Loving Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi

Sunday, February 18

We arrived in Dubai at  1:30 AM, and arrived at our hotel room by 3:30 AM, after customs, luggage, meeting out driver, driving across town to the Palm Island and our Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Hotel and checking in.  We quickly unpacked and dropped into bed to sleep, after making a brief mental note that the hotel is gorgeous and our room looks to be amazing.

We set the alarm for 8 AM, to meet our tour guide, Ute, to spend the day in Abu Dhabi.  We awoke to this view from our outside deck on the 4th floor (Room 412):

View from our balcony at the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Hotel - the Atlantis Hotel at the top of Palm Island across the lagoon

We grabbed a quick breakfast, met Ute in the lobby and drove off -  a full and delightful day.  Posting just a few photos to highlight our time there, as each location deserves it's own post - but it's now 1 AM and details will have to wait until tomorrow.

It takes about an hour to drive from our location in Dubai to Abu Dhabi.  First stop, per my top request, was the Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al Naryan Mosque, which was stunning:

Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al Naryan Mosque

Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al Naryan Mosque

One of the massive crystal chandeliers inside the mosque

Then a stop at the Emirates Palace hotel and complex, for coffee and a bite to eat:

Fountains on the sea side of the Emirates Palace hotel

Then a stop to visit a few external views, the vegetable and date market, and we finished with some time at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.  The collection is great, but the architecture of the building is the real showcase:  an open air dome, with four overlapping layers, perched on the edge of the sea, with light streaming through to create glorious patterns:

Under the open air dome of the Louvre Abu Dhabi

We returned back to our hotel by 6 PM - our 4 hour tour turned into 9 hours, including the drive and all the stops.  We rested a bit, Mike swam, changed and had dinner here in the hotel at their Turkish restaurant - and we were back in the room by 8:30.  I should be sleeping now, but too excited from the fun day we had and the fact that it's only the middle of the afternoon back home.  Tomorrow we'll tour a small bit of Dubai after we check in with the National Geographic folks.  We have a cocktail reception and dinner to kick off our Tour of Asia (NGTOA!)