mybigadventures.com

Early start - breakfast before 8! Puerto Nuevo to Milano FS Centrale less than an hour!

Got the metro after a bit of faffing with tickets

Joined the first of many queues! queue for the tickets to duomo, then ticket system queue to actually buy tickets then queue for duomo itself then queue for terrace lift

Bit of a wander into main galleria and then back to train and hotel feeling tired.

Had dinner back at the same pizza place - very nice, this timesitting out on the piazza - much bigger and busier than last time?!

As we had packed up our stuff last night, when we got up around eight, we were ready very quickly. In preparation for our flight from Vegas, we had tried to sort out our stuff really carefully, even laying out our clothes for today! So, we were ready to leave about nine-ish. Packed up the car and then went to check out. Checkout was very straightforward - the staff were very friendly and we were allowed to keep the key cards, which have beautiful pictures of the canyon on, unlike the slightly less-PG key cards from the Luxor hotel (containing pictures of semi-naked women!).

On the first step of the journey, we drove back through Kaibab National Park. It was very picturesque and we saw a number of birds of prey hovering, with whiteheads. We think they may have been bald eagles. A couple also had white beaks, so we’ll have to look them up when we get home. The journey was straightforward - very straight roads and light traffic. We got to Kingman around 12 PM and stopped for lunch. We went to Denny’s and it was a very friendly and typical small-town diner. I had a salad, which turned out to be vast! Mixed leaves with grilled chicken, apple slices, dried cranberries and glazed pecans, with balsamic vinaigrette - delicious! Ben had a club sandwich with fries, and it had virtually a whole turkey in it, it was so vast. As we hadn’t had breakfast, we decided to treat ourselves to desert. I had pancake puppies - little balls of pancake batter, with syrup for dipping - for $1.99. Ben had a huge chocolate ice-cream sundae, with Oreo cookie chunks and cream - a bargain at $2.99. The whole lot only came to about $25, including a tip. Amazing!

Having had lunch, we crossed over the road to get some petrol. We put in $30 and it didn’t completely fill the tank - it seems a little more expensive to fill up than the previous rental car. Once back on the road, the rest of the journey was really good - more straight roads and easy directions. Once again, we stopped at the Hoover Dam to go up on the bypass bridge to look down to the dam. Although was very hot, it was windy, so the air wasn’t so ‘heavy’ feeling. The view from the Bridge was spectacular and we caught Bruggers on camera again! There was some interesting information about how the bridge was constricted and why - as a bypass to connect Vegas to Phoenix more easily and ease congestion around the dam. We approached Vegas at about 4 PM. We found a petrol station and put in another $15 so that it was full for return. As we headed into Vegas, the directions were leading us towards some particularly heavy traffic, but we recognised where we were, so we diverted, making it back by about 4:20 PM, in plenty of time for our 5 PM deadline.

Up in the Luxor car park, we unloaded the stuff by the door to minimise carrying it in the heat. Ben parked the car, while I waited by the stuff. Going into the hotel, Ben checked the car back in while I joined the queue for the hotel check-in. Ben wasn’t impressed that no one was available to check the car over with him, to authorise that no damage had been done and hence we couldn’t be charged. We dislike the way that they just hold you over a barrel. The check-in to the hotel was also less than impressive. The woman was less than helpful - lacking the necessary skills and communication - and barely told as anything. We went up to the room to dump our stuff, and discovered that we had got a room in the pyramid - with a view over the five pools. As there was no fridge in the room - you could hire one for $25 a day, but we didn’t think this was worthwhile - we collected ice from the ice machine and filled the sink, chilling a bottle of water and Coke - perfect!

We headed down to the casino floor and gambled a bit, and then headed out, to take photos of the hotel at night. We went to the bridge over to the MGM, to take photos down the strip, a slightly different viewpoint from before. It also got the MGM building in, although there was work being done on the main building, so their lights weren’t on.

From here, we went into the Disney Palace, visiting a gift shop, for more ‘tat’ items. However, found some awesome items and ended up going back again to get more gifts! Went to McDonald’s for some tea and then went back to the room to grab the tablet in order to check in online for our flight tomorrow. We headed down to the lobby to get onto the Wi-Fi - the hotel has now sorted Wi-Fi access, but it’s limited to only two hours. We got connected, but struggled to check-in. I had to go to get the charger plug as the battery on the tablet was critically low. Ben tried to get Lorna to help, but it wasn’t happening. We gave up and ended up heading back to our room to phone. I inadvertently called 911 in my attempt to ring out, but eventually succeeded and very helpful woman from United Airlines sorted us out, resolving the issue with our check-in. We finished the evening back in the Luxor, gambling on our favourite blackjack and roulette machines. Though we were up at many points, we took some heavy losses, having gambled big and lost (we are talking about $0.25 machines here!). We called it quits about $40 down.

We've been trying to make the most of the rest of the school holidays before September rolls around so have made a couple more trips out. We visited Buckingham Palace in the first week of September last year, and if you sign the back and keep the tickets, you can revisit as many times as you like within the year. It suggests on the website to book in advance but we thought we'd wing it, and, in a worse case scenario, get tickets for another day. Dani had found some city walks on the TFL website (tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/top-walking-routes) which looked good so either way we had a plan. As it happened, when we got to the palace we were given tickets for about an hour later, so we decided to wait. 

This time, there was an exhibition celebrating the Queen at 90, so several of the state rooms were set out differently to last year. There were 3 rooms showcasing some of the Queen's many outfits including christening, wedding and coronation dresses, in addition to outfits from several foreign tours. For each outfit, with matching hat, there was a short description of where it had been worn and who had designed it. It was very interesting. 

It was a nice day, although by the late afternoon it was a little cloudy. There's a few photos, but only from the outside as no photography is allowed inside the palace. Not that it stopped some people...grumble grumble... Enjoy!