Abu Dhabi

Finally after about 9 months of planning, we are about to start our extended European holiday.  First up though was a stop over in Abu Dhabi. 

It is hard to imagine that just 50 years ago, Abu Dhabi was just dessert and little else.  Now it is home to some of the most impressive tall buildings, fantastic bridges, largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates and a gold souk.   

Must be seen to be believed ... car made of solid gold!

The first thing the girls wanted to do was go for a swim after a 16 hour flight.  We stayed at the Radisson Blu hotel on Yas Island.

We've all heard about the enormous malls in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, so we took the opportunity to visit Yas Mall which is a newly opened one that is the biggest in the United Arab Emirates.  It felt like a ghost town with very little people around the emptiest food court we've ever soon. The girls were in seventh heaven discovering all the toy shops and they all seemed to sell Beanie Boos.  There was even the Virgin Megastore with a huge indoor slide.

Right next door to the mall is Ferrari World.

The Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi was certainly grand and the one single piece of carpet covering the entire floor of the grand mosque was astounding. The girls were shocked that there were so many rules attached to entering a mosque - women had to cover up arms, legs and hair, men had to cover up their legs, and the hardest one they found to adhere to was the no hand holding or other public displays of affection

Our next stop was the Emirates Palace Hotel, which was a very impressive 7 star hotel that had a vending machine that dispenses gold and a coffee laced with gold flakes costing $18 AUD a cup !!!   It also has its own water theme park and a dress code - no thongs, singlets or shorts! 

Ethihad Towers in the background

The observation deck on the 74th floor of the Etihad Towers was our next big stop.  The views from the observation deck was impressive with a 360 degree celcius

Lunch at the Observation Deck

Our final stop for the day was the Gold Souk which is an entire shopping centre dedicated to selling gold.  There were so many gold shops and so little customers that we don't really understand how these shops stay in business!