Like agents on a covert mission we four made our ways to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. Barbara, codename Barka, took the downtown airport train. Valerie, or Valka, travelled by bus from Buffalo, New York. Elenka and I took local public transit.

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Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, would be our destination. Barka flew with KLM, she had a stopover in Amsterdam. Valka went with Air Canada, with a layover in Zurich. Elenka and I took Brussels Airlines, with a change of planes in the Belgian capital. We’d all left Toronto within half an hour of one another. And we all arrived in Abu Dhabi just forty minutes apart. 

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While the flight plans might seem James Bondish, clandestine activities played no role. Abu Dhabi is where the four of us travelled so that we could take a repositioning cruise-ship to Italy. Our fifteen day journey will take us to Dubai, Oman and Jordan. Then, after a thirty or so hour sail through the Suez Canal we’ll enter the Mediterranean. We’ll then make two stops in Greece before sailing onward for our final landing at Civitavecchia, the port of Rome. In Rome we’ll go our separate ways. Valka back to America. Barka to the West of Europe. Elenka and I to the East. And that is how these odd Toronto to Abu Dhabi flight plans were conceived — all based on our individual end-of-cruise needs.

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Yesterday, we four visited Abu Dhabi’s Grand Mosque. If you come to the mosque at nine in the morning, when it opens, you’ll have the place to yourself. Wait until ten and you’ll be jammed together with all the sleepy heads. Some people like crowds.

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I’ll let the mosque photos speak for themselves, except for the shot of Valka, Elenka and Barka. Most of the female visitors here are assigned creepy Handmaid’s Tale robes to wear. Be warned - if you’ve seen the Handmaid’s Tale series on TV these robes will give you a fright.