"Good morning dear passengers and welcome to Dubai. The local time is 5:15 in the morning and the outside temperature is 30 degrees Celsius."

Still escaping New Zealand winter. And Dubai is a sure bet for enjoying summer weather. I carefully planned to go there in July so that I sure wouldn't miss any rays - oh, and because it was both my parents' birthdays :)

Almost in Dubai

Another great pleasure was that Denise came to visit and that Janine stopped over for a night on her way back from Auckland to Switzerland. The first day was all about sightseeing (if there's any like that in Dubai), shopping and eating. And we went up the tallest building on earth, Burj Khalifa - not as exciting as one would expect but still pretty cool.

Burj Khalifa from the outside and Denise is very excited about seeing 

her first Manolo Blahnik Store :)

Inside Dubai Mall

 Ice-skating rink and us girls (Janina, me, Denise) on the way to...

...the top of the world!

 I reckon the platform was only halfway up the building

Denise and the Strucks at Mdinat Jumeirah, in front 

of the Burj al Arab 

 Janine and her new friend (the elephant, not Denise hehe)

Janina left for Bahrain the next day and Denise and I concentrated more on shopping and continued our 'sightseeing' tour through Dubai's various malls :)

 Outside Wafi Mall

 I love Mama!!

Strucks + 1 at my Mum's birthday dinner

and some white chocolate tiramisu - best dessert ever 

(except for Rex' apple rhubarb crump of course)

We also did a desert safari and Denise couldn't be separated from the camels. I thought about trading her for some camels but there was no good offer.

Me and the sneaky camel

 That guy literally forced us to take a picture with him. After ten minutes he came back and wanted 10 Euros (!) for the picture. Uhm...no.

 Our dune rides

Note to myself: Never go take a blonde with you if you go to an event organized by Arabs.

You'll sure have to take part in the show.

 Crazy guy spinning himself nonstop for 10 minutes

My personal highlight was swimming and playing with dolphin lady Central at Atlantis. If you ever get the chance to swim with dolphins, take it! One of the coolest things I've ever done.

 Dancing with Central at Dolphin Bay

 Denise was intimidated by so much dolphin love :)