Settling in and finding our feet
On our arrival at the Palazzo, we quickly settled ourselves in and went out to explore. More importantly to find some food. For us it was ‘dinner’, even though it was early afternoon in Vegas.
We also wanted to go to a pharmacy, and there was one right across the road. Therein lay the problem, how to cross the road. I think it took six escalators and three bridges to get there! We finally found our way there but decided food was our priority which would also save us having to go back and forth too much.
Maybe Maggie was right, I would get lost travelling around the world.
I have to admit I was completely overwhelmed to start with by the size and scale of everything. We were walking through the street and all of a sudden Frank Sinatra starts blasting out to you from goodness knows where. So many people walking around with these huge, long drinks in strange plastic containers. Frozen daiquiris and margaritas I think, but they didn’t look tempting to me. Noise, was constant which which just takes a bit of getting used to.
The Palazzo
The hotel was absolutely amazing, actually two hotels linked together, the Palazzo and the Venetian, and guests have access to both. The theme is Italian theme, each has its own casino that you walk through to get to the rooms. We discovered that was standard model for most of the hotels.
The first floor was a shopping centre with all the high-end stores you can imagine. There was a canal running through the hotels, with gondolas punting guests from place to place. We later discovered that this canal went outside too. Photos below.
On the third floor there was access to swimming and sunbathing. There were at least three pools, as well as hot tubs, bars, outside eating areas, takeaway, a beauty salon and goodness knows what else. You can enter the Venetian and walk through to the Palazzo. But only if you had a good sense of direction and an hour to spare!
Finding our way around – or not
We came across a little row of restaurants which took us ages to find again. Sushi Samba had a good write up, “a lounge area with a good buzz”. Lets go, we saw it once, but couldn’t find it again. Maybe Maggie was right, I would get lost travelling around the world. Even the plan they gave us didn’t help, and we are not unintelligent, even if we are only women! Just joking ladies.
Anyway, we have enjoyed our time at the hotel and both agreed it was a good place to be for a first visit. It was extremely central. Everywhere is not within walking distance because Vegas is huge but we were still able to walk to some places. Uber is a complete godsend, all the hotels have an Uber pick-up place and, apart from one driver, they were all great. More about him later!
Comedy gig
We booked to go to a comedy gig on Thursday night, in the area of Fremont Street, the other end of the strip from us. Uber was required to get to the hotel which was called The D. One write up about it said make sure you get a room at the back. Otherwise you won’t sleep for all the noise from Fremont street. Sounded like a fun place to be.
The comedy was great, I don’t think I have laughed like that for a long time, I even bought a download of the stars, latest CD. His name is Derek Richard’s. Hopefully that will give me something to laugh about when I am on my travels.
the water was choreographed to dance to it
When we left we were looking for the Uber pickup and inadvertently went out of the hotel that way, it was just a sea of people. There is a music festival happening in that area this weekend so goodness only knows what it’s like now. One of the things I noticed in the D was that people were smoking in the casinos, and, after noticing it there, I realised it was happening in most places. That was something of a shock, as we have a complete ban on smoking indoors in the UK.
Off to the Bellagio
On Friday we did a bit of walking in the morning and then had some downtime at the pool. It was great, did me the power of good. People watching is always a blast and especially so in Vegas.
Cirque du Soleil “O” was on our agenda for the evening, at the Bellagio, another very grand building. We had to be there two hours before to pick up the tickets, so decided to eat there. Elisabet suggested a Japanese restaurant in the hotel, something different for both of us. On arrival, we were given the option of sitting outside and, as it was still a beautiful evening, decided to go for it.
It was a fabulous setting next to what I can only call a man-made lake. The food was amazing; so was the entertainment. All of a sudden Elvis started blasting out Viva Las Vegas, and the water was choreographed to dance to it. We were both completely blown away by the performance, and managed to catch some of it on film.
This was repeated with different music from classical to pop throughout dinner. A couple on the table next to us said it doesn’t matter how often you see it, it gets you every time. I completely understand that. It was a real dinner experience, amazing food and fantabulous entertainment.
The “O” experience
Then off to see O, which is a water-based entertainment and completely mind-blowing. The stage moved from pool to stage with different versions and shapes of the pool all the time. Performers diving into the water and doing synchronised swimming routines. Also working in the air and on the stage. We were both staggered by how people just kept appearing out of nowhere.
There was a good dose of comedy too with the two clowns appearing at regular intervals to do their routines. I would certainly recommend this show to anyone visiting Vegas, it was stunning, and the technical complexities of the whole thing really made it for me.
In a bid to prepare ourselves for the week to come, we decided to walk back to our hotel, which was only a mile away.
My poor feet
At this point I must share how I have been struggling with my feet since I came away. I wore a new pair of sandals on the flight to Boston. My feet became extremely swollen resulting in had two nasty sores, one on each foot, from the edge of the sandal rubbing into my foot. This meant I had to live in flip flops for days. I couldn’t wear the shoes I had bought for the wedding.
When I got back to Hollis they started to improve, but then in Vegas the impact of only wearing flip flops for days together with the heat took its toll, skin peeling on underside of both big toes, and then a lovely blister between first and second toes.
I won $87 for a $20 stake
So it was with enormous satisfaction that I was actually able to get a pair of heels on to go out on Friday night. Even more important because in June I had an operation to straighten a toe. The toe which had stopped me wearing heels for the last few years. I was so happy to be wearing these shoes😀😀😀👠👠👠
However the one mile walk back to the hotel resulted in two more blisters one on the sole of each foot, happiness short lived. Good job I had some Compeed, I was completely mobile again by the following day. Was that only yesterday, my goodness, I am actually able to wear my snazzy new sandals again. Finally I am making progress in the foot repair department.
Back to base
The walk back to the hotel seemed to take forever, but it was the first time we had walked through the streets in the evening since we had arrived. The place was just buzzing, some of the sights were amazing, both good and bad! Then you walk through the hotel casino and it is completely alive, there are cheers coming from a table and all the machines are occupied, with people just feeding them, feed me your money, I promise you riches.
Another day another show or maybe two
Saturday arrived, out for breakfast and then we called an Uber to take us to the Excalibur hotel. We had to pick up our tickets for the first show of the night, the dinner show of Tournament of the Kings. But we got there too early, the box office wasn’t open.
Inevitably we played some machines; this was our first foray into the world of Vegas gambling. Istarted on one machine, but didn’t really like it, and moved to another, where I won $87 for a $20 stake. Anyway, we couldn’t dally because we had to get to the Rio to pick up our tickets for Penn and Teller, the second show of the evening. We are trying to cram as much as possible into our stay.
Walking for exercise alone
This was where we had elected to do our daily walk, I think it was a couple of miles, which was OK. I am sure people wondered what those mad women were doing walking through the streets. At one point we had three highways running alongside us, each with at least two lanes each way,
We were laughing so much, the man of the next machine was looking at us as though we were mad.
I started to worry about how we were going to be able to get across all the highways to get to the Rio. You always seem to end up walking so much further because a direct route is completely impossible.
We picked up our tickets and despite the fact that I had suggested we walk back to the Palazzo from there I had had enough walking. Partly because walking between these hotels offers you no joy, just back road after back road, cars whizzing by. Views of the back of the Caesars Palace, the back of the Bellagio etc, etc.. nothing to see, just exercise to be gained. So good old Uber was gainfully employed again.
Then the gambling began
This is the second time I have written this, and it seems like days away now. I don’t know why it didn’t appear the first time around when I published, so I will have to be more careful when editing.
Back at the hotel and Elisabet was determined that she wanted to play the tables. I have played poker with my boys, but it’s been a while. giving it a bot of thought I decided 21 would be an easiest place to start and gave her a quick lesson on a machine on the bar. I think that was one of the quickest $20 I have ever lost, in just two hands, oh well, I was still ahead.
We had to tear it apart with our hands and eat with our fingers, in our posh frocks!
We found an unoccupied table with a croupier who looked kind and we started. I was very quickly another $40 down, so decided to stop. Elisabet however was winning, she won about $180 before I dragged her away.
Then it was back to the machines where I proceeded to lose my winnings plus my original stake money. Oh well! Such is life. Elisabet found this machine, where if a lily pad turned up in your line up you got to pick a frog, on the screen, and move him around a pond jumping from lily to lily. We were laughing so much, the man of the next machine was looking at us as though we were mad.
Moving swiftly on
It was finally time to drag ourselves away and go and see our shows, which was difficult but perhaps a good thing. Otherwise we could have easily carried on all night. But that’s the whole point of gambling in Vegas.
The last night in Vegas definitely time to dress up, best frocks on, snazzy shoes, and off we go. In the lift a young woman said to us, “Wow you look beautiful, are you going to a wedding?” We graciously accepted the praise; it made our night. So on to the Excalibur, where we were needless to say completely overdressed, well you can’t win them all can you.
But worse than that, this was a show with dinner, set in medieval times, and there was no cutlery on the table, and a bowl with a big handle on the side. We had to drink soup from the bowl. The main course was chicken. A small whole chicken with roast potatoes and some veg. We had to tear it apart with our hands and eat with our fingers, in our posh frocks! Oh well in for a penny in for a pound, we got stuck in, but there was far too much food.
King Arthur and his knights
The show itself was a lot of fun, with lots of audience participation. King Arthur was there with his Knights of the Round Table, and they were each from a different country. We had elected, from the available options, to be in Norway, as they didn’t have Iceland.
Our Knight was very handsome, and we cheered him along until he fell during the jousting. Yes I did say jousting, on real horses and everything. It was great to watch the horsemanship and the fighting a real spectacle.
They went hand to hand if they didn’t manage to get a win on horseback, country against country, until there was only one country left and that’s when the baddies turned up. There were dragons and plenty and fire. very well staged and everyone was shouting. We both really enjoyed the whole thing.
Penn and Teller
A quick Uber on to the next Hotel the Rio, and the Penn and Teller theatre. Yes, they have their own theatre. And apparently they have been performing there for 20 or more years. I am sure you will be pleased to know we weren’t too overdressed this time.
The show was OK, but I was a little disappointed, there wasn’t really too much content, but there was a lot of audience participation, which was quite amusing in places. Some of the tricks they did were quite good, but I think I would have preferred (in retrospect) to go and see a musical performance of some kind. Its a shame because i was really excited about going to see them.
We had great fun trying to get an Uber back to the Palazzo, for some reason our driver didn’t want to drive into the pick up lane. He was on the phone to me saying, “am there now coming round with my lights flashing”, all the drivers were flashing there lights so that wasn’t too helpful!
It took a good ten minutes to work out he wasn’t coming around at all, we found him eventually, and got back safely. We were both pretty shattered after a long day. No gambling and the no Sushi Samba for us. We headed for the peace, quiet and tranquility of the 40th floor, and bed.
The next day was a new adventure with our trip to the Movara Fitness Resort in Utah.
