Lynda very kindly got up an hour early on Wednesday 9 October and drove us, and our mountain of luggage, over to Gatwick Airport at 6:45am. We really do owe you a lot Lynda, you are a good friend and somewhere in the years to come, we will give you a good holiday and a well deserved rest. We checked in at the Emirates counter and just managed to get all of our luggage accepted; thank goodness Rodney gets an extra 10kgs allowance, or our excess baggage bill could have been x-rated.
A final English breakfast in England was calling to our tummies, so we stoked up and then wandered around a bit until boarding time. The check-in chappie had said that the flight was full, so it looked like the third seat next to us in Economy was filled; ah well it’s only a seven hour flight to Dubai. At the boarding gate we were both asked to step to one side and our boarding passes were taken away a. Then, ‘joy of joys’, ‘praise the lord’, we were grandly handed two Business Class boarding passes. As Francesca would say “Oh My God”!!!! I felt like a princess who had just won the lotto and then I wished that the flight wasn’t only seven hours to Dubai…..
We were wined and dined, white tablecloths, attentive staff, real cutlery, fluffy white pillows, soft fleecy blankets and the food was amazing. It did take me a while to work out what all the buttons and knobs and flaps on the seat could do, which made me look a bit like a Business Class novice, but oh that seat was heaven. The flight ended much too soon, but I was a very happy bunny when I bounced off the plane, fast tracked through immigration, and off to the baggage carousel. I was still smiling even after standing at the carousel for forty minutes for one of our bags to be the very last one off!
When we finally got out in to the arrivals hall, our friend Ramsay was starting to worry that he had missed us; we were very glad he hadn’t given up and gone home. We squeezed all our luggage into his Jaguar and he zoomed out of Dubai and along the coast to Abu Dhabi. It was past 10pm when we finally arrived at their home and Alison was waiting for us with cold beers, sandwiches and lots of chatter. Alison and I were at school together in Weston-Super-Mare, all those years ago…. We lost touch for almost thirty years and since then have only managed to catch up a few times in the last eight years. Finally we had the chance for some quality time together and to see what her life is like in Abu Dhabi, where they have lived for twenty two years.
Rodney and I didn’t really know what to expect. Rodney has visited some places on the Persian Gulf on ships and travelled through Iran many years ago, but I have never been anywhere near the Middle East. To be able to see the area with friends who live there, has to be the best way to do it. When we got up on our first morning, Ramsay had already driven back to Dubai for work, but Alison is currently not working, so she drove us around for the day, giving us an ‘orientation’ of a few of the two hundred islands and the mainland that make up the Arabian emirate of Abu Dhabi. We stopped briefly at the Formula 1 track on Yas Island, which was being prepared for the next Grand Prix on November 3rd; it was a very different track from the one we saw earlier this year at Monaco.
Alison then drove us over bridges above water so blue, past mangroves and sandy waste land, around the port and south down the long, straight Corniche, past all the enormous skyscrapers, to the Marina Mall on the Breakwater for lunch. From there we turned back east through Al Bateen. On a long stretch of beach we put our toes in the ocean and the water was warmer than body temperature, not exactly refreshing, but then we didn’t have our swimmers with us anyway.
With our circuit complete and back on the mainland at Madinat Khalifa B, we popped in to a supermarket before returning to the house. Dinner on our first night was bangers and mash with lashings of tomato ketchup; well done Alison for psychically knowing Rodney’s favourite meal……. We stayed up late again, talking and reminiscing until the wee small hours of the morning.
Apparently we have accidentally timed our visit perfectly. Weekends in Abu Dhabi are Friday and Saturday and our first Monday coincided with the long public holiday of Eid, which meant Ramsay only had to work on the Thursday and Sunday. So on Friday we all rose fairly late and then drove over to Pearls and Caviar, a beautiful restaurant on the waterfront opposite the impressive Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Grand Mosque. For nearly four hours we dined on a sensational buffet of seafood, sushi, roast beef, salads, grilled vegetables, fish and chips, barbecued prawns and we kept going back for more. I didn’t have room to even try the pastas, curries and casseroles; I had to leave room for some of the fine array of desserts. If the restaurant hadn’t been so stylish, I would have taken a photo of the beautifully decorative dessert section, but then again, I was too busy stocking up my plate three times. I dipped strawberries, figs, fudge and dates in to the chocolate fountain and finished the meal with Turkish Delight and mint tea. It was a wonderful meal and though a little light headed from the Mojito and the Cosmopolitan cocktails, I didn’t leave the restaurant feeling too overstuffed. Thank you Ramsay, it was a wonderful way to spend a whole afternoon.
None of us were hungry that evening, so we all stretched out on the sofa and watched three episodes of ‘Broadchurch’ and at 10:30pm the ladies left the boys on the sofa to watch the England v Montenegro football match.
On Saturday Ramsay took Rodney to the Abu Dhabi Golf Club for a round of golf at 36°C, while Alison and I hit the shops in the Al Wahdah Mall in air-conditioned comfort. When we met the boys and a couple of friends for dinner at the golf club they looked rather hot and red, I’m not sure I could have played a round of golf in that heat. It cost $140Aust, and that was with a discount voucher, but they did get a golf buggy, free ice lollies and ice-cold towels around the course. I still don’t think I could have played in that heat.
With Ramsay at work on Sunday the three of us had a lazy morning and then drove over to Manarat Saadayat, for lunch in a lovely café and then a stroll around the cultural centre showing an exhibition of the current vision and plans for Abu Dhabi’s future. The Louvre Art Gallery and Guggenheim Museums (Frank Gehry) are being built and there is an incredible looking maritime centre, designed by Zaha Hadid, that looks like a flowing super yacht creeping out to sea. Most of the island will be covered with housing, 29 hotels, shopping malls, parks, 2 golf courses and 19kms of beach; it certainly looks like it will be amazing when finished.
At 4pm we parked beside the beautiful Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Grand Mosque. My long dress and scarf were considered moderate enough to enter, but Alison had to don a black scarf, before we could enter the gorgeous, cool interior. We wandered freely around marvelling at the beautiful details and then wandered back to the entry for a tour with a local guide. It is built with materials from all over the world and contains the largest carpet in the world.
For an hour the guide told us all about the mosque, managing to raise a lot of oohs and aahs from the group and at the end of the tour, the sun was setting and the shining white marble started to reflect the pink of the sun. I could have sat outside for ages and just stared at the building, but we had a chicken casserole in the slow cooker and three more episodes of ‘Broadchurch’ to catch up on.
