Arrival in Abu Dhabi and a look around

7^thAugust , 2018

After a fitful sleep, a couple of reasonable meals (by airline standard), a few too many crying babies and an otherwise smooth flight, we arrived in Abu Dhabi at 5.20am.

The temperature is mid 30’s and is expected to get to 39 C.

Progress through immigration and customs is seamless, and soon we are out in the arrival area of the airport looking for our car to transfer us to the Intercontinental Hotel in town. Alas, we cannot find our names on any of the many boards held up by drivers in the arrival area and begin to suspect that something may have gone awry.

Finally, we found a representative of Arabian Adventure tours, who are providing our transfers. The agent looks wistfully at our voucher and looks perplexed. After many attempts to call his office, he discovered that our booking had been cancelled.  Furthermore, they had no spare vehicles at the airport to fulfill their contract.

It took an hour of stuffing around and trying to coerce one of his competitors to come up with a vehicle, before he was all smiles and declared the problem had been solved. He dutifully took our voucher and guided us out the front to the vehicle he had secured.

As he was guiding us out, he obviously tried very hard to not notice how much luggage we had and also the fact that there were 4 of us. He proudly introduced us to the driver of the Audi A6 he had found to do the job.

By now we are desperate and are determined to get everything in the car, so we can get to our hotel. Closing the doors was the biggest problem, as we had a boot load, bags on our laps , under our feet and trying to bulge out the doors. Nevertheless, we made it.

John and Sharon nursing their bags in the back seat

After arrival at the hotel the Audi looks relieved to have got rid of its load, as we all scramble to gather our bags together (amazing all those bags and people managed to fit in)

The hotel is 5 star, very comfortable, if not getting a little tired, with all the trimmings of  Middle Eastern  décor. Another little surprise awaits us as we contemplate seeking relief from the heat later in the day with a dip in the pool. It seems the pool developed a mysterious leak, and is closed for 22days, from 29^thJuly, to fix the problem. Apparently there are other pools nearby.

Once checked in a bit of rest was called for before we headed out to fully investigate Abu Dhabi. We had pre purchased a 2 day ticket on the Big Red Bus which offers unlimited travel on a couple of fixed routes which cover the main tourist attractions on a hop on hop off basis. Our plan was to use this to have a bit of a look around and be more targeted tomorrow when we know where we would like to spend more time.

Before heading off to the Big Bus tour we had a brief walk around the hotel grounds and discovered an enormous complex of many large waterside restaurants, a private beach with club and a sizeable marina. It is quite a complex and there will be no need to stray too far for a meal.

Intercontinental Hotel from the marina

Our nearest bus stop is at Etihad Towers, about a 10 minute walk from where we are staying.

The rough plan is to run around the red route, which includes most things of interest, and then tomorrow spend time at the major sites that demand a more serious look. 

Etihad Towers where we have to go to catch our bus

It is a short walk, but it is very hot, already in the high 30's. We hope the air conditioning on the bus is up to scratch.  Just opposite Etihad Towers is the most luxurious hotel in Abu Dhabi, the Emirates Palace Hotel.

This is just one part of the hotel complex

Finally, we are on the bus and briefed by the operator on our options. It is now just after 11am. As it seems with all things in Abu Dhabi, there are a few things not available today, including the Dhow Cruise (closed due to maintenance). An alternate cruise is being offered, but it is at Yas Island, which is the furthest point from where we are and seems to be totally devoted to entertainment, including being the location of the formula 1 circuit.

We decide to give it a go and by 12.45 pm we arrive at the site of the cruise boat. It is a circuitous trip to get there, as we need to change from the red route to the green route, having seen a what we thought was a fair bit of Abu Dhabi.

The 60 foot cruise boat

The boat was air conditioned and the cruise went for 45mins from 1pm. It was a waste of time with very little to see. 

Next challenge was to catch a bus back to pick up the red route which will take us home. The next bus at the cruise vessel arrived at 2.30pm and we headed home, but not before seeing every inch of Yas Island, something they are obviously very proud of. They are surprised no one is interested in visiting Ferrari World or pretty much any of the "attractions" here. It was 3.30pm before we finally finished our laps of the island seeing such amazing features as the world's fastest roller coaster.

Another 2 hours passed before we finally got back to Marina Mall, a short taxi ride from our hotel,  having seen pretty much all of Abu Dhabi ( a bigger place than we had realised). It was 6pm by the time we got back to the Intercontinental.

No-one was interested in a late night, so John and Sharon headed off to their room to have a shower and planned to have room service for dinner, our first meal since breakfast on the plane. We had a quick shower and went to the Belgian Cafe in the Hotel to have their pot of mussels special with a beer and chips before an early night to catch up on our sleep. The food was great.

Now that we have had a comprehensive (perhaps too comprehensive) tour of Abu Dhabi, tomorrow we will just pick out a few of the highlights like the Louvre to spend some time at.