11th August 2016 - Las Vegas NV - Kms to date: 10955

Kms today: 182

We booked to go on a tour of the actual Amargosa Opera House at 8am. We actually got going around 8.30am. The woman who was giving the tour was busy staring into a computer screen being busy at the reception, doing what I knew not!





The actual Amargosa Opera House.



There were six others doing the tour all had stayed the night at the hotel!! Marta Beckett the New York dancer who had setup the opera house in 1968 painted murals on the walls of the hall depicting 16th/17th century characters that would have attended a performance, king and queen, lords and ladies, prostitutes and the general public.


Highly Decorated Walls.

The theatre was small and seated about 200. The stage had been extended to allow more room for the performers who where mainly dancers. The theatre could be heated but not cooled that’s why there were no performances in the summer. It needed a good paint job and our guide said that they were going to do a total renovation next year but I don’t think that is going to happen unless they get a rather generous donor to foot the bill. Basically the whole place is crumbling around their heads.



After the tour we headed for Shoshone a town on the way to Las Vegas, for breakfast. It had your typical American diner which we prefer. After breakfast we headed over the mountains to Las Vegas getting there about 1pm. They let us check in early. We stayed at the Travel Lodge at one end of the strip. It was fairly run down and the air-conditioning in our room sounded like it was about to take off. We headed for the Mirage to pickup our tickets for the Cirque de Soleil performance of “Love” which is based on Beatles music. We managed to get our tickets changed to tonight as they were originally for tomorrow night. It was hotter than hell outside so we stayed in the air-conditioned comfort of the Mirage and surrounding hotels. There was a Manly v Bulldogs rugby league game on one of the screens so we watched it. A couple of security men were watching it as well and we tried to explain the rules but I’m not sure if they were any the wiser afterwards.

The Venetian hotel with replica of Doges Palace and tower from St. Marks square.

We went out of the hotel to the strip to find somewhere for dinner before the show. We found Gilleys which was western themed. There were a bunch of scrawny cowgirls pretending to be waitresses, the food was average and expensive.

Pirate ship on the strip???

I guess that’s the cost of having an establishment on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Cirque de Soleil show was called "Love" and was pretty special. They had remixed and digitally enhanced the Beatles music and the presentation was high action and very colourful. There were performers dropping from the roof and lots of aerial gymnastics. The lighting was absolutely spectacular with holograms and all kinds of colour and patterns displayed. We went to the 7pm show which ran for 90 minutes without a break.  We were in the cheap seats up the back, but still had a great view.  At one point the whole audience at stage level were covered in a billowing sheet that had moving shapes projected on it from above.  Typical themes from Hard Days Night, Help and Yellow Submarine were interspersed with dazzling displays of split second timing; one that used 8 roller skaters and two sets of half pipe ramps was particularly impressive.

Theatre space for Cirque de Soleil show Love.

When we came out into the casino area the place had filled up and the tables were going flat out fleecing the patrons. Back at the Travel Lodge we had to turn the aircon off as it was so noisy. We called the reception and asked them to have someone look at it tomorrow???