Las Vegas

So we eventually arrived in Vegas – much, much later than expected.  We had hoped to be able to check in and then go out for a bit but as it was the wee small hours we just went to bed.  However we didn’t sleep for as long as we had thought we would, so by about 8am we were up, breakfasted and out on the Strip. Not before we had to ask one of the hotel security staff how to exit the hotel – it really was that big and of course they don’t really want you to get out; they want you to stay indoors and gamble and eat and drink with them. 

                       

However we managed to escape and started our exploration of The Strip. Even at that early hour the temperature must have been in the low 80s but we walked along the sidewalk, in and out of the different hotels (or resorts as they like to call them now) and in and out of the shopping malls. Names from films and TV shows -  The Bellagio, Caesar’s Palace, the Venetian, Paris Las Vegas among others.  We knew they would all have casinos but we were not prepared for the size of them!!  They just went on and on and on and on – miles and miles of slot machines and tables.  Dimly lit cavernous halls with no windows, no clocks, no sense of time – just flashing lights on the machines.  Even the money isn’t what it used to be – you put real money in, but the winnings are paid out on a bar coded ticket that you can either cash in or use in another machine.  Some people are even connected to their machine by an umbilical cord which keeps charging their card as they play.  If slots and tables aren’t your thing, then there are other areas dedicated to betting on any sport you care to name – vast walls displaying the odds for all the sports and then you can sit at a monitor and watch the action as it happens.

Then there is the shopping – lots and lots of shopping.  Themed areas within the hotels and beautiful malls selling almost anything you can think of plus designer shopping – Tiffany, Fendi, Vuitton, Prada etc etc.  And out on the street all sorts of other things for sale not available in any shop…….

By 10pm we were flagging so headed for bed – only to be awake again very early, so off we headed to explore the bits of The Strip we hadn’t seen the day before.  However we used the Monorail system as we wanted to head out to the far end of The Strip and visit the Stratosphere to get a bird’s eye view of Las Vegas.  That was spectacular – the high rise part which is the bit everyone knows as Vegas and then the low rise of the rest of the City stretching away in to the distance all surrounded by mountains. By the time we got back out on the street, the heat was intense – like standing in front of an open oven door.  We headed back to the Monorail and hopped on and off a few times to see the hotels we’d missed out on the way along. By now it was dark and the Strip was looking every bit as glitzy as you would imagine. We finished our day by watching the dancing, illuminated fountains outside the Bellagio and then headed for bed as we had an early start for our flight to Seattle the next morning.