Day 26 - Venice to Dubai

Well here we are at Venice airport all checked in and waiting.They say it is quite a small airport but it doesn't look small and you can't check in too early tho' check in opened 3 hours before so that was good for us as our transfer brought us here at that time.Some people have to wait till a midnight flight so a lot of sitting around for them tho' they only have a 2 hour Flt to Gatwick.We had a rest at ship tho' couldn't sleep as all the new arrivals were wandering in and out exploring the ship's ins and outs.There appeared to be more children coming on - maybe because of school holidays.We were a little sad to leave our " home" of the past 2weeks.We met a few people who were staying on the ship and going back to Rome as it stops at a few different ports on the way.Both lots were from Perth and said they got a terrific deal for the return.I wondered why and the lady said she thought these deals are sometimes offered to selected travel agents so you have to be lucky.This particular lady belonged to the Elite Captains Circle with the status of having done more than 16 cruises with Princess Line! 

All aboard on time and there is just a good amount of leg room and we have 2 seats on the window so all looked good.Staff were very efficient and we had a drink and the a lovely meal(?) and dozed off?However about an hour later Eric went to loo and while he was away I started to feel ill and then he came back a lather of sweat and said he was I'll and nearly passed out in the loo. So there we were both holding fiercely to our sick bags and feeling decidedly "off". It was ever so strange to both feel like this at the same time and not be of any help to each other apart from being very sympathetic.We called the flight attendant and enquirer if anyone else was ill as we were blaming the Lamb Medallions we both. Chose for our meal but she assured us no one else was I'll. However, by the time we were descending we were feeling on the improve and, just as well, as when we got to Immigration we had to stand in a queue for 1hour and 10mins.Oh, the frustration! We were not amused.Chap behind us said it was not unusual.It appeared some of the staff just seemed to wander around in their white robes looking important and re arranging their veils or whatever - and these were all males!

However we chose a Lady Taxi to the hotel and , could she motor along.Eric said she was doing 120 at times. Anyway she brought us to the correct hotel and , fortunately for us, our room was ready so we immediately went to bed about 8am and had a couple of hours sleep.Then it was showers and off to catch one of the Hop on and Hop Off tourist buses to see the city ($70) for 24hour pass. For a small extra fee you can get a 48hour one)Firstly we did the Red Route which encompassed more of the older part and then we did the Blue Route which took in the modern Dubai.The first route was very interesting but the second route was really mind blowing in its development in such a short period of time. Some of the structures and projects seem impossible but they have made it happen.The most incredible was the new Atlantis which is part of the Palm Project still being developed.It really is so massive and so over the top and that is just from the outside.One couldn't even begin to describe it. Maybe try Google. Dubai uses something like 250million gallons of water per day with 97 % desalinated.There are some lovely parks but it seems you have to pay a small fee to use them.We did see a lovely beach at Jumeirah from where you can view the tall sail like structure of the Burj Al Arab. By the time we eventually finished these tours (about 5hours,)we were really tired ,though, as the city lights were coming on it was also very pretty and different. However the traffic also increased and it was very slow.Wandered back to hotel and had a simple meal and straight to slumber no trouble at all.A really enlightening day.I didn't mention the heat but it is pretty intense but luckily the bus is air con and provides free water. Oil was only discovered here in 1966 and all this work has been done since then.