Arzak - Ruined!

San Sebastian is a reasonably sized town in the Basque region of Spain, up near the Pyranees, on the border with France and in a bay sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean. It's also a quite prosperous city and has the highest number of top 50 rated restaurants outside of Paris. We tried Arzak, currently number 8 restaurant in the world and consistently in the top 10.  So how good could it possibly be?!

The restaurant certainly doesn't depend on any razzle dazzle for it's ratings.  The decor is of course very well done but simple and sparse.  There's no view to speak of and no ornate architecture, just well spaced, large tables with room to present the food at it's best and that's where the supurlatives begin!
 
The food is exquisite, stunning and quite exceeded all expections and anything I've ever had anywhere else!  We start with a chef's amuse which appropriately was composed of 5 small tapa dishes, the highlight of which was a tasty sliver of anchovy atop a strawberry! Sounds aweful doesn't it but the strawberry flavour had really been extracted and highlighted in a sauce and this allowed the strawberry to match the flavour of the fish, it was just a gorgeous food match.
These tapas were so good we were concerned whether this standard of food could be maintained for the degustation courses that we had selected but we needn't have worried.  Another highlight of the degustation here is that for both the fish and the meat course, we are offered a choice of 3 dishes. This allows us to select a different plate each.

The next dish is a caramelised bubble of foie gras (my mouth is watering already!) on a disc of apple. This dish was beautifully presented and just divine, great flavours to start with and just beautifully balanced.  Again we doubted this level of food could be maintained but I believe this is what sets this standard of restaurant apart. We've had meals at Vue and Aria that had a couple of truly amazing dishes but also a few misses.  These Arzac dishes have set the bar above anything that I've had elsewhere and the following dishes lived up to this level. 

We also asked the somellier to match 3 to 4 glasses of wine to the food for the night and we had some fantastic wines that we'll have to follow up when we get home; even better, the prices were reasonable.  I know the dollar is great against the Euro right now but we came out of this night at around $750, so the value was also really good.
The next dish to arrive has an almost cult rating, it translates to Egg of the Moment and is basically the "first laid" egg of the day, poached and presented in a bowl with crunchy little tasty bits including caramelised sesame seeds that looked like silver shot.  When we break the egg and stir it into the crunchy bits, it creates a gorgeous blend of flavours and textures and is just quite stunning. 

We're starting to lose superlatives to describe the food, we're hopelessly unable to convey our appreciation of the food to the wait staff and this extended to Elena (the chef) when she came out to talk to us.  Another "gold star" for the restaurant as she makes an effort to talk to all tables despite the number of languages that must be present on each evening! She is coming to Australia next March so seemed to make a real effort to talk to us.

The next course is the fish dish; I had the sea bass and Greg had the monk fish.  Again, beautifully presented. My dish had a sauce spread across the plate like sand with little sauces made to look like shells, a curacao star fish and red "seaweed" and it tasted sensational.  Greg's dish similarily had amazing presentation with what looked to be walnuts and green garlic but which were in fact perfectly matched flavours shaped as walnuts and green garlic cloves. Whilst the flavour was more subtle than my dish it was still very yummy!

We're also not too full! While we haven't wanted each dish to end that's because we don't want the flavours to be gone!  But the degustation has been really well created so that by the end, we're not too stuffed but very happily satisfied. The last of the main dishes was the pigeon for Greg and lamb for me.  The pigeon was melt in the mouth tender with a gamey flavour while the lamb was quite rare for what we're used to but incredibly tender with the sauce just enhancing the flavour.  That's been quite consistent; the sauces and other "decorations" on our plates have just enhanced the flavour of the dish itself and added to the presentation of the meal.  The main ingredients though have been the highlight of each dish.

By this stage of the night we've been exchanging looks of "OMG this is good" with another Aussie couple on a nearby table so we finally got together to share stories on what had brought them here.  There was an American couple on the table next door and they'd lived in Oz and really knew their food and wine so we also invited them over. We unanimously agreed that this was by far the best dining experience we'd all enjoyed (and the Aussies had done Tzetzuyas) and our only regret was that we were probably ruined for eating out anywhere else! A nice touch was the special cake for our anniversary celebration, we've been milking that for a while now!

So the deserts started and this has been a dish that I've always been disappointed in with degustations. Perhaps I'm usually too full by desert but I actually think it's because they're trying to be too tricky and haven't used enough chocolate! But not here!!  Gregs plate was scattered with little chocolate moose serves, each topped with a sugary wafer.  My dish was little balls of chocolate in a strawberry sauce and basil sorbet and believe it or not, the basil matched perfectly.  The little chocolate balls were just an explotion of liquid chocolate flavour when they popped in my mouth; these were extraordinarily good.

Finally a plate of bite sized sweets with a pineapple jelly, apricot wafers and chocolate covered in cocoa. Our new American friend shouted our tables a bottle of Le Grand Dame to celebrate the occassion and the six of us shared travel, food and wine stories into the early morning!  We finally noted we were the last standing, including the staff (!) so regretably left Arzac and the finest food I have ever experienced behind. 

Photo's from Sharen's Formula 1 ride

Day 16 - Barcelona

But 1st a few observations from the past few days.  We've been travelling with Greg's little Dell netbook (a tiny little laptop that he uses to record laptimes etc in his car!) for this trip and it has been a holiday saver!  We wanted it to be able keep up with any urgent emails and to log our holiday blog but it's also come in useful as a back up for precious photos.  However; from the moment we were told our flight to BCN wasn't on, this thing has been a holiday saver! 

At 2am in a dodgy dive of a hotel in the even dodgier town of Tangier's, we happened across a flight taking reservations from Malaga to BCN; BCN had just re-opened!!  This would save around 9 to 10 hours of driving time and time was insanely tight at this stage.  We brought our ticket and reserved our seat on line and there were plenty of seats available. By the time we arrived for this flight however; it was jam packed! The queue at the airport to get on one of the rare flights operating was huge! We didn't get to Malaga with a lot of time to spare so had we ended up in the queue we would have missed the flight and more than likely have missed getting to BCN and the F1 experience.
A funnier moment was sitting in Marrakech train station, using Segafredo,s (cafe a few 100 mtrs away) wi-fi when a Pom comes up asking for the IP address we're using - every Westerner travelling was making plans on the move - so we get up the IP and he takes out his IPOD and takes a snap shot! It just seemed an insight into the future of travel!

On the train from Casablanca to Tangiers, there were 4 other Westerners all taking phone calls and texts with travel options for the next stage of their trip.  They were hoping there trip back to London could be done in about 4 days! 

But we're back on track now. Needless to say we didn't end up with any time to see BCN but we did manage a stroll along both the port foreshore and up La Rambla to a fantastic tapas bar.  So we've seen enough to know that it's a great looking city with a very active nightlife and amazing Tapa's bars!  Mo-vida isn't a patch on this style of eating - the bar is just lined with great looking, colorful plates of food, there's a whole section of fresh seafood that when selected, disappears into the kitchen for a few minutes and comes back as a dish that makes your mouth water!  And it's cheap! Definitely have to come back here.

Day 15 - I've Died and gone to Heaven

OK, life does not get any better than this. Today I drove a Formula 1 car flat-out and Sharen has been taken for a spin in a 3 seater Formula 1 car. I have wondered for a long time how it would be to actually drive a F1 car, but my imaginings could not prepare me for the actual experience. It was awesome beyond words, thrilling, genuinely un-nerving and such a violent and overwhelming assult on all of the senses. Despite your brain saying this is crazy, this car is going to kill you, just enough concious will remained to keep the throttle flat.

Yes, that's me!

Me in the Formula 3 car

I would like to be able to say that I drove like Michael Schumacher, but I cannot. This is a whole new solar system of car performance that I just could not come to grips with in the 5 laps I had. I drove it as fast as I dared, but not so there was any chance I would suffer the ignomy of crashing their very expensive F1 car, like one other driver did... It was made all the more difficult by my too-large feet fouling the accelerator and brake, causing a few tense moments when I couldn't release the throttle fully. Anyway, I did experience an F1 car at full throttle, reaching over 300kph on the front straight, talk about INTENSE. Very similar intensity to skydiving. The F1 car I drove was the Benetton that Giancarlo Fisichella campaigned in 1998 and got one Pole Position, has a 780hp Cosworth V8 and only weighed 650kg.

We have incar and external video of the drive which, I'll upload when I return.

Day 13 and 14 - Planes Trains and Automobiles (and Ferrys and Buses)

Well it had to happen, the volcanic ash has now closed Madrid and Barcelona airports, thowing our travel plans and that of most of europe into disarray.It's incredibly chaotic, the shutdown of all flights into and out of Europe just doesn't happen and everyone has somewhere they need to get to. The airport provided little information beyond the fact that there are no flights. So, we've had to make very hasty alternative arrangements. Unfortunately, it seems everyone else is having to do the same, so hotels, trains, car rentals etc.. are all under massive strain. It would have been fine if there was no time pressure, however in just 36hours I was due to drive the Formula 1 car, so our own real life episode of Race Around the World was on.

Look at all the cancelled flights!

So what was supposed to be a nice 2hr flight to Barcelona became;

• 3hrs waiting for a train in Marrakech
• 9 hours on the train to Tangier
• A 1am arrival at a dive of a hotel in Tangier that would do Fawlty Towers proud. Thanks to Alan for arranging the only hotel with availability in Tangier at 3:30am Melbourne time while we were stuck on the train. Fortunately this hotel had wifi, so sitting in bed at 2am, we discovered that Barcelona airport had just been reopened, and we managed to quickly secure a flight fromthe south of Spain to Barcelona. Now we had to catch our flight...
• A mad scramble at 5:30 am to a Ferry from Tangier to Tenerife, which incidentally involved throwing money at helpful locals to magically skip the long customs queues, the only thing that got us on the Ferry in time.
• 2hrs on a Ferry across to the Europe mainland,
• A 1hr bus ride to Algecerias
• A further 1.5hr bus ride to Malaga
• And finally, a 1.5hr flight to Barcelona.

We finally made it to Barcelona at 7pm, with just enough time for rest prior to the F1 experience,whew!

Day 11 & 12 - Marrakech

Marrakech is a pretty cool city.  It's not the commercial centre and has only about 1m people so is much smaller than Cassablanca (8 to 9 mil) and much better for it. The place started as a trading centre on the camel caravan routes so all sorts of goods including slaves were traded here.  The Souks and Square continue this amazing tradition of trade today. You can easily get lost in the rabbit warren of alleys and laneways in the Souk but Greggie came up with the brilliant idea of taking a picture behind us, every time we turned a corner with me in the picture pointing to where we'd come from.  When you want to go home, just play the pictures back on the camera and follow the directions - Brilliant!

We had a tragically touristy experience at "Chez Ali" one night. It's like a really poorly done, Disneyland version of the history of the Berber tribes accompanied by equally tacky (but lots of it!!) food. I imagine a night at Kryal Castle might be nearly as bad as this!

But otherwise, it's been great to relax for our last couple of days here with a bit of bargaining and shopping, a walk through the gardens owned by Yves Saint Laurent and enjoying a traditional Hamman - well, perhaps it was a bit of a Westernised version as Greg & I could be in the same room together but it was lovely and at 1/10th the cost of a massage in Paris we've realised too late that we should have had one every day!

Off to Spain tomorrow, assuming of course that this Icelandic volcanoe that has shut down 2/3rds of Europe's flight space does not interupt our plans! Oh well, Inshallah!

Day 10 - Dades Gorge to Marrakech

Well Sharen (me) hasn't yet seen the Grand Canyon so the Dades Gorge - Africa's answer to the Grand Canyon was ok by me, but today when we were offered a tour of Africa's answer to Hollywood - in the form of "Morroco Studio Cinemas" I thought it was best given a wide berth, despite all of the promising posters of Gladiator and Russell Crowe.

The day got better though with spectacular scenery crossing the High Atlas; villages built into the mountain side with only goat tracks leading in and out, a valley of roses,  terraced fields of just about anything that can be grown, the contrasting colors of the red earth, blue sky and green oasis and a windy, squiggly little switch back road that Greg would just love to fang the beast up.

It was a long but pretty incredibly scenic drive and then we arrive into Marrakech which is quite something else.  The Square is amazing.  The sound of everything going on hits you first; the sounds of traffic back in a city where the traffic is bedlam, African drums, the hawkers selling their wares and foods, the call to prayer being amplified from at least 4 mosques and of course the flute of the snake charmers.

Yes, I did end up with a tiny snake around my neck (note Greg hiding behind me in the photo!) and while I actually don't mind snakes, the sight of the cobra's lying nearby on the ground is a bit unsettling to say the least.

Day 9 - Sahara to Dades Gorge

After coming down with a bit of a cold, I'm over travelling today. So when presented with the Dades Gorge, apparently the largest in all of northern africa, my synical side simply thought 'not a patch on the Grand Canyon'! Nonetheless, it was pretty impressive but was hard to get excited about following the highlight of the Sahara. Sharen says Greg is not the best travelling companion today :-)

Day 8 - A Day and Night in the Sahara Desert

Much of today was spent in transportation into the Sahara Desert, first by our guide, then 4wd, then on Camel through the dunes. What an amazing place, outside the Sahara is a barren wasteland of dirt, gravel and tussock as far as you can see. Then before you know it, you're in the dunes, and they are massive! Many are over 150m high and some over 500m.

Travelling on Camel back was a unique experience, what odd animals, able to survive for up to a month without water or food and able to carry huge weight over shifting sands, they are certainly useful in the Sahara. They are weird to ride, much higher than a horse and much wider, and you have no stirrups. It's also quite a rough ride as they take their long loping strides through the sands.

Our group of 5 arrived at the Berber bivouack(?) on dusk and settled in for the night sleeping under the stars in the Sahara Desert, a truly memorable experience. It was surprisingly windy and cold, so sleep was hard to come by. Soon enough however, it began to get lighter, signalling the time to begin our ascent of the 150m dune near the camp, a challenge set by our guide. After what seemed an eternity (maybe 45min) we finally crested the top of the dune and took in an amazing sunrise over the sand.

Hotel George V Review

Often rated as the best hotel in the world and the awards to prove it, it's fair to say that our expectations of the George V were very high. For the most part, it did not disappoint.

We were greeted at the door by name (no idea how they knew) and were immediately made to feel welcomed. Our concierge escorted us to our room on the top floor, with a magnificent view of the Eiffel Tower. We were immediately impressed with the size and understated elegance of the room. Very tastefully furnished without screaming opulence like some asian and middle-eastern hotels can.

However, you need to be very careful to avoid getting gouged at every turn, try $600 for a bottle of Baileys, or $110 for a Ceasar Salad or Club Sandwitch. Even internet access is a further $40 per day. You'd expect that with room rates starting at $1500/night that it might be included. Another annoyance for me is the insistence on a fairly formal dress code including the requirement for a suit or dinner jacket for lunch or dinner.

Located in Paris's 'golden triangle', between the Champs Elisee, Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph, it was a doddle to walk to any of Paris's many attractions. An unfortunate side-effect of the location in the very trendy 8th Arrondisment is that it seemed every shop and every person was dripping wealth and wasn't really our scene. It makes Albert Park look like Broadmeadows.

The hotel restaurant, Le Cinq has 2 michellin stars and has the most amazing dinig room that looks like a Louis XIII era palace. We have been lucky enough to enjoy some really fine dining over the years and unfortunately the food did not live up our expectations. The food was generally excellent, but no better than we have had in some Australian restaurants. It was all all good up until the Foie Gras dish that was just too rich and too large, everything after that was a struggle.

Despite the small annoyances, we thouroughly enjoyed our 4 nights at the George V, it is unquestionably the best hotel we have stayed in and had very little room for improvement, however we are happy to leave places like the George V as a very rare and special indulgence.

Day 7 - Fes to Erfoud

Ussef our driver said it best, "snow and the Sahara on the one day!"  As we crossed the high Atlas mountains there was plenty of snow on the surrounding mountains and this combined with the Cedar forest and faux French Alps village did give the morning a European feel. But then we arrived into the desert and travelled through it most of the day.  Rocky mountains and vast, barren countryside with barely anything growing apart from in the Oasis that do occur fairly regularly. 

It was an amazing change of scenery today and the locals are starting to look more African and less middle Eastern.  It would be an incredibly tough life living up here, herding your goats in 50 degree plus heat in the summer and sleeping in your mud brick house at -10 degrees or less.  I don't know what would be worse, the harsh environment or the boredom. Life would be ground hog day, everyday of your life. They all have satellite TV, even the mud hut, so they know what they don't have but are a very long way from getting any of what they see.   Note to self, don't come back as a Saharan nomad!

Dinner tonight was amongst the contents of the large tourist buses so when a camel was brought in to the restaurant it was to applause and camera flashes! May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your cous cous!

Day 6 - Fes

Now we're in the Morocco we expected, Fes is a 1200 year old living & working city with many aspects unchanged from the way they were done hundreds of years ago. This is the place you may have seen in the brochures (and on Getaway as they'll proudly tell you!) especially the leather tannery with it's colorful pools, like an enormous painting set.

The Medina (old town) was established for the camel caravans on the trade routes from Africa to Europe, carrying spices, slaves, gold and such. While there were no camels in the many kilometers of narrow alleyways,  there were plenty of people, shops, cats, chooks, and very well behaved donkeys! We again got suckered in as tourists and had to sit thru a carpet flog, but we managed to resist tempatation. I'm afraid we can't say the same for the leather and ceramics, at least the bargaining was fun.

Day 5 - Casablanca to Fes

Tourist for a day today, haven't done this tourist thing for at least a decade but it's still probably the best way for us to do Morocco. First up Casablanca Mosque, the second biggest mosque in the world (remind anyone of Maxwell Smart?!) But if they give out awards for best mosque/synagogue/church (and I think they think they do!) then this one is right up there.  Holds as many people (over 100,000) as a large sports stadium (the other place of worship), has a hidden sound system and retractable roof, as well room enough for everyone to have  a little freshen up after the game, I mean prayer session. With a couple hundred thousand here praying inside and out, to the sound over the pa system,  this would probably be quite a sight and sound on prayer Friday.Is there where "Rock the Kasbah" comes from?

Next up was Rabat Palace and Mouseleum and now this place is starting to look more like the Morocco we were expecting.  The architecture is white & blue cities within ochre fortifed walls and there are mosaics and decorative copper and carpets everywhere. 

The driving is also quite something to behold. There is every type of vehicle you can imagine on the roads, with barely more than a centre line to direct it all.  But from tour buses to laden little donkies it all just works; even the sheep & goats being herded by their shephards seem to know to keep to the shoulder of the road. They do however have lots of police in very spiffy uniforms, with speed guns and just like at home, the locals recognise this as nothing more than revenue raising and not just for the state either! Our driver had a very friendly chat and a hand shake with one policeman and a 10 dirham (AUD$1.10) "exchange" was all that was required to make the 180 Euro (AUD$300 - a huge amount of money here) fine go away.

Still very much the tourists today we did a flying pass past Meknes taking in the Square and the three fortification walls, they also had a mega impressive granary from the 1600's. Yeah sounds boring I know but this King really did think of everything!

Finally arrived at Volebulis (believe it or not, it sounds like Volleyball-us just spken quickly) This place has serious Roman Ruins, 2000 years old and far more accessible than any in Rome.  You have to hand it to the Romans. First of all they picked an amazing location.  This is part of Africa is not sandy desert. It is lush green countryside, gently rolling hills with some impressive looking mountains (the Atlas) in the background.  The land is very fertile, they grow and mine everything so Morocco is a reasonably wealthy country.  So you have this lovely scenery reminiscent of Tuscany with the ruins of a city that once held around 35,000 in absolute luxury.  These guys had running hot and cold water, heated floors, central heating, saunas & jaccuzzi, shopping malls (yes really - a mall with over 180 stores) with every type of store you could want, olive oil presses and not to mention plenty of black slaves from Southern Africa to give them oil massages!

Spending the next couple of days here in Fes so walked the streets last night for dinner. We love to people watch wherever we go and it was very interesting watching in Fes. It's such a mix of Middle Eastern, African & European (in the minority) and that comes across in everything from people to the food and architecture.  The hotel is gorgeous, with it,s own internal courtyard with mosaic tiling everywhere, walls & floors and carved timber roofs, fountain, plunge pool, lemon tree and tea rooms, it's a really quiet and peaceful place away from the madness of the streets outside.  One sound it couldn't keep out was the call to prayer at 4am this morning!  It was bad enough when one mosque got it's sound system cranked up but when once a few of them got started it was quite a cacophony!  The other thing that's a bit rioutous is our room decoration! Check out the photo!

Day 4 - Paris to Casablanca

Last day in Paris, boo. We wandered around enjoying the sun and scenery, followed by luch with the Parisiens sitting right on the footpath.

The flight to Morocco was via EasyJet, oh boy how the mighty have fallen. It actually wasn't any worse than say Virgin at home but it certainly wasn't an enjoyable experience.

Casablanca, scene of the famous movie that bears its name, however our experience of it was not quite so romantic. Basically, it seems to be a cramped, dirty and relatively poor city, full of beggars, people selling goods right from the footpath and raffertys rules on the roads. (Actually, Rafferys  Rules on the road seems to work really quite well, no lines, signs or traffic lights, just take your turn and toot your horn to let others know it is.)

We spent a good hour trying to find somewhere decent to eat and quickly found that it seems no one eats here and every establishment that looks like a restaurant is full of men drinking coffee and eating ice cream! There were no women dining anywhere, barring a table full of tourists! Found a suitably tacky place to eat where if you asked for the couscous the waiter confirmed your order of tagine. When you clarified, by pointing at cous cous on the menu, he clarified that you are in fact having tagine!  Same happened with vin blanc, back came the waiters confirmation of vin rouge! And indeed, it was a fine rouge too, straight from the famous region of Meknes. Never heard of it!? Surely you have, Meknes, Morocco, a fine wine region it is too ;-)

Day 3 - Pure Indulgence

We planned nothing for today other than to enjoy the hotel facilities and each other's company and we started well. Our first meal in the gorgeous Le Cinq restaurant and you can't help but be a bit goggle eyed at the opulence of everything.

We then ventured into Hediard (still technically within the hotel) and it's  like going into a chocolate box and then the most up market deli you've ever dreamed of, with the very finest of gourmet food.  From simple things to the most perfect strawberries you have ever seen to a temperature controlled wine room with a silver chest of champagne, to an incredible choice of cavier, foie gras and delicacies we just can't get at home.  The nice thing was, the staff were so nice to us; they just loved that we came from Australia (our accent must sound weird to them) and we still haven't met one of those famously arrogant Frenchmen. 

So we took our little box of chocolates back to the hotel for later enjoyment and went down to the spa.  Now don't forget, we're in Paris, in the golden triangle no less, where space is a gold bullion per square inch (well, you get the picture) and this spa is just huge and indescribably impecably and immaculately beautiful and relaxing. We'll try to let the photos show the luxuriousness of this retreat under the grounds of our hotel http://www.fourseasons.com/fr/paris/ but it was a wonderfully, relaxing and indulgent experience and while we were enjoying that, the lovely little pixies that come to visit our hotel room (they even put a book mark in my book for me one night, they think of everything!) left us a bottle of champagne and lovely chocolate gataeux, the perfect match for our Hediard choccies!

Finally dinner was planned for Le Cinq and we did have high hopes for dinner that weren't quite met.  However; I will say, we've been eating terribly rich food from petit dejuener to dinner as is typical for France, so perhaps we were a little fooded out as headed down for another French meal in Le Cinq.

Day 2 - Shopping Shopping Shopping

Spent the day wandering Printemps, Galleries Lafayette and Rue St Honour. Surely every designer that exists is represented here, and nothing but designer labels. One could do some serious credit card damage here without any provocation.

Fortunately we resisted most of the temptations and left with only shoes and perfumes. Neither of these establishments could match the opulence of Le Bon Marche which was so beautiful, they wouldn't even allow us to take a photo. Everything was bespoke pieces of artwork, lighting by Philippe Stark and many artists, many of the pieces one-offs.

Day 1 - Belle Paris

Wow, we never tire of this city. We were up at about 5:30am thanks to jet lag but used the time to capture photos of the Eiffel Tower (from the end of our bed!) as dawn broke. A perfect sunny spring day in Paris. We set-off early on foot with no particular destination in mind, we've found that the best way to experience Paris is to just start walking and see what you discover. Traditional French breakfast was in a gorgeous old bistro well off the tourist track.

Then we found ourselves in St Germaine, a very trendy suburb with gorgeous architecture. Here we stopped for another Coffee sitting on the street enjoying the sunshine. Soon after we joined seemingly half of Paris in the Jardins de Luxembourg, a beautiful large park near the centre of town. Finally a quiet stroll anong the Seine river, with a baguette for lunch on one of the bridges over the river. Passing by the river barges we spot 2 French men on  their deck, enthralled in a game of chess, glass of pinot in hand (we could tell; they had the correct glasses!) and dog lying at their feet, picture of serenity.

First stop Doha

We're now enjoying piped bird song music! in the lavish 'premium termial' at Doha. Like Dubai, thee view consists of a lot of sand and not a lot else to speak of...

The flight was great, business class on Qatar was very nearly as spacious as first class on Emirates and the plane was a brand spanking new 777.

Only another 11 hours to go until we're in Paris. Over and out.