Posts Tagged ‘eiffel tower’

USA 2009 – Day Two

September 6th, 2009 - 3:14am - No Comments »

Day Two – 6th September 2009
Las Vegas
03:14 – Encore Hotel


We woke at eleven, still not used to the time zone I guess. A quick coffee at Starbucks, along with a quick internet fix, and we headed to the “Welcome To Las Vegas Sign“.

I was surprised to see how touristy the sign was. None of the photos you see show you the long parking lot in the middle of the road. Makes sense, of course, but I didn’t expect it. We got our fix of photos while the cabbie waited for us and quickly left for Planet Hollywood to do some shopping.

In Vegas, during the day, there’s not much to do but shop it seems. A mall called “Miracle Mile” has a middle eastern style castle inside complete with painted roof and rain. We grabbed a crappy hot dog from Pink’s for lunch.

The meet up time for our helicopter flight was looming, so we rushed back to the Hotel on foot. Some mix-ups including pickup location and time made us think we’d missed our pickup. A few tense minutes later and a black stretch limo came careening around the corner before we were rushed in.

The drive to the airport was just as hectic, and was what the driver jokingly told us was a “Back Lot” tour. In any case it was bumpty furry.

We were lucky enough to get the two front seats in the flight, where we has a great view of the Hoover Dam and flight over the desert into the Grand Canyon. Views were amazing, flight not bumpy at all – much more comfortable than the limo! The rocks at the bottom of the canyon are really dry and sound distant when struck. No tumbleweeds but I saw some small animals along the marveled at the scale and remoteness of the place.

Back into the helicopter and back into the air. As we headed to the Strip the sun set to cheesy music over the headsets. Our young female pilot—the only one I saw—flew us over the Strip just after the sun had gone down. A spectacular view and the rest you only see in the movies. Wonderful. Another limo returned us to our Hotel, this time cruising down the Strip. Again like the movies. I refrained from sticking my head out of the sun roof.

We strolled to TI (Treasure Island) to catch a free show. A minute or two in we decided it was pretty uninspired so left. There were so many people so we couldn’t move so had to literally push and shove. Justine enjoyed herself barging through the crowd.

At the Venetian we decided on a gondola ride. We paid and realised we’d be sharing with others. Oh well, not as romantic. As it turned out the people in front of us decided to let us skip ahead since their friends had caught up with them and wanted to ride together. So we ended up with just the two of us in the gondola.  They only do a small circle of the place but its was nice and the gondolier was very friendly. This was the first tip I gave because I wanted to, not because I felt like I had to.

Next we caught the water show at the Bellagio. Much nicer and we could breath. The jets of water tower what must be dozens of stories high and are timed to music.

Since the Eiffel Tower was just across the road we ascended that. Its a half height replica. The wait was 45min—nothing compared to the real thing—but we bought the express tickets to skip it anyway. Views not as impressive as from the helicopter but great nonetheless. Our timing was perfect as we caught the next Bellagio water show, this time from high above. You can’t see it on the ground, but the jets are in the shape of an O, the Bellagio logo.

Rows of people stand on the footpath handing out cards with naked girls phone numbers and photos. If you take one you quickly end up with dozens.

We headed to M&M’s World but just as we entered it closed. We traveled around and grabbed monorail tickets for the ride back.

A quick bite in an in-hotel cafe—Buffalo Wings—was a great cap to the day. I had a margarita and “Fat Tire” ale. The waitress dresses are shorter than any I’ve seen here so far.

Finally to bed.

Tweets from today:

Photo statistics:

Where we went:

GPS Track

Where we went in the helicopter:

Helicopter GPS Track

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