Dubai and Homeward Bound.

Good five hour flight. It went quickly and we had a transfer car to our hotel. When we got there no room at the inn on arrival at eleven thirty.Had to wait till two o' clock to get into  the penthouse suite . They had no idea we were arriving but we had our itinerary and voucher. This put them in a spin. Finally collapsed into bed at two am in a huge suite with two bathrooms, a lounge, kitchen, and bedroom all on the seventh floor with a view out over Dubai. The suite had two large screen TV's, one in the bedroom and one in the lounge.

 Our final day dawned and we set off from the hotel in sweltering forty one degree heat. Definitely not used to this after thirteen degrees in Germany. We crept along the buildings in the shade just making it to the air conditioning in McDonalds. Had a drink and a sit to regain our energy. We pressed onward to the shopping mall which took us longer to get there than anticipated. [ Or was it the heat.] Finally in the cool comfort of the shops we looked around at all the fabulous merchandise. We decided on some lunch first so headed straight to a Thai restaurant where we had pad Thai noodles and sweet and sour chicken. The waiter who came from the Philippines chatted to us while we waited for our meal to arrive. The noodles were delicious but I could not eat them all so he bagged the leftovers for us to take home and added several small sauces of different flavours which was sweet of him. We had them for dinner with some naan bread and dahl that we ordered to our room at the hotel. Most things on the room service menu were unavailable which made us laugh. After lunch  we set off again for more shopping feeling refreshed and rested. Heidi bought a lovely dark blue Chinese embroidered silk backpack and two pair of sunglasses for half price. She also bought me a silver buckle ring for Mother's Day which was the following weekend. Tired we went upstairs to the more exclusive part of the mall and ordered an ice coffee and iced chocolate sitting down to read magazines while we enjoyed our drinks.

 Time to return to the hotel to make the most of our suite and TV's. Out in the heat again we headed straight for the supermarket. It was immaculate. I have never in my life seen such a tidy well stocked and organised supermarket. We bought lollies for the plane, some chips to eat in the room and had a good look around at the stock.

 We then made a dash for the hotel. On the way some local men tried to sell us a mobile phone in the street !!! When we got back decided to watch some tele but only two channels in English, both with news. Trump !!! We asked reception about movies so they sent a man up !!! He told us that there were none available so Se La Vie. There goes our movie night. Had tea [ our leftovers] and juice that we had picked up at the supermarket, then played in the computer and read. Easy night in. Early night as up at six in the morning to leave for the airport at seven am.

 A380 home. Fantastic plane and huge. Plenty of empty seats and the flight crew told us to use them. So we sprawled out over several seats and slept. I was warm and cosy under my Tibetan shawl with my memory foam neck support. Best things I took on the trip. So comforting. It was a great flight. Ate and watched movies in between sleeping. First meal was breakfast - an omelette , then later in the flight when it got dark they brought out pizza and a drink. Third meal teriyaki  chicken- very nice. Arrived in Melbourne at five  thirty in the morning. Caught the six fifteen airport bus to Frankston. Stopped outside the Quest Hotel and we returned home. Fell into bed and slept for hours. Next day got up and at lunch time and went straight to doctors. Put onto antibiotics and steroids as had pneumonia. What a trip!!!