Dubai to Freiberg

 25 - 27 July

Desert Fox

After a good flight from Melbourne we descended into the heat of Dubai. Early in the morning, 5am, it was already 35C; like walking into a heated sauna. Our hotel, the Arabian Courtyard, is full of charm, with décor to suit its name.  The staff are extremely polite and helpful, food is good, room is spacious.  It is in the old part of Dubai directly across the road from the museum and old fort which dates back from the 1840s.  The museum is divided into an exterior look at what life in a fort might comprise, and a much cooler underground display of different styles of work and living in the old days.  Actually, when you roam around the old souks, it doesn't really look as though life has changed much at all.  It’s only when you see the new buildings and the vast malls that you begin to see the wealth of this nation.

The museum had some good little dioramas of craftsmen making pots, selling cloth, weighing and haggling out pearl prices, and one is of desert animals who come to life when the sun has set.  A hare, and a hedgehog being two, and even a red desert fox.

Dubai is a good stopover after 13 hours flying.  We had dinner with Matt who was working in Dubai for a few months - very nice Thai & Chinese restaurant in our hotel where we finished up with fortune cookies.  Among the three of us, Matt got one that said, "No go, if can't pay", I had one that said, "Friends long absent, are coming back to you."  Nick ended up with, "Time may be a great healer, but it's no beauty specialist", and there was a final one which advised, "Keep your feet on the ground, even though your friends flatter you."  Hmmm...

Next morning after a 4am wake-up with the very near-by minaret call to prayer, we departed Dubai for Zurich where we were met by John and Jenny and driven to Hochstetten, near to Freiberg where they live.  The temperature dropped by some 20 degrees and left me wondering why I'd deliberately chosen not to pack my jeans, but just keep to summer clothing.  

Today, Nick and Jenny climbed the Kohlerhoff while John and I took the car - in the rain - to the gasthaus where I, once again, ate the most beautiful, melting, goat cheese wrapped in smoked ham.  Delicious.

We shopped for supplies, packed the car, and tomorrow we set off for France...