Saturday – February 10, 2018
Today was our first full day in the city of Abu Dhabi which is the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is a federation of seven emirates, each governed by an absolute monarch. The Emir of Abu Dhabi has traditionally served as president of the United Arab Emirates since the establishment of the federation in 1971.
We began our tour of the city at the fruit and vegetable market. Dates are a popular fruit which are grown in this region of the world. We stopped at a shop which sells 30 different kinds of dates.
There was also a large fresh fruit and vegetable market with great looking produce.
Our next stop was the port and fish market. It’s difficult to think of fresh fish on the Arabian peninsula, but the UAE is located on the Persian Gulf and sea food is one of their major products. In the photo below, the fishermen are coiling a net.
There were fishing boats of all kinds and sizes lining the harbor. We walked into the huge fish market nearby along the pier.
Most of the vendors were friendly and didn’t mind tourists taking photos of them at work. They spoke English because they were workers from the southern part of India.
The fish was incredibly fresh! A person could buy a fish and have it cooked to order at one of the stands nearby. There was a line of people waiting for their seafood lunches.
We boarded the bus and drove to the Heritage Village to see exhibits of the traditional desert way of life before oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi.
This was an outdoor museum with displays of traditional crafts, tents, irrigation system display, mosque, and shops.
Our next stop was the highlight of the day with a visit to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. We could see the magnificent building from our hotel and up close, it was spectacular!
The mosque is large enough to accommodate over 40,000 worshippers, while the main prayer hall can hold over 7,000 people. The complex covers an area of more than 30 acres.
Construction was completed in 2007 and the design was inspired by Persian, Islamic, Moorish, and Arab influences. The carpet in the main hall is the world’s largest and took two years to complete.
The seven chandeliers of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque were imported from Germany and incorporate millions of Swarovski crystals. A unique lighting system was designed to reflect the phases of the moon.
Later in the evening we had a real treat of going to the Emirates Palace Hotel for dinner. This is a premier hotel in Abu Dhabi where visiting dignitaries stay and tonight the president of India was in residence, so security was tight.
The hotel opened in 2005 with construction costs of 3 billion dollars – the third most expensive hotel ever built.
We enjoyed an incredible dinner of every imaginable scrumptious dish. Afterwards, I took a photo from the outdoor dining area across the creek to a magnificent palace. The local guide said it was one of the emir’s residences.
This was the view from the front of the hotel, across the beautiful fountains looking toward the skyscrapers of Abu Dhabi.
