Munich 19 Jan

Munich

Munich – so different than last time we visited.  Absolutely no snow in sight.  A typical winters outlook, grey and lots of bare trees.  After waiting an eternity for our bags we meet Erika and travelled by train back to her place = a beautiful little apartment about 3 train stops from the cbd. 

Murray and Erika as we arrived at Josephplatz - 3 stops from Munich central station

Deutches Museum

 We dropped our bags off, had delicious coffee and headed back into the city for some sight seeing.  Lots of buildings became familiar and we soon got our bearing pretty good.  It started to snow a little. We were joined that night for dinner by a friend of Erika’s friend Mathias and enjoyed a meal of goulash and baguette.  We headed to bed around nine, which was pretty good. It snowed some more over 

Residences

night. Next day visited the city again.  The Bavarian King Ludwig presence is everywhere with streets, building, castles, churches and universities etc  The architecture is amazing so intricate and it really mystifies me as to how they actually achieved these buildings in the olden days – it must have taken for ever to build.  So much history  and  many events to  be remembered, but our guide “Erika” was great.  We visited the area of the universities and the English gardens and courtyards of the residence of the king – of course being winter it was a little different with all the beer gardens empty but you could see how the areas would be humming in summer.  We visited the famous Vitualienmarkt and yum did that ever get the hunger worms moving!  A bit expensive for fresh produce, but very good quality.  A large 
head of broccoli was E 4.50 (say $9 nz), cheeses and deli meats and olives for Africa, fresh fish, flowers, butchery and bakery items – pretty much anything in the food line.  We found a nice little coffee shop on a corner and satisfied our taste buds there.  We then walked and climbed the 306 steps to the top of the St Peterskirche church tower to get a 360 view of the city.  It was pretty cloudy but we could just see the snow covered mountains towards the south.  And pointed out some other landmarks from our last trip.  Found another great coffee shop in the Marienplatz square and enjoyed Bavarian cakes and coffee and the view towards the square.  It started to snow again and huge flakes were falling – it was
 really pretty.  Sorted out our train tickets for our next leg 
of our OE, we leave Munich in a couple of days.  Bit more sight seeing then headed home for another delicious meal of salad roast chicken and vegetables – Erika is a great cook!  The next morning was
                                                            Murrays birthday, Erika presented Murray his cake in bed a beautiful chocolate marble cake. 

We  got up and had some breakfast and of course cake, packed a picnic and then headed by train to the Deutches Museum.  Murray and Clive visited this last time with George, but it is so massive that they did not see it all.  We saw an electrical display which was really good, however the commentary was in German – no English info at all so that was a bit frustrating. We had a good look at several other displays including one about things from the 1950’s which was really good. There were lots of old household goods, and of course, cars, pushbikes and motorbikes.  We headed back with the intention of going the local hot pools but never made it, we rested instead.  We went to a really neat Italian restaurant with Erika and her friends for Murrays birthday.  It was a lovely meal and with really good company.  The next morning we caught the 10.35  train from Munich to Beuron.

Dubai 17 Jan

Auckland - Dubai

Well as you have all heard, we arrived safely and are getting sorted, jet lag has not been a problem for me this time, the stopover in Dubai was worth its weight in gold - and for more than one reason.  It is truly an amazing place and booking those two tours was a great decision, as was flying with Emirates a wonderful airline with all the trimmings, yes even in economy we had excellent service and the food was plentiful.  The space between seats was huge, so that was great for Murray.  We both had good sleeps and the biggest flight passed easily.  So back to Dubai - what can I say a city build on a desert.  Evidence of sand is everywhere, as well as the wealth.  Buildings are well built and very flash.  The first tour took us on a bus ride around the city, visiting the summer palace (1956) of one of the kings and then in contrast to that we drove past the current rulers abodes - absolutely massive and grand in comparison. The summer one was my favourite though. We drove past The Burj Khalifa standing at 810 m is the highest man made structure in the world.  The Atlantis Hotel famous for its water park and 11 million litre aquarium. – Yep they don’t do anything small around here!   The Burj Al Arab a hotel which resembles the white sail of a dhow. 

Burj Al Arab

The summer house

We also stopped and had 20 minutes to explore the Gold Souq which is basically a huge mall with shops filled with gold and silver and other goodies, and then stopped at the Spice Souq to experience the fragrant spices.  Shopkeepers continually approaching you to come into their shop, it was a bit annoying after awhile, and none of our lot seemed interested in buying anything.  We wandered through this massive market and popped out on to a back street that showed another side of Dubai.  The rich smells from the spices and the locals with their traditional clothing and the buzz of the Arabic language really set the scene. We also saw government house, the river boats, the fascinating wind towers which basically are created to vent hot air and allow cool air into houses – really neat. A visit to a museum was interesting too.  A boat ride in a dhow across the river was different with the boat having an ancient steering system – a kind of mini Venice in a way, but much cleaner! Yellow and red marigolds line all the streets, and the grass is green.  The city provides a recycling water system to irrigate the gardens, and you can see the pipes laid out ready for future gardens everywhere.  It is really beautiful.  They have a desalination plant which recycles 500lt of water a day per person, so they have plenty to spare.  The government is looking after people be providing free water, free power, no taxes, and in some cases they provide housing and we are talking about very nice housing.  Motorways - seven lanes in both directions in some places – amazing!  cars everywhere, but totally in control, courteous drivers and a good metro(train) service was being developed, to help ease congestion.  According to our tour guide anyone working for Emirates is very well looked after – wage wise and also other perks.  A bus driver with Emirates might earn $5000 darrum which is around $2500 US$ per month while a driver of a city bus may get $2500 darrum per month.  Just thinking about Emirates, they have a separate airport terminal for emirates flights, they do use the same runway but not terminal.  It is truly amazing huge and extravagant.  waterfalls inside, very clean, three terminals, that take around sixty minutes to walk from one end to the other- as I found out!   We also went on an afternoon tour to the desert.  This was so cool.  A Toyota landcruiser came to pick us up and we headed out of town for around an hour and then turned off into the desert.  Let the tyres down and then we were good to go.  They were lots of other vehicles from the same company and some from others.  We crossed many dunes before coming to our first stop for a display of falcons.  Very clever training had the bird diving for food right in front of us so we could see him in action.  Then we carried on driving over the dunes for ages before coming to a spot to see the sunset over the dunes.  Professional photographers appeared out of nowhere to snap up the perfect pics that they would show us later on. It was pretty cool, but I think the colours would have been better in the summer, with a bit more heat around.  More gasping as we go up and over the sand dunes and then coming to a little oasis in the middle of nowhere for our bbq dinner. There were five poor camels for about 100 people to ride – so we didn’t, we had in Australia so it didn’t really matter.  The falcon was there for more pics and then there was a guy doing sand pictures that were priced way over the top! And girls doing henna painting – which I had done, but the lines are not even so it doesn’t look that great,  smoking pots, and of course the professional photo man was there, and a belly dancer. The whole place was set out just like an Arabian night – tent canopies, carpets on the sand, cushions on the mats, low tables, dim lighting, the food was traditional and we enjoyed trying some new things.    Note to self – Dubai deserves more than just a one night stopover.

Dubai River - (little Venice)

Murray with the Falcon

Camels being led away

Sunset over  the dunes

Tuesday 17th  January 2011

Time to leave, after many goodbyes and a farewell at the airport the "fossils on tour" begins.