Thursday 4th April
We arrived in Dubai yesterday at lunchtime and will leave late this evening. Yesterday we took the shuttle bus into town and then walked to the Dubai Creek. It was quite a long way - Dubai is very spread out. The Bastakiya area around the creek is one of the oldest parts of Dubai with lots of traditional houses that have wind towers that provide ventilation. We also saw the 18th century Al Fahidi Fort and the remains of the old city walls. We took a trip on a small boat that took us along the creek - it was very pleasant as there was a lovely breeze on the water.
Today we went on a tour that took us to the Palm Jumeirah - the man made island in the shape of a palm tree. We went to the Atlantis Hotel which is in the middle of the crescent of the island (The picture shows the hotel). Inside the hotel there is an aquarium and also the Ambassador Lagoon which is the largest fish tank in the world. You view it inside the hotel through huge windows. It was very impressive and I could have spent hours watching all the fish - there are supposed to be 65,000 fish in there! We then went into the restaurant where we had a wonderful buffet lunch - so much choice of food and so many delicious sweets it was difficult to choose. My waist line could have done without this lunch but it was very enjoyable.