Day 1 - Travelling
The big first leg I left Canberra late (18:45) on 28 September and eventually arrived in Santa Margherita Ligure (from now on SML) late (20:30) on 29 September. Something like 30 hours ‘on the move’. Like all international travel these days, the experience was mostly anodyne. Emirates are an excellent carrier, so my journey was comfortable. Interestingly, both major international legs were less-than-full. I had three seats to myself for the Melbourne to Dubai leg (15+ hours), and an empty seat next to me for Dubai to Milan (6+ hours). That meant that I got to ‘lie down’ to ‘sleep’ for nearly eight hours on the way to Dubai. One interesting thing that I saw as we came in to land in Dubai was the desert camps of the Emirati, and then later a suburb of their ‘city’ homes. I’d seen similar buildings when visiting Oman and it always intrigues me. The camps are very simple, or spartan but are important family places. The city homes are comfortable and fairly large. There appears to ...