Journey's End

In the last couple of months I have had an extraordinary number of business trips to do; Manchester, Frankfurt, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Phoenix. By the end of this list, I was beginning to feel pretty grumpy about just being away from home. Thankfully, I think that this high density travel is over for a while. Hardcore travellers would sneer at my mention of Manchester and Frankfurt, which involved flights but were just day trips. All three of the others were, each in their own way, tremendous fun. Even so, a little less airborne life for a while will be welcome.

Vegas

I am embarrassed to say that I liked Las Vegas and look forward to going there again. There is something so extreme about the degree of tackiness that it is somehow endearing. The MGM Grand, where I stayed, was so enormous that it took me fifteen minutes solid walk to get from my room to the conference in another part of the Hotel.

My introduction to the Red Square Vodka Bar in Las Vegas was interesting. When we asked the way there, one person said "that's a very cool place" and looked at me and the other two brits I was with as though he thought we were too square to enter. Since trying pepper Vodka at least twenty years ago and hating it, I don't think I have had vodka at all until walking into that bar, and so it was a pleasant surprise to find that one of the two I tried was really very nice. By the way - the guy who told us the way was right - a very cool place. For example, they have an ice bar and yes, that means that the bar is made out of ice.

On the way out of Las Vegas on my flight back to Heathrow, I got some lovely shots of the desert;

Phoenix

Another desert destination, where I stayed in the most lovely hotel - the Arizona Biltmore - designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

There was time for a little fun and relaxation this time, plus a walk in the desert, which was chiefly interesting for the moment when one of our party backed into a cactus, which speared him with several needles - each of which has a tiny barb on the end of it. Our guide spent some moments tugging them out, first with tweezers, and when he got fed up with doing that, he started using a comb, which was rather more effective.