5 September - Dubai

We landed from Ireland in about 40' heat and boy did we know it.  A car was waiting for us and after clearing customs and security we arrived at our hotel at about 9.00am, very tired as we missed out on an upgrade to business class for the flight over.

Dubai Creek which is salt but not tidal as it flows into the Persian Gulf

Due to the lack of fresh water, Dubai has a huge desalination plant and its growing.

The largest Muslim Temple in Dubai

The government has started moving sand onto a man made island just off the coast to put large buildings on just like the giant man made islands of the Palm.

The arial view of "The Dubai Palm" during construction

The finished islands now with 5-6 and 7 star hotels all round the outer circle and homes on the palm fronds.

Most people, I assume have heard of and seen pictures of the Palm, which is a completely man made group of islands in the shape of a palm tree with a crescent around the top of the islands filled with multi story hotels all between 5 and 7 stars each of the palm fronds have houses built on them each with a water frontage and they sell for about $10M each.

The next project underway at the moment is a similar group of islands called the World.  It is called this for the obvious reason and will have hotels and houses just the same as the Palm.  The buildings will be built on foundations the same as the Palm, huge rocks and sand pumped out of the Arabian Sea.

The government is in the process of making more man made islands to put homes and hotels on them too.  Notice they are designed to look like the world.

One of the hotels on the ring around the palm.

This hotel was not very old and our guide took us into the foyer.  He found out that the cost per night is between $3,000 and $25,000 per night.  

Burj al Arab Hotel.  Note the helicopter pad at the top where a tennis court was marked out and a tennis match was played on it some years ago by Roger Federra and Andre Agassi.

Stuart and I in front of the Burj Kahlifi 

NO! Not too much camel juice -  to get the photo of us in front of the tall structure our guide had to lie down on the footpath to get it in and I caught Dtuart just standing up after getting his own photo.

Burj khalifa is the largest structure in the world

After a quick breakfast and getting into our room we crashed for about 4 hours  to freshen up for our tour out into the desert sand dunes and some 4 wheel driving over the shifting  sand.  Yep! Where do you go when it is 40' in the city??? Out into the dessert in the hot sand dunes, of course. had the front seat and I was terrified.  

The driver assured us that if he rolled the vehicle he would get the sack - but I wanted to know what happened to us. He said of course we would get a refund after we had helped him get the vehicle back on its wheels.

He stopped on top of the dunes so that we could get photos of the sun setting.  

It could have been better but we were a bit late. The colour was good as there had been a heat haze all afternoon.  From there we went to a Bedouin barbecue with entertainment from a belly dancer (who wasn't over weight and was very good) and a man in a dress.  Yes, a bit unusual I know but he was good..

On our way back we were passed by a big black vehicle which our guide said was one of the Royal Family as they are the only ones who drive that type of vehicle.

The United Arab Emirates is made of 7 kingdoms run by sheiks or kings who have absolute rule and they cannot be voted out.  The job passes down from father to son.  Between them they own most of UAE and are very rich.  Unlike a lot of other rich rulers, they look after all people of the country.  There are no taxes, and even the people of Dubai are very well off.  If a foreigner wishes to own a business in the country, they must first be sponsored by a local and pay that local 50% of the business's income for doing nothing more than putting a signature on the contract.

All potable water comes from huge desalination plants and is dearer than fuel which is very cheap.  

The guide said a large percentage of the population has diabetes and other associated problems from the junk food.  95% of all food is bought in and a large percentage of that is processed and junk food.

Dubai has only been an area with population since about 1930 when about 450 Arabs lived on the river at the coast.  Oil was discovered and suddenly it became over the next 60 years the richest country on earth.  The kings at the time realised that the oil would run out one day and so started to make Dubai a tourist destination.  It now gets millions of tourists from all over the world but more importantly, the very rich have bought homes there and built 5-7 star hotels as well.

We went looking for last minute gifts and some fabric for my sister Pat wanted some fabric from Dubai.  I had no idea what sort or how much but understood that she wanted something typically from Dubai.

I told her that I got about 8 mitres of black muslin but she would have to find her own pattern to make a Burka.

Stuart said that would be easy, just buy her about 7 mitres of black muslin and a pattern to make a Burka. 

We did find some nice fabric though and I will give her a choice.  We caught a cab to Dubai Mall which is the biggest in UAE with a huge fish tank 3 stories high with hundreds of fish large and small. (Shark about 2 mitres long).

Our last night in Dubai we were picked up and taken to a large Dow where we had a very nice dinner while the boat cruised the creek being entertained by some dancers and a magician.  Unfortunately I was frowned upon when I asked for a glass of wine and all there was was soft drink and warm juice.  

A Whirling Dirvish who danced in a circle round and round for nearly 20 minutes.  Apparently they put themselves into a sort of trance.

By some women the burka is taken very seriously, or by their husbands, possibly

These 2 couples were on the cruise on Dubai Creek which we went on.  They ate by lifting part of the veil up and out from their face to get a fork under.

None the less it was a good night.

We had found out that we got the upgrade to Business Class for the last leg of our journey which pleased both of us immensely.

To sum it all up, we have had a fabulous time, seen some amazing sights ( ancient ruins, The Canadian Rockies, Grand Canyon, the green of Ireland), done some amazing things, (snowboarding on the Matterhorn, went up the Eiffel Tower, wandered amongst the ancient ruins of Rome) met some wonderful people, (Grant and Gail from New Zealand, Jenny and Stuart from Melbourne to name a few) who will remain good friends.  We have used 8 currencies, stayed in 52 hotels, 2 cruises and a number of short river cruises just s few hours long,  had 19 flights and done things a lot of people only dream of.

Now we are ready to resume our normal lifestyle, as normal as it is travelling round our own beautiful country and seeing our wonderful families who we have missed immensely.

1 September - Ireland

It took us a while to get our hire car but eventually they gave us an Audi.   We got an Internet package that gave us unlimited service and so used the GPS on our ipad, got to our B&B and met Sheila.  As it was about 8.30 by then it was a quick cup of tea and off to the local for dinner.  Disappointed it wasn't a traditional Irish Pub but at that time of night beggars can't be choosers.....

After a traditional Irish breakfast we set off for Newgrange.

Newgrange is the site for the best known Irish passage buriel tomb.  Huge carved rocks guard the entrance to the 5000 year old passage and chamber.

we then went into Dublin to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College.  The book of Kells contains lavishly decorated  writings in Latin of the four gospels .  It was written by monks in about the year 800 on calfskin.

                                             

                                              

We had a job finding where the entry to Trinity College was and so parked in a parking lot tucked in between a few buildings and caught a cab there and back. It had started to rain mistily so the cab was our best option.

Next morning we left for County Cork and the town of Blarney where, of course the Blarney Castle is.

We were very lucky as the line up is usually very long but on the day we went we walked straight in.  We found out later that next day there would be about 21 thousand people coming through.

The main dining hall minus the floor.

The narrow staircase on the way down standing on step 2.

The Castle was interesting but the climb up to the Blarney Stone was a nightmare.  There were 126 steps up a small circular tower with the steps coming off a central ledge, very narrow and very steep with each step up getting narrower than the last and only up as there was another set of spiral steps down.  Once I started up I couldn't pull out as there were people coming behind me,   It was well worth the trip though and coming down was not quite as hard.

The kitchen area - up near the top.  Not sure how the little lady got the groceries from the supermarket all the way up to that level.

A narrow slit where the wife could spy on The Lord of the manor while he was wrestling with the kitchen wench in the stables.......or where the soldiers could fire their arrows down onto the enemy.

The grate where arrows, stones etc could be poured down onto the floor below if the enemy scaled the walls.  its called the Murder Hole.

Stuart puckering up!

At the top, we could see the battlements, where the soldiers tipped rocks and fire on the enemy who broached the sides and then when we got to the Blarney Stone, I realised that I wouldn't ever get my back into the right shape if I tried to kiss it so Stuart had to kiss it for me and for Kylie as she asked me to. 

The enemy in front of the castle

The Shannon River in Limerick - it was quite windy that day, and cold.

all the paddocks in the area were marked out with fences of stone.  Tons and tons of it.

Next day we went through to Galway, but on the way detoured over to the west coast to the Cliffs of Moher.  Unfortunately, it was overcast all day and not good for photos, but was still good.  

The sun (what little we could see of it) going down on Galway Bay

We got to our B&B, unloaded our stuff and went out again to see if we could see the sunset, but although it had cleared a bit there wasn't much sun.  We also couldn't find Claddah (which apparently is  an area in Tipperary town) either so I was a bit disappointed.  For those not in the know.  A favourite song of my Grandmothers was,

                                               "If you ever go across the sea to Ireland,

                                       Then maybe at the closing of your day,
                                       You will sit and watch the moon rise over Claddagh,
                                       And see the sun go down on Galway Bay"

          made famous by Bing Crosby in the 60's

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I was so looking forward to the typical old country Irish pub with music and noise and country food, but due to the depression Ireland has been experiencing most of the country pubs have closed down and very few have music through the week and very little patronage early in the week.

Found a nice restaurant sign which was lovely as that is Brett's nickname for me.....

King Johns Castle 

After a good nights sleep we headed for Tipperary and some serious family research.

I would love to say it was successful but I don't think it was at this end.  My great grandmothers information was a bit sketchy and we have a possible match but I have to try for birth certificate later.

To while away the afternoon, we went to look at the rock of Cachel, which was another A.B.C (another bloody castle).  However we went to look at a historic village where the guy who runs and owns it spent so much time telling us about the history of his town and the Irish rebellion we had very little time to tour the village before heading back to Tipperary and our bed for the night .

Next day we headed north to a town called Nenagh where my great Grandfather came from.  I thought we may have more luck there but after paying another search fee, the historian said that a possibility could be an unusual Christian name (David) and she would do a thorough search and email me any results.  Apparently all records were kept by the parish and two different lots of records were kept but both were kept in the same building so when the churches were burnt down both lots of records were destroyed.  The British also deliberately destroyed records where possible as well.  

We left Tipperary Town and I was very disappointed but with a tinge of hopefulness.

We headed to Sligo via the middle of Ireland still with overcast sky's.

For the first half of the time in Ireland, it lived up to expectations with the weather either overcast or raining.  We couldn't complain as out of the 3 months we have been traveling half the world, we have had 2 days of rain neither of wich were bad enough to curtail our activities.

One day bleak and the next day beautiful.

No wonder it is called THE EMERALD ISLE....

We arrived at our B&B a little out of the town of Sligo but quite close to the west coast of Northern Ireland.  It rains there over 200 days a year.

Looking west from just south of Sligo.  The scenery was some of the best we have seen in the 3 months since we left home.

I got the news when we arrived at our B&B that the lovely lady at the Geneology Society in Nenagh had found quite a bit on my great grandparents including marriage certificates of my great great grand parents so I was elated and couldn't wait to get back to Australia to see what she had unearthed.

From Sligo we went north east to Bushmills 

And to tag on to a tour of the Whiskey Distillery.  It was very interesting and gave me some ideas on how to improve the taste of my "Hawkes Hideaway" Whiskey. ...and it wasn't going to improve any more if I made it in huge vats either.

On the way there we went to see the Giants Causeway.  How nature could make these marvels is beyond belief.  They were so huge and so precise.

The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles northeast of the town of Bushmills.

The dark ones are because they are wet.

My intrepid adventurer

Even some of the sunsets were amazing

One of our B&B's

We knew once we crossed the border from the Republic of Ireland into the North, there were Union Jack flags flying on nearly every pole interspersed with the Northern Ireland Flag.  

Kilometres became miles and the Euro changed to Sterling again.

When we hired the car it was recommended that we use an Internet dongle and use our iPad for GPS.  Once we entered the north, we couldn't get Internet connection, and so no GPS.  This was not a problem on the road but in the city when we were trying to find a particular place or out in the country trying to find the exact location of our B&B proved to be a problem.

With our holiday quickly coming to a close we had our final night at a place in Dublin and took in the Guinness Brewery and then to the Airport and on to London for a short stopover and then to Dubai.  

Stuart learning the tricks of the trade.  Kylie see if Doug has a job for him when we get home!!!!

Look at me.... Aren't I clever?.....

And he got a certificate to say that he passed with flying colours.  Unfortunately, he had to drive and so I drank the pint.  Tasted as good as it looked.