Day 3 Abu Dhabi 19 April 2018

Our private tour vehicle arrived at 9 AM with our guide, an Indian fellow from Kerala and a young trainee Muslim Russian girl. We didn’t catch either name but I will call them Raj and Svetlana.

We went to the Grand Mosque and it is quite amazing.  The largest chandelier, heaviest, the longest drop, lead crystal and Murano glass. The largest hand woven carpet in the world. The minarets are tipped with gold and the columns are inlaid with semi-precious stones.  It is really quite opulent. It is hard to judge if it is more impressive that the Blue Mosque or the Hagia Sophia. I think in its prime the Hagia Sophia would win, especially when you consider the engineering of the time in modern day Instanbul. They also have the world’s largest hand woven carpet and Dyson vacuum cleaner (one of these is not correct). What’s interesting is that there are 2,700 + mosques in Abu Dhabi, some are located on opposite sides of the road.  This means that at the Grand Mosque only about 300 people pray daily.  Given what the traffic can be like I am not surprised.

On the way back we stopped at an “Art Museum”.  In Australia, you probably know it better as a shop. They were selling wonderful object d’art, some which would make your skin crawl, but some was quite tasteful and Elizabeth came away with some bling (again).

The architecture is really unusual and few buildings are the same. We drove past the Emirates Palace Hotel which is apparently an 8 star hotel.  Not sure why coffee is US$40 a cup, unless it comes in a 200 litre drum.  It apparently has gold fittings in the rooms.  It was very elegant without being gaudy. In fact the whole place is a rather more tasteful Las Vegas.

We visited the Heritage historical village with its small museum. Not much was happening before oil was discovered in 1960. We drove through the markets which was like driving through the Rocklea markets only with extra dates. Completely uninteresting. We gave him a big tip as he was with us for an extra hour.