Breaking a journey in Abu Dhabi

I slept well and woke refreshed around seven to see that the view from our room was actually much more interesting than I’d thought when we'd arrived in the dark last night. We were looking towards the impressive Presidential Palace that I’d been fortunate to tour on my work visit some years ago.

We indulged in a large and leisurely breakfast while watching the minah birds squabble outside by the pool. We then called an Uber to take us to the Louvre Museum. I visited the museum on that previous trip but only saw the exterior which I found really interesting to photograph. I was keen to share it with Chris and this time get to see the inside.

The interior proved to be as interesting as the exterior had promised. The museum displays art from very early civilisations up to the present day, in chronological order. And unlike many others, it presents various contemporaneous cultures alongside each other. You follow a thread from early self-contained kingdoms through conquest and expansion into empires. You see how trade via the Silk Route made an impact all over Asia and Europe, how different world religions emerged and developed, and so on. And you see the truth of the remark that although we may all come from different cultures, we have more in common than we might think, or than many would admit.

After a few hours touring the permanent collection we decided against visiting the temporary exhibition of African art as, although it looked interesting, we were in danger of getting museum fatigue and not doing it justice. But we did make time to check out the area immediately beneath the huge dome, which is designed to mimic the play of sunlight through the palm trees at an oasis.

Then we got another Uber back to the hotel where we relaxed with delicious smoothies at the pool bar.

Refreshed we took a walk along the Corniche to the gate of the Presidential Palace. The sky was a bit overcast for good photos and anyway I have lots from last time, but we enjoyed seeing some horses peering out from the stables nearby.

We took a look inside the sumptuous Emirates Palace Hotel before heading back to our own for a rest and to freshen up for the evening.

For dinner we went to Li Beirut in the Emirates Towers hotel next door but one to ours. We had a great table outside on the terrace overlooking the pool and the temperature was perfect for outdoor dining. We decided to have one of the set sharing menus which was perhaps a mistake as the portions were huge, especially of the various meze. We had olives, almonds, super light pita breads, hummus, mutabel, fatoush salad, vine leaves, felafel and little lamb pasties. It was all delicious, especially the hummus and mutabel, but I made myself not eat everything as i knew there was still a selection of kebabs to follow! There was even a dessert, a sort of rosewater flavoured egg custard topped with almonds and pistachios, but I could only manage half!

Back at our hotel we made sure to get to bed promptly, as the alarm had to be set for 5.00 so we could catch our onward flight to Manila. It had been a brief but very pleasant reacquaintance with Abu Dhabi.