona and Spain to hello Dubai today.
We had a slow morning, breakfast. Fi ished packing and got our ride to the airport at about 11:55am. We got to the airport and navigated out way through check-in, security and emigration without any issues and made it to the Emirates lounge for a 2.5hr wait before we boarded out flight to Dubai.
We boarded our flight at a bit after 3pm for our 3:40 take off.
The 6.5hr flight was uneventful and we landed a bit after 00:10 Dubai time, it was 31C. No sleep on the plane, unfortunately.
We were in our transfer car by 12:50am and arrived at our hotel in old Dubai around 1:20am on the creek in old Dubai. Such a great location, the creek is pretty busy with boats even at 2:30am!!
Lucky we have a quiet day ahead.

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Today was a free day for us to do, or not, whatever we wanted.
That automatically means a slow start to our day. Breakfast at some time after 9, then we sat in our Junior Suite and watched the 36’ers game live on a 100cm+ TV. They won, beat SE Melbourne 88-71.
We eventually made it out exploring on our own. We started walking down Pg devGracia past Casa Batlo ( a Gaudi creation) and then made out way across and onto Rambla de Catalunya. We came to a large open placa, Placa de Catalunya. The placa had two large circular fountains and lots of interesting classical statues on the top level, and a huge open oval paved area on the bottom side. There were pigeons everywhere, cooling off in the fountain ponds, roosting on all the statues, and much to their delight on the bottom area, getting fed by the people enjoying the plaza. Continue reading →

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We met Laura our guide and our driver at our hotel at 9am. It’s Gaudi Day!
Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), was an architect who embraced the Catalan Modernisme Movement (a branch of Art Nouveau). His signature designs used organic forms, vibrant colours, mosaics, and textures. He Integrated ceramics, stained glass, and wrought iron into innovative structural forms using paraboloids, hyperboloids, and helicoids. His work is striking and often polarising, often described as living sculpture. Above all it is always unmistakably Gaudi.
So I guess if you’re going to have a Gaudi day, you should dive in at the deep end, and that is exactly what we did. Continue reading →