Our Las Vegas day began a bit not good with a cockroach in the bathroom of our otherwise okay(ish) room. It lay on the lid of the toilet so it might've fallen out of the ceiling fan. Our host seemed genuinely shocked and was very apologetic when I told him about it so it apparently wasn't a regularly occurrence in the house.
After that unpleasant start of the day we started our walk to the Strip which maybe wasn't the best decision as the walk proved to be longer than it looked like on the map and it already was rather hot. Also it led us under the freeway through a rather deserted area. It was fine in daylight but in the end took us about 45 minutes until we reached the Strip.
At first we went to the Wynn Hotel to pick up the tickets for Le Reve which I had purchased online in advance. There was a huge casino inside the hotel and even in the morning there were already lots of people trying their luck (and maybe spending all their money...). I only played for 1$ but didn't win anything. Also I didn't really have a clue what I was doing there... I would've liked to try it again later but somehow it didn't come up anymore. So I didn't win a million dollar and will have to go back to work when I get home ;-)
We walked down the Strip, making stops at all the big hotels. They almost all had casinos inside (apart from the Mandalay Bay Four Seasons Hotel where we had drinks later) and due to the air condition it was a constant change between the heat outside and the pleasantly cool hotels. The big hotels all have themes, it was pretty fun to see the Grand Channel of Venice at the Venetian with actual gondolas taking people for rides. There also was a Paris themed hotel with the Eiffel Towerand the Arc de Triumph, the Pyramid shaped Luxor with a Sphinx, the New York hotel with the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and the Statue of Liberty. We even walked the Brooklyn Bridge there though it wasn't half as cool as the real thing.
We had decided to walk to the famous Las Vegas sign which was the second not so good decision of the day. Even though we were constantly drinking water and buying new bottles which were sold by lots of vendors in the street for 1$ each (and two for 1$ in the shops, we found that out later) the boiling heat (43 degrees Celsius at that time!) simply was too much. I felt like collapsing from the heat and wasn't even sure I'd make it to the sign (and back to the city afterwards!). I made it in the end and even had a short energy boost at the sign and posed in front of it. There was a long line and even a park ranger supervising everything.
After that we hit the first hotel after the sign which was the Four Seasons and stayed there for a while, having a delicious (non alcoholic) cocktail and lots of ice water and recovering from the heat. When I felt better we continued our walk. It slowly started getting dark and all the neon signs came to life. Las Vegas is definitely a lot more pretty in the dark! Also it is one of the weirdest places I've ever seen, it's the only place I know where people walk the sidewalks in nothing but a bikini. And it wasn't only one person who did that. And when we were at a hotel having lunch suddenly an alarm bell started and there was an announcement which we didn't really get apart from "please stay calm" and no one paid attention to it! Not even the staff, everyone simply kept doing what they were doing before, so strange!
On our way to the Wynn where the show started at 9:30 pm we passed the Bellagio where we saw the famous fountain. It was really great and I managed to videotape a bit of it. The show at the Wynn was great fun (and had the additional bonus that I could rest my feet and escape the heat there). The seats in the theatre are centered around a big pool in the middle so that there's a great view from every seat. It was allowed to take pictures without flash and I got some nice shots.
Afterwards we got a taxi back to our place as a walk of nearly an hour through a deserted area late at night didn't sound very appealing. Also we were dead tired and had to get up very early the next day.
Las Vegas is a great but also kind of weird place. And it's definitely a very expensive place. Souvenirs, food, whatever you buy, be prepared to pay a good deal more for it than you'd do anywhere else. You don't even have to go to a casino to lose a lot of money there.
Inside the Luxor 
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