Made it to Dubai, finally..Glad for the overnight rest. Flew diagonaly across India, with some very rough air off the west coast of India & on into the Gulf of Aman & on to the Persian Gulf.
Dubai is HOT !! 38 degrees & 100% humidity blowing in from the gulf & WOW what an airport.. We had some language difficulties on arrival & English signage is minimal, so after some confusion we obtained a handfull of Dirham (local currency )from a machine.Everything here is clean, new & bold & no graffiti at all. Great hotel with an early departure in a couple of hours for Munich.
I am writing this at 3.30am after a fabulous 10 hour sleep, our bodies still think it is 9.30am so we are now wide awake, great for an early departure.
The hotel has offered to make us an early boxed breakfast to go. Travelling west following the sun makes early departures very easy. I guess it will be the opposite on the way home, but as luck would have it we will be having evening departures.

A couple of hours later........... We are now sitting in a lovely new A380 with a window seat heading out over the Gulf for Afgahnistan..
Our first flight today will take us directly over Bahgdad & past all the other Stans & be in Munich around 1pm
Change planes to Air Berlin then onto Berlin by 4pm. The menu has just been delivered & for breakfast it will be traditional Arab mezze ((moutabal, labneh ball,halloumi cheese, chick peas balila & fresh crudites )
Deli platter, croissant & tea or coffee. Don't know what most of it is but it will be fun finding out.
Lunch is..Shrimp cocktail, chicken cacciatore, lamb biryani with banana suchard, cheese & biscuits & chocolates for desert.
I have stuck all this crap in as I am not keeping a diary & we may like some of this stuff & I can refer back.

The Gulf has a large amount of shipping, as you would expect & there are numerous oil outlets in the sea, some of which have
burning chimneys on them
We have just flown over Kuwait. The whole country looks like an enormous sand pit with lots of lines on the sand & numerous
oil wells dotted around with burning chimneys.
Iraq is not much better, but with farms crowded around the Tigris river. The area around Bahgdad is desolate.
It is hard to believe that all those problems are still going on only 10 Klms below us, while we sit here in luxury enjoying
great food.

We have carefully skirted around the border of Syria. I guess so that no trigger happy rebel fires amissile at us.
As we are now approaching the Turkish border we can clearly see many snow capped mountains in Iran along the border with Iraq.
It is hard to believe that the snow can exist in this incredible heat in summer.Southwest Turkey also has many snow capped ranges.
We have stuck another airport photo in todays blog as up to now thats what we have seen most of.
I think I will have to start a separate blog page just for airport photos. We can then put in all the other airport photos &
we will then have a magnificent collection of airport pics ( how exciting ).
The scenery below is now changing & becoming even more mountainous with proper buildings & towns & better sealed roads.We are getting closer to Europe.
( If you are getting bored with this rambling crap just skip to tomorrows post, which may be worse )

 The moving map only goes to English labels every few minutes, the rest of the time it is in Arabic & so are the announcements
on the plane. Yvonne says she is sick of hearing Arabic.Tomorrow I think she will be sick of hearing German. At least one of
us will understand whats going on.
So much for Yvonnes theory that most people will speak English. That has not been our experience in Dubai.
As I type this there are enormous lakes from dams below us in the middle of very
mountainous & arid country. I am sure this multi armed lake is in excess of 100klms. This area has to be worth a road trip at
some future date.
The computer battery is running low but I have just found a convenient power point on the seat back in front of me so I am
now on charge & can continue rambling.
On our right I can now see the coast of the Black sea. I think the other side of the black sea borders Russia, I will have to
refer to an atlas.
This is a great geography lesson as I can now see how all these places relate together.
We have now again altered course & are headed directly toward Istanbul. ( I am sure thats in Turkey )
Ooooops more turbulence, set belt sign on, not too bad in this big bird though.
Three hours to Munich & I am enjoying typing this much more than watching some movie, even though there is quite a large selection.

A quick note on toilets ???
 In the most spectacular airport terminal engineering structure on earth, we find the toilets rather interesting.
Upon opening the cubicle door there is a hole in the floor with a stainless steel surround which you squat over & crap in,
beside you is a hose to spray your arse with on completion of your task.I discovered this on arrival in Dubai & found there
were western toilets in the rear 2 cubicles after completing my business. I did not mention this to Yvonne as I thought she would enjoy discovering this
for herself. Yes sure enough Yvonne did need to use the oblutions this morning as we were waiting to depart & no she did
NOT find the western toilets in the rear cubicles. This gave me a warm glow on her return, while she was complaining.
She will discover the truth when she reads this & look to the rear on the return journey.
Just passing Ankara, I think thats in Turkey too. Turkey is big.

The plane has many muslim women aboard, mostly dressed in full black burkas with only a slit for their eyes,
while the men wear mainly western clothes.The men not wearing western clothes wear white dresses & sandals.
The woman must roast in their black sacks in this crazy hot weather.

We are now approaching North Western Turkey & will be flying over the southwest corner of the Black sea.
The country below is now quite forrested & totally different to the arid middle East.
WOW !!! The Black sea is Blue !!! Who would have thought.

Anyone who has had the stamina to read this far will be praying that our next flight will be much shorter.
Yvonne is asleep (again).

Well it looks like I won't see Istanbul as it is on the left side & we are sitting on the right side, but lunch is coming
down the isle, so its all good.

Lunch was excellent.The country below is now totally different, many villages & cities & most of the rest, neat cultivation.
We are now over Europe proper & everything is green & lovely below. The day is clear & cloud free.
We are flying paralell a river, it seems very large.

A while later..... We are now crossing into Hungary, Budapest is just ahead on the right side, out of our window.
Budapest is where our river cruise from Amsterdam ends.
I have been for a walk to strech my legs & met the aircraft manager & had a chat. It seems that Emirates now has 22 of
these A380s' with another 55 on order, with 1 being delivered every 3 months. They also have 1 new 777ER being delivered
every month until 2015.

Germany has just popped up on the map ahead of us, so my prattle will soon be coming to an end.
18 degrees on the ground in Munich, fine day, just starting our decent from 38,000 feet.
Decending over the Austrian alps, There is still quite a lot of snow around considering it is summer.The air is crystal clear.
Can see many ski runs on the mountain sides, pity it is such a long trip to get here as it would be beautiful in winter.
Closing up for landing now. (Thank god I hear you cry. )

On the ground in Berlin, after a short 1 hour flight from Munich. It is quite warm here. Yvonne is having a nap as she is not feeling well.
Yvonne gets crook everytime we travel. She says she caught something from the guy across the aisle.
Well I think that fairly thoroughly wraps up events for today. Tomorrow we cycle around Berlin. I am now going downstairs to
the bar for a well earned drink....................................

Dubai...M