Europe in One Day
There is no courtesy bus on a Thursday from our hotel to the Strip so instead we got public bus to Tropicana and then walked to Excalibur for a Black Jack lesson. We didn’t realise that the dealers are actually there to help you and will advise you against doing anything very, very stupid and in return you are supposed to tip them. We learnt a few things about strategy and generally how to play so it was useful to have the lesson. Afterwards we walked to Monte Carlo and I made Sarah laugh and get cross by walking out of step with her. Sarah likes it that when we walk together our inside legs step together and then our outside legs step together. To annoy her, I shuffle one step so that our left and right legs step together. Sarah then tries to shuffle a step so we go back to how we were, but I do a double shuffle and we end up left and right in synch. We have some fun!
From Monte Carlo we got the monorail to Bellagios Hotel and crossed the Strip to have lunch at the Flamingo. From there we explored Caesars Palace, THE Vegas casino. Easily the largest hotel and casino and the site of World famous boxing matches and concerts. The casino has over 100 card tables and fruit machines that cost $500 a go. There’s a life size copy of Michelangelo’s David and, in the shopping mall with fake sky there’s an animatronic statue display that tells a story of the fall of Atlantis. We did some shopping in Caesar’s Palace as Gap had a sale on so I bought two shirts and some socks for less than $30. Bargain! One of the highlights for us was an empty courtyard outside Caesars that will be the stadium for the reality boxing tv series we’ve been watching called The Contender.
We left Caesar’s and walked to Mirage and saw Sigfreid and Roy’s (tacky Vegas magicians) white tiger and felt bad because our being there only encouraged them to keep animals in inhumane conditions.
We left the tiger pacing around its cage and went to the Venetian hotel. The outside of the Venetian is styled as the Doge’s palace and St. Mark’s square and the Rialto Bridge. If this isn’t enough to make you homesick for Europe, then inside the lobby has a beautifully frescoed ceiling and the shopping mall has the Grand Canal flowing it. Wonderful. We didn’t buy anything here, but did wander into an art gallery and had an impromptu escorted tour from one of the sales assistants. Whilst telling us about the paintings and artists, we explained we are from the UK and she was thrilled by this as she had apparently named her children after places in the UK. Her eldest’s middle name was London and her second was called Devon, though she did admit that she knew it was really Devonshire (news to me). The gallery assistant wasn’t planning to have more children as she’d run out of nice place names from the UK, so when her third child showed up she called it (don’t know whether it was a boy or girl) Skye, after the Isle of Skye. She must have been pulling her hair out when she got pregnant for a fourth time, but she settled on Hadrian after the wall.
After the Venetian we went to the disappointing new Wynn hotel and had a look inside. It was ok, but we decided it was lacking a theme. Sarah did find a really nice bag shop (surprise, surprise), but decided against a purchase as the bag she liked was $1370! On the way to Paris we saw the Mirage Volcano erupt. Paris has the same fake sky and boulevards as Caesar’s and the Venetian and by now it was old hat so we carried on down the Strip to Tropicana to watch a revue show. This was an odd mix of topless ladies (they had no clothes on top half of their bodies) and a comedy juggler.
We fancied doing a bit of gambling so went to MGM’s, but they didn’t have any $5 minimum bet tables. They had $1000 minimum bet tables but we didn’t feel that like trying our luck that much.
From Monte Carlo we got the monorail to Bellagios Hotel and crossed the Strip to have lunch at the Flamingo. From there we explored Caesars Palace, THE Vegas casino. Easily the largest hotel and casino and the site of World famous boxing matches and concerts. The casino has over 100 card tables and fruit machines that cost $500 a go. There’s a life size copy of Michelangelo’s David and, in the shopping mall with fake sky there’s an animatronic statue display that tells a story of the fall of Atlantis. We did some shopping in Caesar’s Palace as Gap had a sale on so I bought two shirts and some socks for less than $30. Bargain! One of the highlights for us was an empty courtyard outside Caesars that will be the stadium for the reality boxing tv series we’ve been watching called The Contender.
We left Caesar’s and walked to Mirage and saw Sigfreid and Roy’s (tacky Vegas magicians) white tiger and felt bad because our being there only encouraged them to keep animals in inhumane conditions.
We left the tiger pacing around its cage and went to the Venetian hotel. The outside of the Venetian is styled as the Doge’s palace and St. Mark’s square and the Rialto Bridge. If this isn’t enough to make you homesick for Europe, then inside the lobby has a beautifully frescoed ceiling and the shopping mall has the Grand Canal flowing it. Wonderful. We didn’t buy anything here, but did wander into an art gallery and had an impromptu escorted tour from one of the sales assistants. Whilst telling us about the paintings and artists, we explained we are from the UK and she was thrilled by this as she had apparently named her children after places in the UK. Her eldest’s middle name was London and her second was called Devon, though she did admit that she knew it was really Devonshire (news to me). The gallery assistant wasn’t planning to have more children as she’d run out of nice place names from the UK, so when her third child showed up she called it (don’t know whether it was a boy or girl) Skye, after the Isle of Skye. She must have been pulling her hair out when she got pregnant for a fourth time, but she settled on Hadrian after the wall.
After the Venetian we went to the disappointing new Wynn hotel and had a look inside. It was ok, but we decided it was lacking a theme. Sarah did find a really nice bag shop (surprise, surprise), but decided against a purchase as the bag she liked was $1370! On the way to Paris we saw the Mirage Volcano erupt. Paris has the same fake sky and boulevards as Caesar’s and the Venetian and by now it was old hat so we carried on down the Strip to Tropicana to watch a revue show. This was an odd mix of topless ladies (they had no clothes on top half of their bodies) and a comedy juggler.
We fancied doing a bit of gambling so went to MGM’s, but they didn’t have any $5 minimum bet tables. They had $1000 minimum bet tables but we didn’t feel that like trying our luck that much.
posted by Ian @ 1:33 am
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