Dubai - Burj Khalifa

We took a day trip to Dubai to see Burj Khalifa. We had high tea in the highest lounge at the top of the highest building in the world. It was impressive. We had a great mediterranean buffet dinner at the Armani hotel at the bottom of the tower. We were on the terrace overlooking the water fountains show which danced around to different songs every half hour.

Abu Dhabi

We had a great week away for the winter in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The whole week had highs in the low 70s F and wonderful sunny skies. The sun rose and set at normal times. I doubt I'd want to be there in the summer, but the winter weather makes it a great tourist destination if you're living somewhere towards the northern extreme. There's also plenty to see and do for a week if you want to do more than lounge in the sun.

2019 Travels

Paris Centre Pompidou

Centre Pompidou is also known as the Pompidou Centre in English because English likes to annoyingly rename things even if it's only to change the order of the words. Regardless, or with less regard, the Center of Pompidou (because Americans like their -er endings to spell like it sounds) is a really cool looking modern art museum.

Paris Louvre

The Louvre is world renowned and amazing so I don't need to write much. It's more fun and challenging taking pictures of statues from different angles instead of the paintings so most of my pics appear to be of statues and ceilings.

There was a longish security line outside. We immediately got our tickets from a kiosk after going down inside the pyramid since the lines inside were non-existent. The national strike reduced the crowds but the museum had several major sections closed. I think it was a fair trade with all things considered.

Paris Palais Garnier Opera House

Palais Garnier is the national opera house. I don't usually like being led around on a guided tour but this guided tour was great for the stories behind the building. The building is opulent but it'd be a shorter visit without the guide. The guided tour gets to sit down in front of the stage so that was a bonus and then you're free to walk around again afterwards for a fuller experience.

I wouldn't have thought of this as a destination but it was within walking distance of our hotel during the national strike. It was highly recommended through one of my wife's local friends. There's many other great things to see in Paris, but this is a pretty good one for the list if you're trying to figure out what to do in Paris in this area.

Paris Grévin Museum

Grévin Paris Museum is a wax museum. I've been to several great wax museums, but this one is a step above the others because of the amount of work they've put into the rooms. The figures are all very life-like but they're scattered around in more realistic settings instead of just on display. There was a woman who was pretending to be a statue but we couldn't tell until she moved.