Survived the night with crowds of singing boys outside the pub next door then set off to visit the Houses of Parliament. Had an audio tour & spent several hours listening & looking at the great halls, House of Lords & House of Commons. Gorgeous ornate gothic architecture, mosaics, gilt, vaulted roofs & of course the iconic view of Big Ben. After a cream tea to keep us going we made our way to the Cabinet War Rooms where Churchill orchestrated the ...

Spent a full day in the floral heaven of the Chelsea Flower Show & were so lucky to be there early, had no rain & had bought our tickets when they first went on sale. Apparently the tickets for the whole 6 days sold out almost as soon as they were released so thank goodness for internet booking! We had a thoroughly enjoyable day walking around all the show gardens, floral displays & sales stalls. Had a couple of long conversations with stall holders -...

Explored some of old Dubai today at the gold & spice souks. Very hot walking about in the sun but amazing displays of gold, diamonds & pearls - might be worth making a purchase here if we have any money left on our way back home! Sarah thinks there should be a rule about not leaving Dubai without a diamond! The spice souk was full of interesting scents including a combined frankincense & myrrh which we've never seen before & loose saffron. Dinner ...

Spent most of the day in the enormous Dubai Mall - quite an achievement for non-shop-going Geoff. We actually hardly entered any of the thousands of stores & didn't buy anything except food but had a great day. The high end stores, fashion & souk are frequented by local Emerati who seem to shop in several groups - tall, dark & (very) handsome young men wearing their immaculate white kandura robe & white headscarf ( or black baseball cap!) Young wo...

Great flight to Dubai - got to love Emirates & the new airport huge but super efficient. It's hot here but not as bad as expected - 37 degrees but dry like home in summer. Given dates & spiced coffee in a tiny cup on check-in at Al Murooj Rotana across the highway from Dubai Mall then spent a while snoozing by the pool. Walked across to the mall to watch the fountain lightshow & have dinner by the lake across from the Burj Khalifa. Lovely choreographe...