Monday 6th May Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Today we were to travel to Abu Dhabi and spend the day on a private guided tour exploring this nearby city. Our tour guide collected us from our hotel around 8.30am and we travelled comfortably in the large 4 wheel drive. We drove along the main 8 lane highway at great speed as everyone else does. Our first stop was “The Last Exit” a crazy, fun-filled convenience stop with a Mad Max theme. It was something that would seem more at home in the outback desert in Australia than here but then again, it was in the desert. We drove on to Abu Dhabi and had a most wonderful time exploring Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque, the largest mosque in the country. This huge, opulent mosque full of marble, a huge hand-make carpet, gold leaf, semi-precious stones, beautiful light-fittings, stunning gardens etc. etc. took 13 years to build at a cost of US$545 million. We were very impressed by this visit but as all things seem to go here, underneath the mosque was the mandatory Shopping Mall! Although I had brought a scarf to wear over my head worn a loose shirt with longish sleeves and ¾ length pants, I was still required to “cover up” with an Abaya as was Trudy. Luckily our tour guide provided us with one to pop on over our clothes. The only issue was that mine was built for someone who was much taller than I and I spent my time trying to hold it up so I wouldn’t trip over it. Rob had worn shorts and apparently he needed to cover his knees so he was forced to purchase some footless stocking things to cover up with! Of course outside of the mosque the temperature was in the high 30’s so we were all a little warm, walking around in our extra clothing. Anyway it was all worth it. We continued on our exploration of Abu Dhabi, with visits to Emirates Palace Hotel, a date market, The Abu Dhabi Louvre which is built over the water and was unfortunately closed on a Monday. Our lovely guide then drove us to the Abrahamic Family house, a place where the Sheik decided to build three places of worship from different religions as a way of bringing them together. Here we explored another beautiful mosque, a Christian Church and a Jewish Synagogue. Each was designed brilliantly. The buildings were architecturally similar with timber and concrete being the main materials used. Once again, Rob’s exposed knees were offensive and he was given a “dish-dash” to wear to cover the offensive knees. Our travelling friend’s Trudy and Rob, had lived in Abu Dhabi some 20 years ago so our tour guide was able to takes us to the area where they had lived. We returned to Dubai in peak-hour traffic around 7pm and celebrated a great stay with a drink and dinner.