Week 35: August 13 to 19

This week we are all getting excited about our trip at the end of the week.
Not much happened Monday. The kids got home late from school as it rained in the afternoon, whenever it rains traffic is usually heavier and we are still in Ramadan, so the traffic was doublet bad.
Tuesday I spent most of the day having morning tea with the high comm girls. And I went out with them on Wednesday night to the skybar at Traders Hotel, after getting a haircut.
Thursday there was another shoe party. I didn't order any this time. We went out to dinner, but a lot of places were booked out or too busy because of Ramadan. So we decided on a German pub and restaurant at the Pavillion.
Friday was spent sleeping in, and packing, apart from Steve going to the High Comm and getting a haircut ( Lachlan also got his haircut). We left home at 4 to go to the airport. We flew out at 8:30pm and arrived in Abu Dhabi six and a half hours later. We had 3 hours until our next flight, but by the time we walked to the terminal and had a coffee and chai, there wasn't too long to wait. We then flew another six and a half hours to Berlin, and had 3 hours there as well. I must look German because everyone spoke to me in German. The last leg was only an hour and a half, then a 20 minute taxi ride, an hour check in and we were finally onboard the Norwegian Jade. It looked very familiar and we soon realised it used to be the Pride of Hawaii (the same ship we did our Hawaiian cruise on).

a nice shot at the airport; a rare KL sunrise and not so rare haze; fantastic bakery in Berlin; Petronus towers from the skybar of the Traders on ladies night.

 After settling in, having some lunch and of course our safety brief, we sailed out of Venice at 6. It was spectacular!
Sunday was a sea day. We met a lovely couple from England, who became good friends by the end of the cruise. We spent some time by the pool and the kids spent a bit of time in kids club. Lachlan was a little disappointed that he wasn't old enough for the teens room, but was still happy enough to have other boys his age and a bit older with him in the kids club. We had teppanyaki for dinner and the kids thought all the theatrics were great, the food was very good too.

French Alps from the plane; Berlin; our teppinyaki chef; Venice from the plane (our ship is the one in front)