I was not happy to be wide awake for 90 minutes at 4am. I hate jet lag.
By the time my body has adjusted, it will be time to go home.
Karen, meanwhile, was completely oblivious, snoring away. I later found out that Neil was also awake at exactly the same time.
Breakfast today was taken at the nice Starbucks we had found. There was no real price difference compared with the McDonald’s breakfast, but it was better quality and, perhaps, a tad healthier.
Before breakfast, Karen had removed all her rings, as the dry heat meant they were very loose, and she was getting concerned that they might simply slide off and she would lose them.
Whilst sitting in Starbucks, I noticed that I had something caught in my wedding ring. I was dismayed to find that, for the fourth time in about five years, it had split along the seam.
I have taken it to three different recommended jewellers for repair, but the same thing keeps happening.
We decided it was time for a completely new one.
I took it as some sort of sign, but Karen said it was too late for that.
I wondered if the original could be used as part of the replacement. I will get it sorted when we get home, but for now Karen put it safely away with her rings.
We then went straight to the pool area and managed to get the same beds as yesterday.
I read a couple of magazines we had brought with us before heading into the cool area by the pool, just as the Brazil v Japan game was kicking off on the TVs above the bar.
I looked up briefly as Japan scored, but it still held no interest for me.
Neil decided it wasn’t worth getting off his sunbed to watch either.
At 11.15am, we headed back to shower and get ready for our planned buffet brunch at the Bellagio.
Through playing some online game, Neil had managed to win us a half-price voucher for one of us.
Our intention was to stuff ourselves silly so that we wouldn’t need to eat for the rest of the day.
We did watch some of the extra time of the Brazil game whilst getting ready.
We walked to the hotel and found the entrance.
Our plan had been to chill there for as long as possible, but upon arrival we discovered it closed at 2pm rather than 3pm as their website stated.
There was a small wait to get in, but once we did, we attacked the food and drink as enthusiastically as we could.
It was good just to be able to help ourselves to as many hot and cold drinks as we wanted. The standard and quality of the food were both quite high.
I had a couple of decent platefuls of various meats and fish, along with some slices of Blanco pizza.
They had the Coke machines that magically mix various flavours together, and I particularly enjoyed Neil’s recommendation of Coke Zero with peach.
Somehow, during our visits to the food station, a few items of fruit and maybe a muffin or two somehow ended up in my rucksack for tomorrow’s breakfast.
I would have taken some pizza as well, but thought that was a little too greasy to have slopping around in the rucksack, especially as we hadn’t thought to bring foil or plastic bags with us.
Amateurs.
To finish, we all had a gelato in a waffle cone, which again surprised us with its quality.
By now, and by any measure, I was stuffed.
Like a tubby Winnie the Pooh.
I could quite happily have had a lovely afternoon snooze under the table for an hour or so.
Instead, we walked to the Bellagio Conservatory, which was well worth a visit with its animal-themed flower display.
What would you expect to find behind this?
That’s right – the certified world’s tallest chocolate fountain.
Just because you can.
It served no real purpose either, but was quite impressive in a completely different way to all the flowers.
Vegas is just full of excess in everything.
I can’t say I approve of, or actually enjoy, all of it. It is like staying in a bubble, and I have by now almost had enough of it.
The incessant heat, the crowds of people, the cost, the excess, the waste, and the sight of people gambling more away on the throw of a dice than we have spent on this entire trip all serve to make me yearn for the other America.
The stunning beauty and laid-back nature of much of Florida or the most incredible National Parks.
Yet, I suspect that in a couple of years I will be thinking that perhaps 48 hours in Vegas might be fun.
Vegas is not for everyone, but I do think everyone should experience it just once.
It truly blows your mind and has to be seen to be believed.
I still shake my head and ask myself why about the whole place.
After a long walk out of the hotel, Karen needed a sit down, and so we decided to try and give her a break by watching the Bellagio fountain show at the same time.
We found the Starbucks where we had watched them on previous visits, except that all the tables and chairs had since been removed.
Instead, along with lots of other people, we sat on the stairs waiting and then all moved towards the windows when they started.
It is worth seeing, but there is only so much you can do with fountains, even if they are extremely powerful.
From here, we wandered back across the road with the intention of making our way to the High Roller Big Wheel, for which I had purchased tickets through Groupon.
However, we were distracted by the Paraguay v Germany game, which was close to going into extra time.
We found seats to watch it with several Paraguayans.
For the first time this tournamentt, I got into a World Cup game and really enjoyed it, especially the penalties.
The only issue was that there were dozens of TVs showing the game throughout the hotel, but there was a slight delay in the picture on all of them meaning none were in exact sync.
The shouts as penalties were scored or missed were like a mini Mexican wave rumbling towards us, as the TV we were watching was towards the end of the chain.
So, we knew the outcome of each penalty whilst we were still watching the players run up to take them.
There were loud cheers everywhere when Paraguay eventually won.
After this, we went to the High Roller and discovered that our tickets were only valid for daytime trips and that we only had 15 minutes to get into a cabin before I would have had to pay more.
Fortunately, we made it easily and were pleased to have the whole cabin to ourselves.
It was lovely to sit for a while in the air-conditioned cabin as we were slowly and gracefully carried upwards and around.
The views were magnificent, and we all really enjoyed the experience, helped by the commentary being played to us.
This was a very different experience to the last time we had taken this ride, when, during the 37 minutes it takes to go around, Karen and I got off totally inebriated because of the “all you can drink” bar.
But that’s another story entirely.
This time, however, was different.
We were both in need of a large non-alcoholic drink and, as we were in the vicinity of our favoured Starbucks, we made our way there and had a bucket of tea each.
It was now only a little after 6pm, and both Karen and I were very tired. Perhaps, if we had been on our own, we may simply have retired for the day.
However, we felt that was unfair to Neil, and after a long sit down we both felt refreshed enough to continue.
Instead, we decided to walk to Walgreens to get some cans to drinks for that evening and some bottles of water for our journey to Palm Springs tomorrow.
This Walgreens seemed to have much more normal pricing, which was helpful.
Cutting back through different hotels to escape the intense heat and enjoy their cool air, we stopped at the Sports Bar in the Linq Hotel.
We secured three enormous cinema-style seats in front of an even more enormous 12-foot HD screen showing the Netherlands v Morocco match, which was not long into the second half.
This was a great experience as the match went into extra time and penalties.
A large crowd had gathered around and behind us. What was not immediately clear was that many were from Morocco, who celebrated wildly as they finally won after some dreadful penalties from both teams.
There were some great scenes behind us as they all sang, in their broken English:
“No Morocco – No Party!”
With that, we headed back to our rooms at the Flamingo, where Karen and I were tucked up in bed by 10.30pm, whilst Vegas continued partying through the night.
