High-flying cocktails; The tallest building in the world

Another day that started slowly as holiday mornings should! The cleaner was due to arrive at 1000, so we got showered, dressed and had breakfast before she showed up. We hung around long enough to do our domestic chores, as in empty the washing machine and hang the contents up on the balcony.

Then it was time for another 'Mall' experience! We caught the Metro south for a few stops, then walked to the Marina Mall. We could have taken the tram for one stop, but it didn't seem worth it.

One in the Mall, we bought a SD card reader for the iPad before exploring the food court as it was lunchtime. Once again, we opted for a middle-eastern food outlet and had a meat sharwama and a Fattoush salad, both very tasty and fairly cheap. We sat at a table overlooking the Marina and watched the boats sail by.

It wasn't too hot, so we walked alongside the water on the way back to the Metro. There are some very large luxurious yachts moored up there.

Back at the flat we continued our mission to get as many of our clothes washed before heading east tomorrow., at least things dry quickly out on the balcony.

At 1730 we set out for our date in town! Dressed again in our glad rags, we headed for the Metro. At this time of night, it gets rather busy. Once at the station, we found the 'up' escalator was not working, so we managed to miss a train whilst waiting for the lift instead. We were well crammed in on the train and had great difficulty getting out of the carriage at the Dubai Mall station. 

Our plan was to catch a taxi from here to the Mall. I know that sounds daft, but it is about 1km on walkways and that would have delivered us to the opposite side from where we needed to be and Lynn's feet were an issue. We quickly discovered down at street level that the traffic was gridlocked and there were no empty taxis! Somewhat disheartened, we started walking toward to Mall hoping to encounter a taxi en route.

We walked as far as the Mall in the end, but were on the wrong side of a huge dual carriageway and no sign of an obvious entrance. After seeking advice, we managed to find a pedestrian crossing and eventually an entrance too. By now we were 10 minutes late for our meeting.

Luckily, we weren't too far from where we were meeting and finally found Siobhan and Aaron! We had no choice but to continue walking around the huge fountains as we had a booking for 1930 for cocktails. Our route march continued as we found it extremely difficult to find a pedestrian entrance to the Burj-al-Khalifa, clearly it is designed to be approached by car, preferably a chauffeur-driven limousine! By the time we entered the Armani Hotel, Lynn and I had walked around the perimeter of the Burj-al-Khalistan tower.

Finally, we made it and after a few minutes we shown into a lift and sent down a floor! Here, we swapped into a different lift and sent up 123 stories on a high speed lift. On the 123rd floor, we checked-in to At.mosphere, a cocktail bar and restaurant. This time, we walked down a spiral staircase with glass walls that permitted huge views across the city. We were shown to a table and given the drinks menu. The prices were sky high, rather appropriate considering our position 442 metres about street level. The views are impressive, it is an odd thing looking down on a skyscraper a huge distance below knowing the skyscraper itself is 50 stories high.

After lounging around with our drinks in the lap of luxury for about an hour, we headed back to the high speed lifts and ground level. From here we caught a taxi to Boca, a restaurant in one of the free-trade areas of Dubai.

Boca, is a tapas-themed place, very cool, with its own DJ mixing music for the diners. Sitting outside, we had grilled sardines, grilled squid, crab and avocado, mini pizza and fresh bread. All rather delicious and washed down by a pint of Estrella Damm. 

Finally, we jumped in another taxi and headed back to TECOM and the flat. All-in-all, a rather decadent evening by our standards.