The humans and I took a whirlwind trip to Abu Dhabi this weekend to visit one of their friends from choir, who is working out there for six months. It wasn’t somewhere we would have ventured without the prompt of visiting a friend, and it turned out to be a fantastic experience.
Our trip started with a very leisurely brunch at the Hilton Capital Grand, lounging by the pool:
There was an odd area in the lobby that was called a museum, but turned out to be a very, very expensive shop. I’m not sure who would want this fellow in their living room…
And my advice to this gentleman is that he should really floss more regularly:
We continued our first day with a trip to the Grand Mosque, which was really rather spectacular:
There was no advice on the proper attire for bears, so I decided I had best not show my face inside, but the humans were allowed to take pictures:
Money was apparently no object in the construction, and it showed:
I thought some of it was a bit gaudy, but Murano glass is hard to criticise:
Behaviour was strictly regulated inside – no jiving, no lounging by the pool, no group hugs, and no canoodling allowed:
We left as the sun went down, which showed the inner courtyard off to great effect:
A lot of Abu Dhabi was very beautiful, particularly the public spaces, which were immaculately kept:
Even the pedestrian underpasses were decorated (others we saw had horses and fish):
There were also random giant coffee pots around:
And I met this fine fellow working in the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory:
On our second day, we took a bus ride to Al Ain, where we had a picnic lunch in a very pleasant oasis – it was certainly good to get out of the midday sun:
Then we visited the previous Sheikh’s palace, which is now done up as a museum. The grounds were beautiful and very relaxing:
The royal audience chamber was very nicely appointed:
And this bench provided what looked like a very pleasant spot to enjoy the gardens:
We finished our outing at the Jahili Fort, which was very imposing:
It contained a really interesting exhibition about the explorer and photographer Wilfred Thesiger, who travelled extensively in the region with the Bedouin.
On our final day, we took a long walk along the coast, and took in the contrasts of the city:
We gawked through the fence at the fabulously opulent Emirates Palace Hotel:
Then we popped over the road to have afternoon tea in Etihad Towers:
The inside was as stunning as the outside:
And a very civilised interlude it was, too:
Much tea was drunk, and we enjoyed bite-size delicacies from a rather posh tray:
I can say that most definitely a very good time was had by all, and the humans felt quite educated by their visit.