A Dubai Weekend

We decided on Friday morning to head north to Dubai for the weekend (remembering the working week here runs from Sunday to Thursday.)  We booked a room at the Premier Inn and off we went.  Monet was very excited - for her the prospect of a night away in a hotel is like Christmas for her!  (She's very hotel savvy, let me tell you!)

But before the hotel room beckoned, we had decided to visit Dubai Mall, which lies underneath the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world.  The Mall itself is home to over 2000 shops and restaurants and is one of the largest shopping malls in the world.  It seriously was an amazing place.  The below photo was taken before the crowds hit.

Where else could you find one of the world's biggest bookshops? (It kept going on and on and on....)

An ice rink?

An indoor waterfall?

An aquarium? (Now, that was amazing!)

It honestly blew us away but it is so big it is actually too big.  There is still a lot of shops to be opened in the near future so honestly, if you can't find what you were looking for here, you must have your eyes shut.  

By the time we had lunch (in the most amazing food court ever!), walked around, did a touch of shopping (not much but I did buy a couple of good cookbooks!) and on our way to find our hotel, it was past 4:30pm.  

Dubai roads seem to be a series of ring roads, on and off ramps, bridges and roundabouts.  After (finally) finding ourselves heading in the right direction I caught this snap of the Burj Tower from a distance with the sun setting...

The Premier Inn was great (we'll stay there again down the track I am sure).  It was relatively inexpensive, had a great little bar and a restaurant there and a coffee shop.  The room was not too dissimilar from the one we stayed at in London (which gave us good feeling - same prints on the walls and everything Lol!!) 

After breakfast in the morning we headed to the Emirates Mall for a wander around there.  We left a little while later to head home.  (Over shopping, but surprisingly, shoppers didn't annoy me, which usually happens!) 

Next time we head to Dubai, we have decided we'll go out onto Palm Island and explore some of the amazing architecture on foot, rather than doing drive-bys.