An Ear-popping Experience

Wednesday started off on a sweet note as my suitcase finally arrived, after six days missing.

Went out for breakfast about 9:00 after which we took the metro to Dubai Mall (as mentioned before, the world's largest mall). This mall is associated with Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure in the world. We had purchased tickets to go up the tower at 12:30 p.m. and the assembly point for this tour is from the lower level of this mall. The Burj Khalifa tower has 160 floors; we were going to the At The Top Observatory which is on floor 140. It has the world's fastest elevator 64km/hr. or 59 ft./sec. I was thinking that my heart was going to sink down into my shoes. However, you hardly know you are moving except for the preessure change in your ears. Spent some time on the observatory as Ralph took pictures. Holy cow, it's so high up. Oh yes, I brought my Olympic red mittens (thanks, Mavis) to Dubai with me as Ralph wanted to get a picture for submission to Jeff Hutchinson, Canada AM. I won't submit it until I get back home as if I'm going to be on TV, I want to see me - lol.

When finished, back to Dubai Mall where we caught a shuttle bus to the metro and then took the metro to Mall of the Emirates where we wanted to see Ski Dubai, the first indoor ski resort of the Middle East. It covers 22,500 square metres (equivalent to three football fields) and is covered with snow all year round, has five runs that vary in difficulty, and has full capacity for 1,500 skiers/snowboarders, etc. We watched the chairlifts come and go. All I can say is, it was pretty darn amazing!

By now it was 5:00 p.m. so we decided to eat at one of the many restaurants at Mall of the Emirates (Italian tonight), after which we took the metro back to our hotel, rested/relaxed for a couple of hours and at 9:00 p.m., went out again, walking and exploring as everything is opened up till 11:00 p.m. every day.