Fort Lauderdale here we come

After an early light breakfast, we loaded the car with overnight stuff and hit the road to Fort Lauderdale and as we had elected not to use the Freeways but use the the normal roads it would take just under four hours to get there. The roads were pretty quiet and on one road it was in a straight line for 48 miles and with one set of traffic lights. Because of the roads and light traffic we could use the auto cruise control which makes it easier on long distances which is good.
We arrived at our friends Hotel the Embassy Suites just after 12.00 , and the place was like a mad house with lots of cruise liner passengers and had a quick glass of iced tea in the garden and then went round to Publix Supermarket just round the corner for  a sandwich before leaving on our tour down the coast to Miami.

The route took us via Dania Beach area and then through the high rises of Hollywood and the roads were a little busy as it was a Sunday and finally we arrived in downtown Miami and went down Ocean drive where all the bars and restaurants and historic art deco houses are and the place was teeming with people. This place is very much like an up market Benidorm and the only difference was the all the cars you see are hugely expensive, one Lambo after another and then you have the Ferrari’s and Rollers. The bars were packed and the noise was incredible and there were lots of nice you ladies promenading in their bikinis up and down the street.

We agreed that we would  not stop here as it was packed and as we were going in the direction of the famous Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel we would stop there instead.
We arrived at the Biltmore and had a good look round and a few photos taken although did not not bother as he took lots of photos last year when visiting. After a nice walk round and ignoring the afternoon which about £40.00 per head we took the faster roads back to their hotel and then on to ours. It took much longer to get to our hotel than planned as first of all the bridge had been raised which stopped traffic for about ten minutes and then the beachfront was absolutely packed with standing room only on the beach itself. And then we realised what spring break meant as its a week off for university students who each year come to Fort Lauderdale to celebrate and get drunk and anything else they feel like doing and their were thousands of people with cops everywhere and so it took almost 45 minutes to achieve the 8 miles or so.

We were staying in a small boutique Hotel called the Nobleton which turned out to be quite nice, it only had about 20 rooms but it was clearly a very old Hotel with a building L shaped with the rooms and a pool on the middle. Nice place as you can walk right out from your room and sit by the pool.
After we had checked in we took an Uber Taxi back to the Outback Steak Restaurant where we were meeting at around 20.00 for dinner, there was a slight confusion initially as the website said it was closed , however the website was wrong and we had a nice meal together. So we took another taxi back to the Hotel whilst our friends walked back to theirs and we wished them bon voyage!¬!