25/11/2012 - Arrived in Abu Dhabi around midnight last night. Good news, no lost luggage this time. Both bags arrived safely. It's 1am by the time we arrived at the hotel, 2am by the time we finally got to bed. Totally exhausted. Started our first day in a leisurely fashion. Late rise, late breakfast. After a quick look at the tourist map, we decided to take a walk up to the Abu Dhabi Mall - supposed to be quite something. Not. Just another shopping mall. ...

So, off we go. 8:30 flight to Brisbane, 1/2 hour stop in Brizzie then on to Sydney. Scored a couple of Virgin Lounge tickets at the international check-in desk, so we can kill an hour or so in style. These International Lounges are the way to go - bar snacks, coffee, drinks, comfy lounge chairs to sit in. This is the way to travel. Not looking forward to the next leg - 14hrs to Abu Dhabi. Although we've forked out a bit extra to travel premium economy this ye...

Sadly, this is the last entry for our travels. In a couple of hours we'll be heading home. Six hour flight to Abu Dhabi, overnight stay, then 14 hours to Sydney - something to look forward to. So, our grand tour. Where did we go? What did we see? Everywhere, everything, and at the same time not enough. Some 7000 kilometers, 9 different countries, numerous hotels, restaurants, museums, etc etc. Seems like we have done everything, but at the some time done no...

Well, after three very relaxing days here on the shores of Lake Maggiore, it's time to start our journey home. Very reluctant to leave (in fact we were debating whether or not to extend our stay for another two weeks). From here we are heading back to Geneva where it all began. Hopefully the weather will be kind to us as we head back over the alps. Saw a news report about conditions in the Austrian Alps. The day after we crossed over from Friedrichshafen, t...

The final stages of our trip. Today we said goodbye to Germany and hello again to Italy. Leaving Friedrichshafen we headed for Lake Maggiore, via Leichtenstein. The trip was breathtaking, and foolhardy. Probably bordering on dangerous. The drive to Leichtenstein was ok. A pleasant drive along the valley on the freeway. After that though, things got a bit hairy. Turning off the main highway to traverse the alps, it soon became apparent that this was going to b...