We had a late start after a monster of a day the day before, having showers and getting down to breakfast just after 10. There was a queue to get tables, so we decided to get there earlier in future.
The breakfast was very good. Cereals, muffins, fruit, yoghurt, the usual fry-up suspects, eggs on demand, waffles, pancakes, breads, Chinese breakfast, and they brought tea and coffee to us.
After breakfast, we took it easy, and just got our bearings and explored the hotel. It was 21 floors in a big teardrop shape, with two lifts descending through the internal space (and two more opposite). There were both male and female hair salons, a cafe in the lobby, gift shops, a Belgian chocolate shop that wasn't open, squash courts, massive gym and weights rooms, and a beach shop. We had a walk around the beach, which was fairly impressive - the sand was soft, and the frontage really quite wide. Christian had his beard trimmed as I'd unpacked his clippers by mistake before leaving. I read the documentation that blokey at the airport had given us about Expedia support - there were a number of activities offered.
Lunchtime came round, and we ordered a room service caesar salad to complement the dinner leftovers in our fridge. It worked out perfectly. Then it was time to meet Michael from Alpha Tours at 1pm. He arrived early, and called up to the room. We hurried down to meet him.
He was a friendly and personable bloke, and knowledgeable and happy to help. We had thought about doing the city tour, and we also asked about the dhow dinner cruise. I asked him about dress code, and also about where to find the best souks and good drinks. He recommended Ray's bar in Jumeira (and to say that he says hi). We ended up booking the city tour for the following morning (as we wanted to go to the mosque and heritage village anyway), and the dhow cruise for the Friday night.
With our holiday a lot more sorted out schedule-wise, we decided that it would be rude not to explore the pool/beach and have a swim. We applied sun cream, and went downstairs. At the 'beach club' desk, we signed out two red towels, and went in search of sunbeds. There was a scuba try dive happening at the deep end of the pool. We found two next to the pool (none free on the beach side), and ventured over the back to the beach. As usual, Christian got straight in, but I found the water really quite cold. I did eventually get in, but it took ages. As it was essentially a shipping canal, roped for swimming, it got very deep very quickly, which is probably why it was so cold.
We sampled the pool immediately after, and I found it unpleasantly warm in comparison. Still, we stayed in for a while, and explored the gradient from shallow to deep. I stayed for a while in the sun to dry out, while Christian went back to the room.
I wanted to check out at least one of the malls, and Christian wanted to talk to Du about increasing his data allowance. I also needed a top that would be suitable for the mosque, without being too warm, so we decided to walk to Marina Mall, which wasn't very far away. On the way, we had a brief stop to take some photos at the entrance to the Emirates Palace Hotel - the most stupidly expensive hotel in Abu Dhabi. The walk was easy enough, if not very picturesque. We were on the opposite side of the road to the Corniche, but we were next to a lush, green cricket ground for a time.
As we approached, we saw the signs for Shake Shack, and decided to get a drink there. Christian had an absolutely huge blueberry lemonade, and I had a 'black and white' shake. As a combination of vanilla and chocolate, it turned out as a sort of gentle chocolate. It was very nice, though, if very sweet.
We then went in search of Du, which was immediately next door, but we went the long way. Christian sorted out his SIM and got more data. As I was waiting, I looked out on the water and the Eye-style big wheel. We then had an explore, looking for tops for me, and non-coffee-stained white linen shirts for Christian. I was also keeping an idle eye on shoes.
The mall was huge, and difficult to sweep in a systematic way. We eventually ended up at the bounce trampoline end, where most of the restaurants were. We found a few good contenders, and then realised that the lift went up into the Jetsons-style tower that we had seen from afar. The top floor was a restaurant, and the next floor down was a cafe. We weren't able to look without buying something, so we decided to go back for dinner later.
We kept wandering for a while, and I finally bought a top in H&M. There were an awful lot of high-end designer shops there. After making our way back to the tower, we took the lift to the cafe floor, and waited for someone to take us to a table. We waited so long that we went to find one of only two people on duty. She told us to sit wherever we liked. It took a while to place an order, but the food came quickly enough. It wasn't anything special, but it was cheap. I had a pepperoni pizza, and Christian had chicken enchiladas. We paid the bill, and headed back down.
My feet were hurting from my not-very-practical footwear (Greek sandals), and we were fairly tired, so voted for a taxi back to the hotel. It cost 8 AED, which we rounded up to 10 (£2.22). Yep, taxis are cheap.
We watched some TV. Christian was convinced that he'd left his fold-up mouse at the Hilton at Heathrow, and had tweeted to them to let them know. He was going to email when I asked whether he was sure, and whether he'd like me to do a double check for him. He invited me to check, and there it was in his computer bag. Oops. I practiced doing my scarf for our visit to the mosque the next day. We had a much earlier night than the night before.
The breakfast was very good. Cereals, muffins, fruit, yoghurt, the usual fry-up suspects, eggs on demand, waffles, pancakes, breads, Chinese breakfast, and they brought tea and coffee to us.
After breakfast, we took it easy, and just got our bearings and explored the hotel. It was 21 floors in a big teardrop shape, with two lifts descending through the internal space (and two more opposite). There were both male and female hair salons, a cafe in the lobby, gift shops, a Belgian chocolate shop that wasn't open, squash courts, massive gym and weights rooms, and a beach shop. We had a walk around the beach, which was fairly impressive - the sand was soft, and the frontage really quite wide. Christian had his beard trimmed as I'd unpacked his clippers by mistake before leaving. I read the documentation that blokey at the airport had given us about Expedia support - there were a number of activities offered.
Lunchtime came round, and we ordered a room service caesar salad to complement the dinner leftovers in our fridge. It worked out perfectly. Then it was time to meet Michael from Alpha Tours at 1pm. He arrived early, and called up to the room. We hurried down to meet him.
He was a friendly and personable bloke, and knowledgeable and happy to help. We had thought about doing the city tour, and we also asked about the dhow dinner cruise. I asked him about dress code, and also about where to find the best souks and good drinks. He recommended Ray's bar in Jumeira (and to say that he says hi). We ended up booking the city tour for the following morning (as we wanted to go to the mosque and heritage village anyway), and the dhow cruise for the Friday night.
With our holiday a lot more sorted out schedule-wise, we decided that it would be rude not to explore the pool/beach and have a swim. We applied sun cream, and went downstairs. At the 'beach club' desk, we signed out two red towels, and went in search of sunbeds. There was a scuba try dive happening at the deep end of the pool. We found two next to the pool (none free on the beach side), and ventured over the back to the beach. As usual, Christian got straight in, but I found the water really quite cold. I did eventually get in, but it took ages. As it was essentially a shipping canal, roped for swimming, it got very deep very quickly, which is probably why it was so cold.
We sampled the pool immediately after, and I found it unpleasantly warm in comparison. Still, we stayed in for a while, and explored the gradient from shallow to deep. I stayed for a while in the sun to dry out, while Christian went back to the room.
I wanted to check out at least one of the malls, and Christian wanted to talk to Du about increasing his data allowance. I also needed a top that would be suitable for the mosque, without being too warm, so we decided to walk to Marina Mall, which wasn't very far away. On the way, we had a brief stop to take some photos at the entrance to the Emirates Palace Hotel - the most stupidly expensive hotel in Abu Dhabi. The walk was easy enough, if not very picturesque. We were on the opposite side of the road to the Corniche, but we were next to a lush, green cricket ground for a time.
We then went in search of Du, which was immediately next door, but we went the long way. Christian sorted out his SIM and got more data. As I was waiting, I looked out on the water and the Eye-style big wheel. We then had an explore, looking for tops for me, and non-coffee-stained white linen shirts for Christian. I was also keeping an idle eye on shoes.
The mall was huge, and difficult to sweep in a systematic way. We eventually ended up at the bounce trampoline end, where most of the restaurants were. We found a few good contenders, and then realised that the lift went up into the Jetsons-style tower that we had seen from afar. The top floor was a restaurant, and the next floor down was a cafe. We weren't able to look without buying something, so we decided to go back for dinner later.
We watched some TV. Christian was convinced that he'd left his fold-up mouse at the Hilton at Heathrow, and had tweeted to them to let them know. He was going to email when I asked whether he was sure, and whether he'd like me to do a double check for him. He invited me to check, and there it was in his computer bag. Oops. I practiced doing my scarf for our visit to the mosque the next day. We had a much earlier night than the night before.
Thank you very much for the sharing! COOL.. Alexander Mirza
ReplyDelete