A day trip to Abu Dhabi

Monday, September 04, 2023
Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
We booked a day trip to Abu Dhabi - a place we have never been! It takes about an hour on the freeway - which has 5 lanes each way through the desert.
Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is headquartered in the city, and was the world's 3rd largest sovereign wealth fund in 2022. Abu Dhabi itself has over a trillion US dollars worth of assets under management in a combination of various sovereign wealth funds headquartered there. 
Our first visit was to Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. It has the largest hand-knotted carpet in the world. It measures 5,700 square metres and took 1200 artisans to make it. The largest chandelier in the main prayer hall spans 10 metres in diameter - is 15.5 meters tall and weighs almost 12 tonnes. When made, it was the largest chandelier in the world. It incorporates 15,500 LED lights. There are other large chandeliers here as well. The mosque was incredibly beautiful, with lovely tiles on the marble. At 39 degrees, it was also very hot - especially as women have to wear traditional clothing and men have to cover their arms and legs.
We drove past many very interesting sights including Capital Gate - known as the leaning tower of Abu Dhabi. It has a more pronounced lean than the Leaning Tower of Pisa (4 times greater than the Pisa one to be precise) although it was designed that way!
We stopped at Emirates Palace which is a 5 star hotel in the city with 114 domes and lavish suites decorated in gold and marble. It was insane. It would be a very nice place to stay (no doubt a little pricey) with Michelin star restaurants, white sandy beaches and beautiful architecture. We visited the bathrooms and they were quite possibly the most luxurious bathrooms we have ever seen. 
We drove along the Corniche to see the lovely views along the coastline. Abu Dhabi is very different to Dubai - less built up, and not as busy. It’s actually quite beautiful along the water.
We then went to Yas Island - a leisure island containing several large theme parks including Warner Bros, Seaworld, Yas Waterworld and Ferrari World. Ferrari World was our destination of choice. Formula Rossa is here and is the worlds fastest rollercoaster. 
The coaster train accelerates to its top speed of 240 km/h (149.1 mph) in 4.9 seconds using a hydraulic launch system. Riders experience up to 1.7 g-force during acceleration and up to 4.8 g throughout the ride. The roller coaster track is 2.07 km in length, ranking second in the world among steel roller coasters. We had to wear goggles to protect our eyes from the dust outside! These were not at all attractive but no doubt necessary as the dust outside in the desert is plentiful.  
I don’t have any interest in Ferrari’s at all - but do like rollercoasters and rides. Generally speaking, most of the attractions featured some linkage to either racing or Ferraris or Italy - we did have Italian for lunch. We spent the afternoon on various rides, and had a great time. The theme park is predominantly contained in an absolutely massive air conditioned dome but some of the rides are situated in the hot 41 degree weather. So, you start on the rollercoaster in the air conditioning and then the speed and the heat hits you at about the same time! Another of the rides commenced horizontally and then shot directly upwards out of the dome into the air before returning. We spent most of the afternoon not having to wait for rides until the last one. Tim also did a go kart competition and came 4th - although he couldn’t work that out because he apparently overtook everyone - and no one passed him!
Our final stop was a Formula One track viewpoint. This race is held each November on Yas Island. 
A busy, exhilarating, exhausting and hot day, we enjoyed the company of the 2 German couples with us. We conveniently arrived back at our hotel just in time for our cocktail hour.
As usual, the food and drink selections for our “included” 2 hours here are very nice and well and truly has met our dinner needs now for the 3rd night in a row. 
But to indulge ourselves, we went down to the Barasti Beachclub to check it out after dinner. Anyway, we went - we had a drink - and came back. They have built a pool since we were last there and we felt a lot overdressed! 
We must have collected a bit of dust during the day, as when I washed our clothes in the bathtub , a lot of dust and dirt was in the water!
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