Abu Dhabi is the largest Emirate in all of the UAE, so it was fitting that we visit... especially the gem of Abu Dhabi, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque! It's the largest mosque in the UAE (superlative, check!) and there are several other world wide superlatives to check out here. While my mom and I thought we dressed appropriately, we apparently did not because we got told by mosque officials that we needed to wear an Abaya to get into the mosque. And we totally forgot to take off our other layers as we put the Abaya on, because it was air conditioned in the "locker room." Neither of us even thought about it. So we darn near melted here because we had so many layers on.
Our guide today was Maricar. She was seriously hilarious. Weirdly, there is a Cinnabon (what?) in the (entrance?) to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. She said... "When we leave, I need to get my friend some Cinnabons because she will be so excited... it's her favorite thing in the world!" I can appreciate that. I didn't get any, but I still can definitely appreciate that.
It was so hot and humid here that I actually thought I might die. No. I'm really serious. Even my camera fogged up upon arrival.
Thank goodness my iPhone is always overheated and took a nice picture as we entered the Mosque.
Maricar took a lovely picture of my Mom and I melting in the Abu Dhabi sun.
This mosque was just gorgeous. It's been ranked by TripAdvisor as the second favorite travel destination for two years in a row. As in... for the entire world!
Sheikh Zayed himself is buried in the courtyard of this mosque. He was considered the founder of the UAE and ruled Abu Dhabi for more than 30 years.
This mosque is the third largest in the entire world, behind Mecca and Medina, which are two of the holiest sites in all of Islam. Well done, Sheikh Zayed! 41,000 worshipers can be accommodated at any given time here.
The entrance to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
This is a culture I respect greatly, but may never understand. Those fellas there in the center left have exposed elbows, but I need to wear three layers to be considered proper!
The architecture is just so beautiful though.
There are SO MANY domes here. In fact, there are 82 domes varying in sizes (seven, to be exact) that surround the mosque.
There's lots of gold, too.
You can't walk out into the courtyard, but this is where Sheikh Zayed himself is buried.
This mosque only opened in 2007... after 3,000 workers took over 10 years to build it (starting in 1996.)
This was my favorite part of the mosque (aside from the superlatives!) This prayer hall has many columns which are covered in flowers set in mother-of-pearl.
The inner courtyard of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.
Because of the high cost, this is one of the only places in the world you will find so much mother-of-pearl.
Everyone finds the gold and pearl covered columns fascinating!
Don't forget to look up because there's so much to see!
Me and my Mom, melting in Abu Dhabi, part two.
The Sheikh Zayed Mosque is one of the most beautiful structures I have ever seen!
Why am I so hot in the abaya? Oh wait. THAT'S WHY. It's 99 degrees with a heat index of 121.
The floor in the courtyard is thought to be the largest marble mosaic in the whole world at 180,000 square feet!
A helicopter flew by so we asked Maricar who it was and she said she thought it was a member of the royal family.
Faustig, a company from Munich imported seven chandeliers to this mosque. There are literally millions of Swarovski crystals among the seven. Have you ever had something take your breath away? Because this chandelier is stunning!
But this is the REAL gem. This is the third largest chandelier in the world! It weighs a whopping 12 tons! And that's real 24 karat gold on the middle part.
I could have stayed here all day marveling at this!
This place puts any baroque churches from the 1600s to shame!
I really love that they kept the floral theme in this room - not just with the pretty floral chandelier, but also on the windows, ceiling and walls.
And THIS! This is the world's largest hand knotted carpet! 1,200 workers made this carpet, which is about 5,700 square meters.
Who has to vacuum this? This is what I wanna know!
As you leave the inside section of the Mosque, there is a clock on the wall showing you the call to prayer times, which vary and are based on the sunrise and sunset.
Another view of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque as we were leaving. The pools help keep the surrounding area cooler in the hot summers (but I feel they did little for us today, ha!)
Money shot.
After we visited the mosque, we traveled around Abu Dhabi visiting various landmarks. This one is the Aldar headquarters. Aldar is a real estate investment company. It was the first ever circular building in the Middle East.
Our next stop was the Emirates Palace Hotel. Kempinski currently owns it but in 2020, it will be handed over to Mandarin Oriental properties and it was the third most expensive hotel ever built!
There's a really beautiful dome inside of the lobby.
This five star hotel is currently runs around $600 per night for a general room.
And then it was time to move on... quick take one more picture of the view from the front door of the Emirates Palace hotel and let's get out of here before we get in trouble!
We technically weren't allowed to even be on the property but Maricar just promised the gate guy that we just wanted to look, so we were able to "sneak" on!
The next stop was to do some shopping in the Al Marina area of Abu Dhabi.
We stopped at this nice little place (with air conditioning!) and bought me a nice scarf (thanks Mom!) and some perfume!
I don't know. I just weirdly love a "red light no U-Turn and also, no trucks can ever U-Turn here" light. Driving rules are very different here.
Oh UAE. Do you even know how to do chicken wings?
The UAE is very proud to have launched their first astronaut into space, so they made a little monument to Hazzaa Ali Almansoori, who went into space in September. In fact, he returned home on the day we left!
Our last stop of the day was the SUPER cool Louvre Abu Dhabi. Yes, as in THAT Louvre. They have a satellite museum in Abu Dhabi that is much smaller but really fantastic.
I'm in Vienna on the walk around Europe, just inside the entrance to the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Eeeek, I found my home! Bayern für immer!!
I love this one because if you look at the painting on the wall, you can see this goddess in the upper right corner. And here she is in real life! The painting on the left is the "The British Jurist Charles Joseph Crowle" by Pompeo Batoni.
George! What are you doing here!? This painting was done by Gilbert Stuart in 1822. It was just funny to see our first President here in Abu Dhabi!
In the category of "Heroism and History," we have Napoleon Bonaparte by Jacques-Louis David. I actually really loved this painting. If you're up close to it, it looks like a photograph - it's so detailed!
I mostly took this for Grant, who is obsessed with maps, but you know he gets his love of maps from me and his Uncle Coco. This one is called "Map of the World" by Nicolas de Fer, who was a cartographer. Per Wikipedia, he "focused more on quantity than quality as there were often geographical errors." Grant can make a better map than this!
You leave the main hall to visit the special exhibits that are in an unattached building under this amazing metallic ceiling.
There's also a Picasso inspired man on a bicycle!
The main event is Rendezvous in Paris which was heavy on the avant garde side. My favorite! This was Giorgio de Chirico's "Premonitory Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire Spring 1914."
I liked Sonia Delaunay's Philomena from 1907. She has better shoulders than I do. The artist and Philomena were both from the Ukraine.
You can never go wrong with a Pablo Picasso - this one is Young Girl with a Hoop, Spring 1919.
I want to have a drink with this guy - only it was painted by Marc Chagall, who I have a love-hate relationship with. I do really like his paintings though. This is Mazin, the Poet from 1911-1912. My grandparents were born when Chagall was painting this!
One thing I like about visiting art museums is discovering new artists I hadn't previously been familiar with. I saw several of Tsuguhara Foujita's works and really liked all of them displayed here. He's from Japan and this work, titled "My Interior" was from 1921. He has moved to France, so these objects were from his adopted country.
David O. Widhopff was a Russian and French painter and sculptor of who Chana Orloff did a bronze of in 1923. The little description describes Widhopff's "swelling curves." Ouch!
I can't tell if I liked this one or not. He kind of seems pompous. This was a piece by Tamara de Lempicka - she was Polish and this was of Thaddeus Lempicki - her first husband who was a Polish lawyer. (Yes, different spellings of their last names. That's just how she did it!)
Leaves of Light is another work of art sitting in the open aired section. It seems to blend into the geometrical ceiling,
I'm not sure how smart this is, but they let the Persian Gulf come right up to the building. (Shrugs.) Humans only included for scale.
Though this was supposed to look like a waterfall, it was actually floor to ceiling lines that you couldn't touch - but you had to find your way out of this maze in order to leave the Louvre!
It's definitely not as big as the one Paris, but that was okay because we were short on time anyway! It had a great little collection - and I love seeing art without my kids! But it was time to head back!
On the way back to Dubai, I snapped this picture of the speed limit. 140 k/hr. That's faster than the "suggested speed' on the Autobahn, which is 130 k/hr. That's 87 mph! Hilarious!
This is legitimately the only license plate I would pay a billion dollars for. 91275. That's the Auerbach zip code!!!! I about died when I saw that!
Until next time, Abu Dhabi! I really enjoyed my time here!
