Friday 18th October,
Today we spent almost 22 hours travelling. I thought I would get a big walk in before we left, so I would be tired and sleep on the plan. Kim, Anne and I did a massive 16km walk up through Cherokee (lots of hills). This plan didn't work though:( I wasn't tired and I had terribly sore glutes from walking!!! Massive fail.
We boarded Emirates on the big 380 at 1025pm. We were lucky enough not to have anyone sit next to us so we had 3 seats between us, which meant we could stretch out a bit more. Gaz had been at work all day so he managed to get off to sleep on around 2am but unfortunately I was so uncomfortable in my glutes I just couldn't get off to sleep. The food was great and the service was lovely, no complaints. We landed at Dubai on time at 5:25am, local time. We had 3 hours at the airport and walked nearly the entire time. We managed to get wifi at Maccas so I could update Facebook and we had a good chat with the kids via face time. We boarded at 9:10am and had another 7 hour trip. This time I did get about 2 hours sleep so I felt much better after that. We landed in Rome 15 min late and it took over an hour to clear customs! Two international planes landed close together and they only had 3 booths open so it just took ages to get through.
I had arranged for a car to pick us up so we had a lovely trip in a new back Mercedes from the airport to the Hotel. We had to go along a few back streets as there was a protest going on and there were police everywhere. We got settled into the hotel, had a quick shower then headed out to explore Rome. Everything was shut up so it was very quiet as the police had also cordoned off many streets due to the protest. Not sure what it was all about as the news was in Italian so couldn't getting he gist of it. Something to do with an increase in taxes. It was weird (and a bit disconcerting) seeing armed riot police everywhere. Will try and get photos up tonight too.
We found a nice resteraunt and had antipasto, pizza and pasta platter. Gaz had a peroni beer and I tried an arpre spritzer which was rephreshig but a bit like lucozade! We were back at the hotel by 7pm and Gaz is already asleep! We are leaving for Paris tomorrow at 9:45am so need to be up and out of here by 7am. It's going to be another big day.
good night xxxx
