Rodeo Drive at The Emirates Mall in Dubai

Where would I like to go this morning? How about The Mall. Make that - The Emirates Mall. And I think I'll go upstairs to the Rodeo Drive section and window shop.

It's like being at the back of Piazza San Marco, or like being on the Isle of Capri. The brand name, hig fashion shops are incredible. Alessandro was so cheesed off with me last October for not going into any, but just window shopping from outside.

Ruby Tuesday - Ferrari in Dubai

This is my contribution to Ruby Tuesday:

Got something RED that you've photographed? Ruby Tuesday is hosted by Mary over at Work of the Poet.

It was a hot afternoon in Dubai - 40 degrees, and I had just left Alessandro at the Wild Wadi Water Park, next to the famous Burj Al Arab hotel. He had a fabulous time, then brought himself back to our hotel in a taxi.

PhotoHunt - Funny signs - Dubai

The malls in Dubai are so large that it hard to get around them. At the Ibn Battuta Mall, you can catch the indoor shuttle bus to get from one department... clear over to the next. It is 5.4 million square feet inside.

Look how big this indoor display is - and it was one of many. Alessandro and I loved seeing Dubai and are looking forward to going back there soon.





This is my PhotoHunt entry for funny signs.

Ok, I can't resist - here is a sign I made recently:

P.S. Go and look at this post by TorAa - I just love it!

The Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai

Do you know - it's SO big, you can ride a shuttle bus inside it from one department to another?

Alessandro at the Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai

Dubai, the lego store at the Ibn Battuta Mall

On our recent trip overseas, our stay in Dubai was enchanting, but oh, too brief. I'm looking forward to returning there.

Dubai - Ibn Buttata Mall

Close up with a camel

One of the best malls we went to see was the Deira City Centre. It was a 15 minute taxi ride from the Dhow Palace Hotel. It has 300 outlets, which isn't that big for Dubai, but it's very well laid out and very popular with both locals and ex-pats. Did you know that ex-pats make up 80% of the population? We ate dinner on the second night at the food court. There were lots of sales in all the stores for Ramadan, and food outlets were mostly closed during the day, but there were some open for tourists behind black curtains, with a discreet sign saying 'Entrance'. The stores opened at 10am, and some of them stayed open until 1am!

This was a display on one of the three floors. The moving camel was very realistic - but it's as close as I wanted to get to a real one. I took a jacket along to all the malls, for the air conditioning - which was great. Taxis, hotels and shops are all air conditioned, which is great as it's a hot place. A cool change came through as we were leaving.

Have passport will travel

Alessandro got his passport today. I haven't seen him this excited in a long time.

He hasn't had a passport since he was fifteen months old and our family went for a three month trip to Italy to visit friends and family and to see so many beautiful places.

On that trip we went to Pisa, Florence and Venice, and stayed with the Aunts in Modena for seven weeks, on and off, and visited friends in Piemonte.

We stayed in friend's holiday apartments for ten days at a time in Capo Mele on the Ligurian coast and up in the mountains at Tonezza del Cimone up above Vicenza. We also stayed with friends in their apartments, in many locations in northern Italy. Then we toured, staying for a week at a time around San Gimignano, San Marino and Valle d'Aosta.

This time we are using his new passport to spend a couple of weeks in Italy and to visit Dubai. And yes, I think he's very excited!