Wet and Windy Jersey

Jersey here we come in the wind and pouring rain! At least the weather is consistent. We had stayed at the airport overnight, but this time we were only going to take hand luggage. The hotel was 6 mins walk from the car park (I timed it), so I went and collected the small suitcase, once we had sorted the cases out and took the big ones back, Linda would have helped but she was washing her hair. We had landed at 9.30pm and our flight was 7.30am so not a lot of time to sleep once the case moving was over.

The flight was slightly delayed due to the weather and it was really windy in Jersey and wet. We caught the bus from the airport to the hotel and then left our bag there and went for a work in the rain. It was raining pretty heavy so we stopped for a coffee. Then it was sunshine so we had a wander around the shops and Christmas Market, which is local produce and projects. A walk around the harbour was an experience, it was hard to stand up due to the wind, as we got blown along. We stopped at the St Helier Coffee Rosters Cooper and Co for another coffee.

In the afternoon we had a rest at the hotel, before venturing out into the cold evening. It was no longer wet but still windy. We had a wander into town and found everything closed at 5pm, but fortunately we found a coffee shop that was open, so we sat and had a cappuccino.  We then had another walk around the area, before stopping at an Italian restaurant for Linda’s birthday meal. It was very nice. 

It was back to the hotel for some rest, but we didn’t get any as there was a disco on with very loud music which kept going half the night, so much for a restful break. On Saturday we had a wander along the promenade till it started to rain more heavily, so we sought the sanctuary of a coffee shop, until it was time to catch the midday bus back to the airport and the plane home.

Due to the weather we didn’t take many photos.

Imperial Diets and Christmas markets don’t go together

It was raining when we left England and still raining when we arrived in Nuremberg on Monday evening. The flight was on time and a short one. We collected our luggage and caught the underground to Hauptbahnoff and then using Goggle maps in the pouring rain found our hotel. We are staying at the NH Collection hotel and we had a nice room. There is even an Nespresso machine in the room. As it was late so we decided not go out again in the rain.

Nuremberg is the second-largest city of the German federal state of Bavaria after its capital of Munich, and its 511,628 (2016) inhabitants make it the 14th largest city of Germany. On the Pegnitz River and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it lies in the Bavarian administrative region of Middle Franconia, and is the largest city and the unofficial capital of Franconia. It often referred to as having been the 'unofficial capital' of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly because Imperial Diet and courts met at the Castle.

For Martin Luther, Nuremberg was 'the eyes and ears of Germany'.  It was a 'media centre', home to 21 printing houses, which helped to rapidly circulate the messages of the Reformation.

On Tuesday, it was still raining but we decided to for a walk and the rain didn’t last too long. Nuremberg's Altstadt (Old Town)  is encircled by massive Stadtmauer (city walls). The town within is divided by the river Pegnitz. The northern half, Sebalder Altstadt, clusters around St Sebald Church and the Town Hall, and is dominated by the Imperial Castle. The southern half, Lorenzer Altstadt, clusters around the Lorenzkirche. Several charming little bridges criss-cross the river. It is 5km all the way round (I know because I have run it!) and there is the old moat you can also walk in (they have removed the water).

We were a couple of minutes walk from the Old Town so we headed there, I knew the Christmas markets were in the centre. However, we first needed to have some breakfast so we found a great cafe for a roll and the legendary Nuremberg Lebkuchen (Gingerbread). Once fortified we started off on our walking tour around the market, it was quite large and plenty of kiosks to look at, Linda was in her element, lots of craft ideas - I liked looking at the different types of Lebkuchen.  

At the eastern end is the ornate Gothic Frauenkirche and we were there at midday to witness the clock’s figures enact a spectacle called the Männleinlaufen (Little Men Dancing). Linda would have taken some photos as she had her camera, but unfortunately it didn’t record them as she had left the battery in the charger in the hotel room.

After this we wandered around the street and looked at the architecture, it was quite interesting all the different houses, no doubt some were Gothic. The Castle is at the north end (our hotel being at the south end) and It is at the top of a hill, so we walked up the wet slippery cobbled pavement, I was making sure Linda didn’t fall over again and reached the top. The castle is medieval and you have some great views of the new city and beyond. We had a wander around the parts which had free entrance. After all this effort we stopped for a cup of tea and coffee, before going back to the hotel.

In the evening we went out again to see the Christmas Market lit up, it was good but much more crowded with people pushing and shoving. It wasn’t raining now but much colder. We did try the local sausages and they were nice. We then wandered around a different part of the old city and it was much calmer.

On Wednesday morning I went for a run around the city walls, I only went once as it was 5k all the way round. I could have done it seven times, but then the walls might have fallen down! It was a gentle run, too many roads to cross so you had to keep stopping and starting, but the weather was good. We had breakfast in the room before we set off on our walking tour. 

From my run I had found some different parts to visit, so we had a stroll through some different gates into the city, we found a running shop, C & A and two Starbucks (but didn’t stop at either). We stopped for a spot of lunch, I had a tomato and cheese baguette, while Linda had cheesecake. Linda has been taking a lot of photos today, it appears the camera works better with a battery in it.

We went and saw the house where Albrecht Dürer lived. He was an artist from the 15th/16th century and was part of the German Renaissance. They had some copies of his work, I thought they looked quite basic and dull, but then I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder! We also had a look around St Sebald Church which is famous for being old and having several organs, it was really interesting....

 After this we wandered back to the market and had another look around, popped into the Nespresso shop as you get free coffees there to taste.  It was getting dark by now so we decided to walk back to the hotel via a few shops.

They had a nativity scene which had live animals, a sheep, two donkeys and a camel. Great idea - I wonder if we could do that at church next year.

About halfway back I realised I had lost my very expensive Tesco hat and so Linda insisted we went to look for it, so we had to retrace our steps and go into the shops again and ask in English if they had seen it, some didn’t understand English so Linda was making do with hand signals and actions. We did in fact find it in one of the local shops, so now I have a sermon not on the lost sheep but the lost hat!

We then took a different route back from the shops and saw even more of the old city, we have probably walked down every road now.  It was early evening when we got back to the hotel and we had been out walking for about 7 hours and covered around 10 miles.

On Thursday we had an evening flight, so we had time to wander around a couple of museums. We first went to the Nuremberg Trials Museum at the Palais of Justice, which was a short metro ride away. Courtroom 600 is where the trials took place and is still a working courtroom, but there is also an exhibition upstairs. When we arrived the courtroom was closed so we had a look around the exhibition, it is all in German but you have an audio machine which you take round and listen to it in English - it got a bit boring in the end as you had to keep keying in the exhibit number, so I was selective as to the exhibits I listened to. It took about an hour to go round and as we were leaving we could see the courtroom was now open, so we went in and sat in the public area. It is a lot smaller than it was after the war, but still very basic.

The first steam-powered railway line was between Nuremberg and Furth which opened on 7th December 1835. The Deutsche Bahn (DB) Museum of Transport is in Nuremberg and as the weather was overcast and occasionally wet we visited this on our way back. It was quite interesting looking at all the trains as well as the other exhibit, there was a massive model railway there. There was a history of communication exhibits as well as full sized locomotives you could go on.

After this it was time for coffee and a last wander around the Christmas markets, although as it was evening it has started to get busy again. It was soon time to get the train back to the airport and the plane back to UK, but not home.

You can see some photos here 

Bear Time

‘Beware of the bears’ the signs said as we approached the Smokey Mountains area. We had a log cabin, with hot tub in the mountains for a few days. It would make running interesting, and although very hilly you need to stick to the roads.

We were staying near Sevierville, where Dolly Parton comes from. Our log cabin was at the top of a hill and we had good views of the trees. It had a gas bbq so we were able to buy some meat for dinner.  There is a resident squirrel which runs up the trees and onto our roof and back again, at all hours. There are raccoons in the area, we didn’t see anything, but something knocked the trash can over, may be a bear!

This was a relaxing few days, although there was an eight mile arts and craft loop around Gatlinburg which Linda had seen advertised, it’s just down the road she said, 25 miles later we arrived. There were plenty of craft shops for Linda to walk around, enjoying herself, picking up ideas and a few purchases. Fortunately there was a coffee shop for me to wait in. As it was 8 miles you had to drive to the next section, fortunately Linda had selected the shops she wanted to visit so we could just drive to that location.

We stayed in the area till Thursday when we had the long drive back to Nashville. It took over 4 hours, but then gets confusing as it is in a different time zone, so we were earlier than we thought.

On Friday we visited Franklin, which is a historical site from a battle in the civil war in mid nineteen century. It is a town with old fashioned buildings and we had a look around. We then travelled back via Brentwood where a lot of where the country singers live, including Dolly Parton, we saw her local Starbucks🤣

The weather has been good in the mid 90’s, although you only realise that when you go out, as everywhere has air conditioning so you think it’s quite cool.

On Friday night we went to the Grand Old Opry and watched the acts. It was a variety of country music and some were good, others were not. Although I can’t sing I suppose I not a real critic. However, it was one of those items on the to do list. We had previously done the Ryman and now the real place.

You can see some photos here 

FIRST.....

As the Apostle Paul said ‘run in such a way as to get the prize.’ That was my aim at the Mountain Goat Trail parkrun in Sewanwee. I had researched it beforehand and thought a top 5 place was achievable. It is 2000 feet above sea level and the temperature was just under 80 degrees, apart from that just a nice run. The Mountain Goat Trail is a pathway which replaced the railway tracks between local towns in the forest. 

We actually left home after we had arrived - as it was in a different time zone. We left at 8.45am and arrived at 8.30. It was an easy journey with not much traffic although it got warmer the nearer we got. On arrival there were a few people there, another couple from London, who looked like runners and my top 5 placing looked threatened.  Linda was there with her camera and a seat to sit on.

Fourteen people started (although only 11 finished as they had to rush off to another event half way through). I was at the front and headed off, and suddenly there was no-one in front of me, which was quite worrying as I didn’t know where I was going. It was quite easy you followed the path to turn around sign 1, then turned around, ran back past the start to turn around 2 and then back again the other way to turn around 3. It was quite good as you could see where the other people were. I did go out a bit fast at the start and had to slow down as the altitude and heat got to me, but I was still in the lead.

I finished first - the only time I have come first in any race, that I recall, in just over 24 mins, the locals were two minutes behind me. I also came first in my age category and was first male - hat trick! 

You can see an outline of the run here.

The folks were friendly and we joined in the Mountain Goat Cafe afterwards for coffee and an egg sandwich (not goat series on the menu), we weren’t meant to stay long, but then Linda started  talking about her craft with them and that was it…

Eventually we left and it was back to Chattanooga and it was even hotter by now. There is the Incline Railway which goes a mile up Lookout Mountain and we were going to do that, however, it meant queuing in the hot sun for over an hour, so we discounted that idea and went for coffee instead. We then had a scenic drive around the mountain, before coming back to downtown. Like most American towns there is not that much to do downtown, very few shops, but we had a wander around, before going back to the apartment.

On Sunday I was up early and went for a run (Linda was still asleep) and didn’t even know I had gone. I had a nice 5 mile run along the river and across a couple of bridges. I even found a coffee shop in at 4 1/2 miles and tested it, all research for later in the day.

Linda was awake when I got back so we got ready for church, it wasn’t far so we walked there. It was held in a coffee shop, and you got free coffee when you arrived, you also got donuts, but we resisted temptation. It was really informal and everyone sat in chairs or on the sofas. There was time of worship to start with and then we took communion, but the bread and wine aren’t passed round, you go and help yourself from the side. This seemed quite strange, but an interesting way of doing it.

After that the pastor Shannon gave a talk, but today was different, the congregation (around 50) split up into 4 groups and discussed the sermon outline. This was based on the last four weeks sermons, which of course we hadn’t heard. He did say that it wasn’t his job to make Sunday mornings comfortable but to make sure  they were  equipped to do what God wants them to do. In our group we talked about being bold for God and how God uses our weaknesses rather than strengths. This was similar to a Willow Creek podcast we had been listening to on the way down about God uses Moses weaknesses to lead his people out of slavery.

After church we had a wander around the town, visited the coffee shop I had found, before coming back to the apartment and enjoying the warm weather. It has been cloudy today but still warm.

There are some photos here 

Hurricane Florence

God has a sense of humour. Having planned to focus our Harvest service on Noah and the flood, I could have done without living through the real impact of severe weather, even from a distance.

Hurricane Florence was just another storm until we arrived in America, then it became real as we realised that Florence was going to visit the same places we were. This meant all our plans had to be changed.  According to The Times, Florence took the forecasters by surprise as they expected her to swerve round and head back out into the ocean, but she didn’t, this was exceptional - no other hurricane in history has been in that position in the Atlantic and then made landfall in the US.

The holiday did not start well, just as we were preparing to leave the hotel rang to say there was no parking as they had no room, great news when you are flying the next day. This then took a couple of hours to sort out and we ended up in another hotel and would need to take the bus to the airport rather than the pod. 

We finally left around 6.30pm and the motorway was very quiet, so it was a smooth drive and we arrived at the Sheraton Skyline around 8pm. We then had a few problems as the company had only booked 8 days rather than the 11 needed, so I had to sort that out.

Our room was very nice, apart from the loud noise from the function below. It was so loud Linda had to go and speak to the manager, who managed to get it sorted out too.

On Tuesday we had a lie in and then Starbucks for breakfast. We left the hotel just after 10:00 and caught the 423 bus to the airport, it is free as opposed to £9 on the Hoppa. 

We arrived at Heathrow Terminal 5 with plenty of spare time, which was great as we needed to sort out Linda’s ticket, it had the wrong BA executive club number on it. This was not as easy as you would think it. It involved the customer service assistant phoning her colleague 3 desks down for help!

We finally got sorted and went through security and had a look at some of the shops before settling down in the lounge. We continued  monitoring the impact of Hurricane Florence as it is meant to be arriving in Charlotte around the same time we are… 

Our plane was meant to leave at 14.55 but was delayed for various reasons so they put us on another plane which had a different layout and had to manually reseat everyone. The flight was nine hours and was very smooth, it was a Dreamliner aircraft. We had front row seats so Linda could stretch her leg out and walk up and down. Our entertainment system failed about half way through, just as I was getting to the interesting part of the film I was watching and it took about an hour to get fixed.

Nashville is 6 hours behind UK - so we landed about 6.30pm their time, we were quickly off the plane and the first ones at the immigration desk. This was very quick and the official very pleasant. Normally it takes ages to enter, but we had landed, passed immigration, retrieved luggage and picked up our car, all in under an hour - impressive.

We were staying at a Quality Inn and Suites near the airport so we booked in, our room was bigger than my lounge back home. I then checked my email and found out the concert was cancelled, the race was cancelled and the Hurricane was likely to impact on Charlotte. This has really messed up my spreadsheet and plans!

Linda was tired and needed to rest, but I had to stay up and cancel all our plans and identify new hotels and locations to visit. I did go to bed, but couldn’t really sleep and had jet lag so I was up at 3am and continued on planning so I could present Linda with some options over breakfast. We had a cabin in the Smokey Mountains so we had to go in that direction, it is on the edge of the potential fallout from the Hurricane - depending on which way it goes.

After breakfast we left the Hotel and went to have a look around the area. We went to Opry Mills, a shopping centre, had a wander around before heading downtown. We arrived at our hotel, another Quality Hotel, checked in and dropped our bags. There was a shuttle to downtown and we caught that. It took about 5 mins.

We had a wander around downtown, saw some of the sites of Broadway, listened to country music and even went to the Johnny Cash coffee shop. Alan Jackson has a bar in town called AJ’s Good Time Bar, so we visited there, drank coke and listened to the live music.

We were hungry and left there to go to have something to eat, we went to an Italian restaurant owned by Luke Bevan. We shared a pizza before we went back to the hotel.

On Thursday I was up early again (although not so early) and went for a 4 mile run through the town, checking out all the sites. There is a distinct lack of coffee shops in the main area, so I didn’t stop and came back to the hotel. We had breakfast and then caught the shuttle back downtown.

Our plan was to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum and it was a good plan. We were there about two hours ( a record for me looking around a museum). It was interesting tracing the history of county music from its roots. There was Elvis’ gold cadilac to see, but you weren’t allowed to sit in it,  plus lots of clothing and guitars.   Linda enjoyed it and is now better informed. After this we wandered around a few sites, before eventually finding an independent coffee shop so we could refill and Linda rest her knee. Everywhere has free wi-fi so we could do some email and check Facebook.

After this we walked back to Broadway a different way and  visited AJ’s bar again, this time taking the roof top option, it was very hot in the sun drinking our coke.  By now we were  hungry so we went to a bar for a burger, owned by Dierks Bentley. The food was good and enjoyable. After this we went back to the hotel for a rest. Linda went for a swim as instructed by the Physio and I read my book and caught up on updating junior parkrun rotas.

On Friday we were leaving for Chattanooga which is about 132 miles South east of Nashville.  We took the scenic route through Nashville, via Music Row and saw the recording studios and Linda got a few photos. It was then a pleasant drive, although reasonably busy, we did stop for a coffee on route at a mountain town.  We listened to updates on the hurricane and its  impact (can’t give you all the details might ruin my Harvest sermon…).

It is hot here, 92-93 degrees and you need the air conditioning. Chattangoona is in a different time zone so we had to change our watches. We went to Hamilton Place as there were some craft shops Linda could visit and hop around.  We had an Air B n B apartment here and we arrived early evening. It is great, apart from I had to carry the luggage and food down three flights of stairs. We settled in and unpacked all our bags - nice to be able to find things for a change.

You can view the photos here

The Grand Tour

A busy Sunday morning with junior parkrun in the pouring rain, dropping dogs off at the kennels and then off to Canvey to preach, reflections of Mary around the cross. It was then back to our church to put the chairs away and get the hall ready for the weekly activites.

Fortunately we had packed our cases the day beforehand and so if was just putting in a few last minute things. We have three bags, one for running clothes and shoes, the other two with normal bits. As Abu Dhabi temperature is in the early 30 degrees we won’t need jumpers.

We were staying at the Thistle and so arrived there late afternoon, checked in and then had a wander around, disaster their coffee machine wasn’t working so I had to downgrade to McDonald’s. 

On Monday we had breakfast at the hotel, before we went to the airport. It was pouring with rain, but we got to use the business parking pods which whisk you to the airport, downside we had to walk to them. We arrived and checked our luggage in and then it was off to the business lounge and more food.

Our flight was at 13.20 so we had plenty of time to relax, read the papers, watch a film and savour the ambience. The time soon passed and we went to the C gates to board the plane.

We had some nice seats and settled down. I watched The Darkest Hour, had a nap and then watched Paddington 2. Linda watched Murder on the Orient Express and thought it was rubbish. The food kept coming on the flight and the travel time was just over 7 hours, so with the 4 hour difference it was about midnight when we landed. Passport control was quick and the luggage followed and it was straight to the hotel with the transfer.

We were staying at the Yas Viceroy, which is just outside the Abu Dhabi main area, its on an island, but is where the Formula 1 track is, in fact I am watching the cars go round from my balcony as I type this. They are noisy and unlike the telly you can’t turn them down. We have a nice large room which overlooks the track. The track actually goes under the hotel. 

We sort of dozed and then fell asleep, we managed to sleep through the alarm but still woke up in time for breakfast. We were meant to meet a rep at 10.00 but they never turned up or we missed them so we got the shuttle bus to Yas Central where the track is. People pay to drive or be a passenger around the track, but we just stood on the edge and watched them, using the different cars. It was great fun and we were there for several hours. I did try and sit in a F1 car, however, I am too tall and couldn’t sit down, Lewis’ job is safe.

In the evening you can run around the 5.5km track as many times as you like, so we couldn’t miss this opportunity. We arrived with our kit on and off we went, the first lap was slow around with 26 1/2 mins (actual running) as I was taking photos and 

stopping to look at things. The second lap was around 25 mins as all I did was run.  Lewis in his nice F1 car can do it in 1 minute and 37.8 seconds. 

Linda only went round once but thoroughly enjoyed it. We came back to the hotel as we were rather smelly and then went for dinner at the Italian restaurant. We are half board so in the evening we can either go to a specialised restaurant or have the buffet.

On Wednesday we went to the largest Mall in Abu Dhabi, which is on Yas Island and got the shuttle bus there. Ferrari World is there and we had a look at the outside and shop, even had a sale on, but the cars weren’t included. It is a theme park so we didn’t go in. We had a wander around the shops and got lost, it is very big and much posher than Lakeside. It didn’t help that the map they gave me was in Arabic, I did a few exercises there by running up the trolley escalators or whatever they are called. 

We stoped for a coffee and I had an Arabic one, which is black but is mixed with cardamom and comes in small cups and it was very nice. We had another wander around the shops  and finally found our way out. 

Back at the hotel I went to the gym and Linda went for a swim. We tried the Arabic restaurant in the evening, very nice kebab.

Operation Grand Tour was our focus on a Thursday. I had it planned to a T, times where we had to be at a location, time Linda could spend in a location, what could go wrong!  We got a taxi from the hotel to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which is 3rd largest mosque in the world and the largest outside Saudi Arabia. It opened at 9am but we were there at 0840 so first in the queue. There was only 45 minutes allocated to this visit, so we had to be quick. By being early it meant we could do the outside photos first. At 0900 we were let in, they didn’t like Linda’s choice of clothing, so she had to wear a abaya, it was a lovely brown colour. We had a look around, it was quite interesting and Linda took lots of photos. The carpet is the largest loomed in the world, so now we have seen the largest and second largest (Oman).  The Grand Mosque has 80 marbled drones, 1000 pillars, four chandeliers and four minarets. It has a 100,000 tons of pure white Greek and  Macedonian marble and the largest chandelier weights 12 tons. Of course every time I see the chandelier it reminds me of the Only Fools and Horses sketch. The carpet was made in Iran by 1200 ladies and has 2 billion , 268 million knots. It can hold  40000 worshippers (men only of course), Ladies have their own hall. Before we entered the Grand Mosque we had to take our shoes offend leave them on a shelf outside.

From here, we were getting the Big Bus for a tour, which meant we could get on and off whenever and wherever we wished. Linda wanted to go to the ladies, but as it wasn’t on the schedule till the next stop I said she had to hold it, we might miss the bus.  The bus was meant to take 30 mins but it took 1 hour due to traffic, so now I was behind on my schedule. It was an interesting route and ended up at the Louvre. This was a new art gallery opened at the end of 2015. It has a palm tree shaped roof, which is meant to let in the natural light. We had 30 minutes for coffee, photos and bathroom break. There was no time to go and look round, plus it was expensive and you just see some old paintings.

We completed our tour of the Louvre in the allocated time and got the next bus to continue the grand tour.  Abu Dhabi downtown is really big and you need the bus to get around. We stayed on it for about 30 minutes, seeing the port, Corniche, carpet souk, before getting off at the World Trade Centre Souk.  This was in a modern building and we had a look around, Linda bought herself a nice pashmina scarf and I bought some dates. Well I had to really as we had tasted so many, it would have been rude not to buy a few. This stall also gave you Arabic coffee to taste.

We then returned to catch the next bus, which was running late. However, we enjoyed a tour around the seafront area, heritage centre and onto the Etihad Towers. We got off here and wandered around and found Waitrose and bought a sandwich. We then walked to the Empire Palace hotel which has 114 domes, 1.3km beach area , cost $6 billion to build but does have 1002 crystal chandeliers and 400 luxury rooms.

We visited the cafe and sat by the fountains and I had the famous Palace Cappuccino. Sprinkled in real 24 carat gold flakes, this superior blend of aromatic coffee is sprinkled with gold flakes to give the drinker a taste of royalty, making it unlike anything I have ever tried before. It is  served on a polished silver tray, so you can enjoy your cappuccino with a special date and dark chocolate. There is also a palate cleansing glass of water. Linda had an ice cream, camel milk vanilla scoop and a chocolate scoop covered with gold. She really enjoyed it, the coffee was lovely too.

We sat there and enjoyed the sun, getting our moneys worth, then it was back to the bus and the rest of the red route tour. The tour ends at the Mosque where we had to change to a green route bus which took us back to our hotel. We had a half an hour to wait, I was quite happy to sit there and enjoy reading the newspaper, but the company representatives wanted us to do a tripadvisor entry.

We arrived back at the hotel just after 6pm. In the evening we tried the buffet, very nice, but ate too much as we kept going back to try different foods. No time for the gym today either. We then sat on our balcony and watched the racing cars go round the track, they were still going round at midnight. 

Friday is the Muslim holy day so we also had a day of rest. We woke up late and had breakfast before going to the swimming pool and just resting. I was working  on my Easter sermon series, Linda just swam and read her book. As we had landed late on Monday we couldn’t have an evening meal, so we had been offered lunch one day, which is fine but a three course meal at dinner time and in the evening is too much. However, don’t want to waste money so we had lunch today at the Italian. Linda had three courses, but I couldn’t face all that food so just went for the main course. We then needed a walk so we strolled down to the marina area, about 20 min walk, there wasn’t much there, just some boats and cafes, nothing exciting. We stopped for a coffee before walking back. You do not see very many people walking here.

Linda then wanted to go to the other pool, on the marina side, so we went up there and Linda had a swim. I was bored so decided to go for a run. There are no trails here so it was a road run, the island is not that big and there are limited paths. I managed ten miles, it was hot, around 80 degrees. I ran past the F1 track, the mall, Ferrari World and a few other places. I was slightly dehydrated when I got back. Strangely I didn’t see anyone else running at all, and only a handful of people walking including two who asked me for directions.

We did the buffet meal in the evening, but didn’t eat so much tonight, although I have probably eaten more calories than I ran off....

Saturday was our last day here, we were up early and had breakfast. We then caught the first bus to the mall so we were there when it opened. We had a wander around for a last few things and stopped for a coffee. It was then back to the hotel to sit by the pool in the sun, while looking at pictures of the snow back in England. 

We enjoyed a last meal in the restaurant, before packing our cases. We were picked up at 11pm for the 15 minute ride to the airport, it was then a quick check in, through fastrack security and to the lounge. We are looking forward to the bed on the plane and some sleep.  We landed early and then just had to did the car out from the snow....

UAE has strict social media policies and to prevent any problems I have waited till I am back in the UK before I posted the blog and pictures.

You can see some pictures here.