Friday, April 14, 2006

Munster, Germany and Dubai, UAE


I'm sorry we haven't written or commented for so long. As you know, I was overseas. I really enjoyed Germany -- more than I expected. The people were extremly kind and helpful, and I had a good time. My only faux pas was that I woke up on the morning I was suppsed to leave (had a 7AM flight from Munster to Amsterdam) and there was no one to check me out of the hotel. They hadn't taken my credit card when I checked in. I asked them to, but they said they "trusted me." I waited until someone finally showed up at 6AM. The airport was a half hour away, and I still had to drop off the rental car. To make a long story short, I arrived at 6:45, and they refused to check me in. [Mind you, I didn't really care too much... the flight over I thought I was going to die. It was an OLD prop plane with 11 people on board. the door to the cargo bin didn't latch and kept banging the whole time. It was very rough (they had deadly tornadoes the day before) and I got quite sick.] Anyway, since I had a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam and it is only a 3 hour drive, I went back to the rental car place. They were kind enough to give me back my little Audi A3 without charging me for another rental, and I took off and drove to Amsterdam.
Dubai was great. It was overcast the first 2 days, and if you look closely at the last picture you can see that it even rained (that's what they called it, anyway). The pictures, from top to bottom are as follows: 1 and 2: shots from my coworkers apartment complex; 3: The indoor ski slope (from the oustide). You can see that it turns and wraps around the Mall of the Emirates. 4: The outdoor mall where we ate dinner (never ate before 11PM); 5: The most famous landmark... the 7 star hotel in the shape of a sail boat; 6: I got to see the Sheik, number 2 in command. He came through the entrance of the World Trade Center (where our hotel was) and I decided to take some shots. Unfortunately, most of them didn't turn out well. 7: a shot from my hotel; 8: One of the Sheik's horse racing ranches. He is really into horse racing. Of course, he always wins. They said (with utmost sincerity) that father and son are so good and so evenly matched that they usually have a photo finish - father in the lead, of course - and are often holding hands as they cross the finish line. When questioned, they did have to agree that he owns all the horses and riders. 9: rain.
Sorry this is so long. We love you all. Daniel Posted by Picasa

2 comments:

Daniel said...

The picture is too small to see the tiny drops of water on the windshield.

Mom and Dad said...

Thank you so much for the pics and the commentary. We have been thinking lots about you. Sounds like it was quite an experience. Wish you could have caught a flight to Bordeaux!!