Flight in landed after 11pm- the humidity hit us coming out of the airport. Met by a cheery man with a name board and taken to the taxi rank. Picked up by taxi- nice journey to the hotel- buildings lit up and looking quite magnificent. Arrived at the hotel which was covered in scaffolding!
Pleasant decor- room ok but a bit below standards in our opinion. Breakfasted early- very good choice of cold (fruit, vegetables, meats etc) and a variety of breads & cakes, self-service beverages, many hot dishes eg Turkey bacon, chicken sausages, baked beans, pancakes and a chef at hand to cook eggs however you desired. Once we'd filled up with breakfast, we checked out the hotel facilities, complained about our room and we're moved to a 'seaview'. Much cleaner. We decided to take a walk to the nearby corniche whilst it wasn't too hot- how wrong we were! The coolest temperature at 8am was 26 degrees Celsius- as soon as we walked out of any building, Jimmy's glasses steamed up! Dont know why we imagined anyrhing other than hot, humid and dusty conditions but we just were not used to it! After a quick walk by the sea and a sweaty stroll to the shopping mall- we were extremely relieved to be inside a cool and very modern complex, full of designer shops, restaurants and cafés, department stores and a large supermarket. We changed our remaining NZ dollars to the UAE currency, Dinars, and cooled down in the large department store, Lulu. The clothes were very reasonably priced so we took advantage and bought a few items. Bargain of the day was a bikini (needed by me to make full use of the roof-top that was calling me at this stage) which at sale price was the equivalent of £2!!
We stopped at a cafe with views out to the city and ordered two ice cold drinks- for me a lime & mint drink, for Jimmy a raspberry cooler. Both drinks were made as we watched the fresh fruit prepared at the counter- the appearance, taste and smell reflected the freshness and vibrance of the fruits we chose- absolutely delicious and extremely refreshing. A short walk back to the hotel and a quick drink in the 'English pub' on the ground floor, with countless TV screens showing football & other sports. Interestingly, 'Bein' sports channel shows all the EPL in a similar way to Sky Sports- and with Richard Keys & Andy Gray hosting the show! Peter Reid joined them for some games too. Up to the rooftop for a swim & relax by the pool and time to write our final postcards of the trip. It was nice to laze away the rest of the afternoon and know we weren't going far the flowing day either. We decided to eat in the hotel restaurant- neither of us were hungry really and I think it easy due to the heat so we chose small dishes (my Greek salad was fresh and tasty). Jimmy returned to the pub to watch more footie, I chose to snuggle up in the comfortable extra-king size bed with beautiful cotton sheets zzzzzzzzzz