Goodbye to Germany and arrival in Dubai

After three years of planning with very friendly and helpful employees from Karawane Reisen, who incorporated all our special requests into the travel itinerary, the time had finally come: Our sabbatical year began and the departure day for our long journey, which will take us to Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, was getting closer.

Our suitcases had been packed for three days and we were very excited about what to expect on the trip.

Surprisingly, the journey to the airport went smoothly: The train made up for the initial 10-minute delay to Hamburg and we arrived at the gate very early, where we could already see the Boeing 777-300ER, which we would be flying with, on the ground.

After a much too short night with little sleep, we arrived in Dubai early in the morning, where we first went to the hotel. There we could check in and strengthen ourselves with the abundant breakfast buffet before embarking on a city tour.

After a short tour in the mall, we took the 'Hop-on-Hop-off' bus towards the old town.

There, we took a boat tour on a typical Dubai ship (dhow) through Dubai Creek.

Due to our lack of sleep, we had some trouble concentrating on the English explanations and occasionally our eyes closed...

So after the next stop at Dubai Museum, we set off for an active exploration of Dubai: First, we visited the exhibition that informs about the history of the emirate and the former life in Dubai, located in and below a former fort.

To stay awake, we then walked through the old town alleys on foot, which were filled with many merchants, but we didn't want to buy a scarf or a cheesy camel figurine from any of them.

Bur Dubai Souq

Despite the 40°C in the shade, we bravely continued walking along the Creek because we wanted to visit the 'Heritage Village' and 'Diving Village', two open-air museums. Unfortunately, there was no entrance and no sign of a museum to be found. According to the guidebook, they should have been open, but we couldn't find a sign indicating different opening hours either.

So we continued marching through the pedestrian tunnel to the other side of the Creek, Deira. There, we ended up in a construction site and had to pass through an underpass with sleeping construction workers. Somehow, we eventually found our way to the 'Gold Souq', the gold market. We then continued to the spice market and rejected all the sales attempts by the merchants...

We took the bus back to Dubai Mall and realized that most stops were shopping malls. Of course, we also saw some of Dubai's gigantic construction projects along the way.

Waterfall in Dubai Mall

In addition to cinemas, a large aquarium, and an ice rink, Dubai Mall also features a waterfall spanning four floors.

In the evening, we went to Burj Khalifa again to watch the water show.