The San Francisco of the UAE

Giuseppe and I decided to head to Abu Dhabi this weekend, craving to see the city that is talked about as much as Dubai around here - it is only about a 90 minute drive from where we live, so we packed up for the day and some extra things in case we decided to stay the night...
We were initially going to get up early and head out for the morning and afternoon and head back for the night...but that didn't happen.

We had never even driven too far past the Mall of the Emirates, in the direction of Abu Dhabi/Jebel Ali on E11 so that in and of itself was quite exciting for us, for there is another small city of buildings and mini-skyscrapers and new developments, so it was nice to see what was going on on the other side. It didn't actually take long before we stopped seeing buildings of any kind and began to see a lot of flat desert land...quite beautiful actually. The desert just popped out of nowhere again, just like driving out to Bab al Shams, where you actually realize that these buildings seem to be sprouting out of the sand like palms, something out of nothing. Literally. My favorite is when we see just a single structure, be it a villa or palace or just a huge, 3-D overly-graphic banner advertising some new development or shopping mall, sitting in the middle of nowhere. I always think, well who put that there?

A few things made us realize that we had finally crossed over to the emirate of Abu Dhabi - a huge sign of their beloved (and now passed) Sheikh, Sheikh Zayed (as in Sheikh Zayed Road, the main route here, or E11 and the man who is recognized as the Father of the UAE)), the towering electric tower wires slicing through the desert and finally, the greenery. There is so much green, plants and trees along the roadside, that you don't see in Dubai just yet. Dubai is still "rooting" itself, both literally and figuratively. But Abu Dhabi is more grounded and established, and it shows. There were rows and rows of palms and other beautiful, green wispy trees our entire drive there....in addition to these funny signs that were promoting roadside adviertising...I took pictures of them as part of my new obsession out here - signs. We found them to be quite amusing...see below:

Traveling to Abu Dhabi is quite simple...take E11 all the way there. Then follow the signs that say to Abu Dhabi (there is another main city, Al Ain, so you just don't go that way, but rather the other way ;D) and you are basically there...traveling down the main street, which is 2nd Street. Just amazing. Actual street numbers and names. Who'd a thunk?? The city is built on a grid system, based on a "T", with 2nd Street (Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum St.) running perpendicular to Corniche East/West, which is the street that runs parallel to the water, along the Arabian Gulf. It makes the city so easy to navigate just like New York or San Francisco. It is the one thing that I truly look forward to in Dubai, some sort of organization to the master road plan, where you can tell someone you live on a street, rather than "next to the Dubai Mall, to the left, look for the signs for Al Manzil Hotel, but actually go the other way toward Yansoon, and take your 3rd left at the stop-n-go guy."

Abu Dhabi is an island, so it is filled with views of the water, and lush green grass land and parks, trees and beautiful flowers. It is also highly pedestrian. I mean, more so than Boston. People are everywhere, out at the parks making fires and eating, lying under trees and walking and jogging at just about every turn. I don't know what I was expecting, but for some reason, it wasn't what we saw.

Upon entering into the City Centre, you see the same things you see in any city...retail, tall financial buildings, large residential towers, restaurants, busy streets with busy bodies, etc. But the one things that got our attention was that the skyline is not even 1/2 as high as Dubai, which gives it a much more human scale. And it feels older. It feels like it has roots. Like it has been here, creating for itself a history, getting its' feet on the ground, developing over time. Dubai still feels like the "1 minute city" to me. As in you could blink, and one minute it is not there, and the next it was all built, and built big and shiny and tall. Everything in Dubai still looks new, even the old looks fairly new, compared to Abu Dhabi. Driving into the city, the retail levels of buildings look as though they have been through a rough life, and there are residential buildings that look as though they may crumble in a brisk breeze, with clothes hung against the dirty exterior walls by a piece of string. (Dubai has that too, in Deira and various other small areas around the city, but it is not apparent to the naked eye simply looking down Sheikh Zayed Road at all the bling.)

Our day in Abu Dhabi was really great, we stopped to take pictures of everything, parking in Taxi Only Stops to jump out and get a shot of the azure water or city skyline from the other side of the water, and the theme park that runs each night next to Marina Mall at the Breakwater. One stop we made was to view this incredible palace-looking building, with the greenest grass and whitest sand private beach - the enormity of the place was overwhelming, and when we saw a sign that said "Presidential Palace This Way," we were sure that is what we were photographing. Wrong we were.

Since our day started later than expected, we decided to check out our Abu Dhabi city book and see where we could stay the night, and be able to tour around a little more the next day. One place that we noticed was the Emirates Palace, which of course, sounds totally expensive and exclusive, but Giuseppe insisted that we check it out, just to see what it looks like. Well, seems we had already seen it. It was that enormous and palatial place we thought was the Presidential Palace. That was the Emirates Palace Hotel.

Well, we went in. We drove up to the valet parking and walked in like it was nobody's business...including ours ;) It was beautiful and palatial, alright. Gold adornments everywhere (that is a color you get very used to being in the UAE, everyone loves GOLD!!!!!!) and glamourous outfitted women and men to open the door for you, offer to hold your bag, get you a date, have some water, try some tea, I am surprised they didn't take me to the little girl's room. Anyway, we went to the concierge and checked out the room availability, as Giuseppe and I often like to pretend that we are interested in something that we know we can't have or shouldn't have. It is fun and you get to see things and try things you may never get to. Tempts the senses a bit!

Needless to say, we.....well, ok, we stayed. It wasn't outrageous and we got a free upgrade from what we paid for b/c that room was all that was available - in addition to the lovely bouquet of orange roses I received and the dates Giuseppe was offered....he can never pass up a date! We had a view of both the private white sand beach and the green inland, the pool and park area. It was totally and utterly beautiful and majestic and just lovely. By far, the most fantastic hotel I have ever stayed in. That is not to say it was my taste or style, but the service was exemplary, the people were overly nice (what they get paid for) and we got free fresh-squeezed orange juice on a white cloth Italian napkin with rose petals upon entering into our room. #3414. On the 4th floor. A balcony that puts our Yansoon balcony to shame. Remote control lights. A 61" flat panel TV on the wall. Etched-glass shower enclosure with 2 shower heads. A toilet and a bidet, of course.

So we enjoyed it. We enjoyed every last bit of it - and took some of it to enjoy at home too!!! We talked, and bounced on the squishy bed, asked for extra Lady Primrose bath gels and shampoos (some to take home, they are complimentary), played with the remote, walked around the hotel holding hands, got tea, walked outside on the white sand beach and put our feet in the warm water at 10pm, all alone, read the newspapers, ate the free buffet breakfast worth every penny we would have paid. It was great! We were majesties for the night!

(And to our lucky surprise, we were blessed with an architecture exhibit, of all things! I have posted the images in a set called "Emirates Palace Exhibit" and you can see them in the general picture postings...just awesome! Total refreshed our excitement to see all the lovely models and boards - albeit the ugly-ass Gehry mess he calls a building and people pay him millions for! Yuck!!)

On our way out of Abu Dhabi, we stopped by to take some images of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, one of the largest in the world and the largest in the UAE. Just unbelieveable. It was extraordinary and we were, of course, approached by a militia in uniform with a machine gun strapped to his side (2 in 3 weeks, go figure!) inquiring our intentions, but we made sure to let him know we were just interested in taking pictures, nothing else. He seemed to be ok with that. Hey, I am here writing this, no? Kidding.

When I left Dubai, I didn't know what to expect. And upon leaving Abi Dhabi, all I have to say is that it is a lovely city, a place that exudes a calm and makes me feel good, like San Francisco. There is a history that you can taste, and see and hear, and gives way to being able to actually imagine the past of the city. Of the people. It makes me feel like when I fly to California from Boston, and I get out of the plane and am, for some reason, each time able to breathe deeply, inhale and exhale. My blood pressure drops. I feel relaxed. Such is Abi Dhabi...the Bay Area of the Middle East. I really, really enjoyed it and will look forward to going back..hopefully to the area of the Arts where we can see all the new buildings from the architecture exhibit.

Miss you all...love d:)