August 22nd

Awoke, readied, ate a light breakfast, packed and checked out by 0920. Jeff did a Indrive- a taxi, to get us to the train station. Today we leave Morocco! We have been here 86 days- the longest we have been in any other country besides USA!! It is bittersweet- reluctant to leave, but ready for new adventuring. Boarded our train by 0945, we both realized we will be doing “train, plane and automobile” today.  🙂  Arrived at airport, checked-in and through security/passport control without any real lines or issues (except our mistake- we left Jeff's bag at first x-ray station. Thankfully, it was still there.). We arrived at airport lounge, Pearl Lounge. (Something about pearls- we stayed at Perla Hotel in Fez, now Pearl Lounge, hmmm?) I had a coffee and coke with a four bite sized tuna pizza and Caesar salad. Jeff had a pineapple drink with a slider of turkey and cheese, also a Caesar salad. Then went out to board plane… and waited. We were one hour late taking off. We were served a meal inflight- it was okay. Landed in Cairo, Egypt for layover (fitting since we are flying Egypt Airlines). We went into Lounge in this airport. It did not measure up- all I can say, it was free food. (The lounges here in Cairo and in Casablanca did not serve any alcohol, due to Muslim based countries- Morocco and Egypt. But they also were down a few notches in food variety compared to the ones we have been in up to now. And actually, Egypt's was really, pretty pitiful.) Anyway, our layover was not as much time as we had thought due to delay and the time change- was two hours not just one hour. Layover amounted to 1.5 hrs instead of three. We boarded for Dubai by 1130pm for takeoff at 1145,… but again a delay!  42 minutes this time!! But this delay was due to a passenger(s). There was A LOT of yelling in the back of the plane, mostly a woman. Anyway, the stewardess – who announces – has a thick accented English, so didn't make out full explanation, but I heard “delay due to passenger(s)”.  Crazy commotion!!  This foreshadowed the whole flight. There were a bunch of little children… just a mass of noise and commotion, pretty much the whole four hour flight. We finally touched down in Dubai around 0530 (added another hour- so we are now nine hours time ahead of you all back in Kansas). 

What a way to start our Dubai Interval!!!

So now it's…   August 23rd.  We collected our luggage and by 0630 we were on the bus to our hotel. We could check in this early, but at a cost- like adding another night's stay! We opted not to do this. They stored our bags for a smaller fee. So we headed out at 0800 am- til we could check in at 2 pm. Okay, so it is VERY HOT here. At this time 0800 am, the temperature is 91 degrees, but heat index makes it feel like 112 degrees per our weather app!!!!   When we stepped out of the airport earlier, the “mugginess” and heat just surrounded and oppressed you. It was also very hazy.  Our eye glasses were instantly steamed up… like we had just opened the oven! Why do people live here? Why are we here? Questions??? LOL!

We went to a bus “stop”, more like a “mini” bus station. It was a cubicle with a sliding door closure and felt like a refrigerator compared to outside. Bus arrived and those waiting, including us, boarded quickly- from one A.C. zone to the next. We took the bus… wait for it… to the Dubai Mall. We went here for three reasons. First, to kill time and get some steps to help keep us awake. Second, it has A.C.!! Third, and the main reason, to see the Burj Khalifa- the tallest building in the world! And it is all that (and a bag of chips)… so tall!!  We plan on going up that building tomorrow! Anyway, we had a small bit of food at the Dubai Mall. This whole mall is out of our price range. It has 1,200 shops, including: Tiffany's, Armani, Pierre Cardin (x3 shops), Dior, Gucci, Versace, Abercrombie & Fitch, Rolex, Bloomingdales,… yada, yada, and so forth, to just name a few. This mall also has the Dubai Aquarium (you can dive in it- with some good-sized sharks!) and Underwater Zoo ; an full sized ice skating rink (there was a hockey team practicing);  and a very tall (all four stories of the mall) waterfall!! The mall is tied in with the Burj Khalifa- you actually enter the building from the mall. 

From here we went out the metro (the mall has a stop in it, of course.) to the end of it's line, the 2020 Expo area. We saw so many skyscrapers- fitting word, skyscrapers; the new housing developments surrounded by lush greenery, to a point, then it is just endless sand; a rather large warehouse-after-warehouse area; and all sorts of Mosques- from big with four minarets, to small local ones. It was a great way to see some of Dubai… in A.C.! 

Now we rode metro back to our hotel and checked in officially. It is actually a very nice room! Jeff made a great deal here. We took a much needed one hour nap. Then I finished this blog while Jeff caught up one e-mails', double checking his planning stuff, did a bit of our laundry, and got us light supper with our last bottle of Moroccan wine. Will close with this. God bless to all, praying for you all.