First Day in Dubai

I arrived around 7:00 PM last night. The airport was immense and very opulent. I had arranged with Marhaba through Emirates (recommended by my friend, Paula) for a greeter to meet me.  After a 13 hour flight with no sleep, I was very glad to see him holding up my name when I arrived near baggage claim. We sped through customs, and then he handled the baggage while I went to the ATM.

We then went outside to get a pink-roofed taxi which is also known as a ladies taxi. The ride to Jumeriah Beach Residence where I had booked an AirBnB was about 40 minutes. There was quite a bit of traffic, but the city was  pretty with the lights and so many unusual stores lit up. It was interesting to see a lot of US businesses like Subway written in English/Arabic. 

At the apartment, Kashem was waiting outside, and he proceeded to explain all the ins and outs of the apt. It was candlelit with roses and rose petals strewn about for a special welcome. (I had also seen rose petals used as a welcome in Africa.) Very pretty! There is a spirit of hospitality that is very evident in all the people I’ve meet so far. 

Next. I went to Carrefour, the local grocery story which was a quick 5 minute walkaway. I knew I wanted coffee, fruit, cereal, etc. for the next morning, not to mention something more for dinner. Unfortunately, I got a little disoriented on the way back to Rimal 4 which is the address of my JBR tower. I quickly retraced my steps and found it easily. 

Dinner on the balcony overlooking the pool and the city of Dubai was beautiful.

Airport

View from balcony

My dinner - baked beans, banana, yogurt and plums - courtesy of Carrefour. Yum!

Airport

Roses and petals on the bed.

Airport

City of Dubai

City of Dubai

Airport

Dubai in four days

My friend, Paula, is teaching in Sharjah in the UAE, and she invited me to visit. We go back years and years, having first met in the Berkshires of western MA at a ballet camp named Beaupre in the mid '70's. About fifteen years ago, I "found" her in Iowa. We last met up in MN where we had fun exploring Minneapolis. 

See you in Dubai...


PS -  My AirBnB is located in the Jumeriah Beach Residence complex which (I think) is at the top middle of this picture.


Emirates Tower, Jumeriah Beach

Soon arriving back to Bergen

As they say, all good things must come to an end and so it is with this cruise of coastal Norway. We needed to “check out” (that is vacate) our rooms by 10 AM and were directed to place luggage we wanted held in the Hurtigruten terminal by the elevators.

After breakfast, we went up to the Explorer Lounge for a concert of Norwegian music and viewing the scenery while we wait until it’s time to disembark.

We will take a taxi to the AirBnB we have reserved for tonight, walk around Bergen in what promises to be a rainy afternoon, possibly get one last gelato and then it’s off to the airport early tomorrow morning for our flight to Copenhagen, then Dulles and finally Columbus.

Robin Narrates a Saga

Many evenings, there is some sort of entertainment - singing sea shanties, a Northern Lights video, etc. Last night, one of the Expedition members, Robin, treated us to a rendition of a Norwegian saga featuring Thor, Freya, Loki and other somewhat familiar Nordic characters. Robin came dressed for his presentation in a monk’s garb.

He read with great enthusiasm even though I’m sure some of the English words were most likely words he does not use every day. He was right when he said during his afternoon preview of the event that it would be very funny.

Salmon Filleting part 2

Finished products with plates and small wooden forks available to taste test.

The first picture below shows salmon prepared with soy sauce and other spices.

This dish shows the grated horseradish and dill.

               

   

Salmon Filleting

Mid-afternoon outside on Deck 7, the head chef treated us to a lesson in salmon filleting and preparation.

First he displayed the salmon, and kindly posed to allow for numerous camera clicks as we all snapped away. 

Next he described the filleting process. He made a slice at one end of the fish to give him a more secure edge to hold onto as he removed the skin. Soon he produced a tweezers (suggesting the crowd could borrow their wife’s eyebrow tweezers if they didn’t have one) which he used to pull out many tiny bones,

Then came the seasoning. He used a microplane to grate horseradish over one platter and sprinkled  other spices over the other.

Bronnoysund Part 2

As we were walking down the quay in Bronnoysund, I spied a spider, so here it is just for fun. Also some views of the harbor and the mall, including a hardware store.