Our first visitor and amazing views

 Nanny Maureen arrived a week ago which has been lovely. We were so excited to see her as it's been a while since we left the UK and to see a familiar face is just fabulous. We were also very excited to be able to show her some of the sights of Abu Dhabi. Having been here for nearly 3 months now, we have been desperate to show off our new home. It's difficult to describe the Arabian way of life out here. Pictures are great for capturing the weather and the fun we are having but to describe the architecture and the pristine cleanliness and general feel of the place is not so easy.....My mother in law has been in amazement of it all and has gone as far as taking pictures of some of the toilets as they are so beautifully kept! Haha she'll kill me for writing that.

        Views from Observation 
                        300










Emirates palace 

Abu dhabi city with a peek view of the Corniche (beach)

I have been lucky to have 2 weeks off work ( we don't have October half term here) so I have been doing the tourist thing as well. We visited the Qasr Al Hosn Exhibition which tells the story of the how Abu Dhabi began with the oldest stone building in Abu Dhabi. It is under renovation at the moment but learning about some of the history was interesting. That was followed by lunch at Observation 300 at Etihad Towers where the views from the 74th floor show Abu Dhabi from a spectacular height. If you don't like heights then it probably wouldn't be advisable!

  

Marina Mall

It is popular in the UAE for doing 'Friday Brunch' and every hotel usually has a Brunch on and because everyone advertises theirs to be the best I found it difficult to decide which one to go for. Obviously cost can be a deciding factor....some of them are very expensive but it is a must to experience it at least once. We decided on the Shangri La as it was recommended by a friend and has amazing views from the hotel. We all got dressed up and had a lovely time just eating and drinking for 3-4 hrs. It was a buffet style with food from all different countries with live cooking stations. The dessert area was unbelievable. The setting was just LUSH! 

 View of  Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque

Maureen and I have also done a boat trip to see most of the above views but from a different angle! She was a bit nervous to say the least but once we were out on the sea she loved it. It was only an hour but being out on a speed boat is just fab! When I see all those lovely boats out there I start to day dream.....haha.

So I have another 5 days off and I'm sure we will squeeze a few more sightseeing trips in!  It has been lovely being off work but I'm almost ready to go back for a rest! Happy Halloween and I hope those that are off for half term are having a great time!

Eid Mubarak

We have just had a 4 day holiday in the United Arab Emirates called Eid al-Adha or otherwise known as the Feast of Sacrifice and is the one of the two most important religious celebrations on the Muslim Calendar.

Eid Mubarak translated to English basically means  "Blessed Festival" and it is a greeting that is said by everyone over the festival period. Very nice for us because that means we get time off work / school !

For our mini break we zoomed off to Dubai....an hour down the road. It's a straight road and it is evident when driving that we are in the desert!! The city stops as we drive out of Abu Dhabi and everywhere we look is....sand. The occasional petrol station with MacD's or Subway which is a bit strange in such an underdeveloped piece of road. We had booked a hotel within the Dubai Marina area and it was surprisingly easy to find. All I can say is ...WOW. As with everything over here, luxury and presentation is at the top of the list.  The kids were in awe of this amazing, beautiful hotel and so were we. Unfortunately we had only one night booked so we made the most of it.

 Beach view of our hotel

 View from our balcony

 Another view from our balcony

 Dubai skyscrapers - mostly apartments

With loads of water sports on offer I had to get it out of my system and water-ski! As I was being pulled around the marina by the speedboat I realised the last time I water-skiied was 18 years ago! And don't I know it......I have had sciatica for the last 2 days since!! Serves me right......forgot that I am no longer a young'un anymore. Haha. Although I only fell once in the 15 minutes I had and I loved every minute of it, I have to face up to reality and bypass the water-skiing next time. My back can no longer take it :(

Being typical tourists still ( even though we are residents!) we decided to take a trip to Dubai Mall on probably the busiest weekend of the year!! We took the Metro into the city and joined a carriage full of Pakistanis on the way to watch the Pakistani v Australia cricket game in Dubai. So we didn't think this through. When we got to Dubai Mall there is at least a mile walk to the actual Mall. This wasn't the brightest idea as we had another injury that day...Paul's knee had gone playing waterpolo in the pool with the kids in the kids club! Haha we really are getting old. So you can imagine how the rest of the evening went!!

The mall was heaving and we pushed our way through to see the fountains outside, which are very similar to the fountains in Las Vegas outside the Bellagio if anyone is familiar with them. Water fountains to music. I'm not sure it was worth the crowds but it's been ticked off the list to do!! We also took a glimpse at the Aquarium but decided we would go back another time....I'm hoping crowds will be a little less next time.

 The Burj Khalifa - tallest man made structure in the world

 Aquarium in Dubai Mall

One of those rare moments of affection!

So our first experience of Dubai was fabulous if not a bit hectic on our one evening there! There are so many other places to see in Dubai and we will eventually get around to doing them on our days off. I don't think staying overnight will be a regular occurrence but it was amazing!