Our alarm went off in the hotel at 5.30. It hurt. I had a lingering migraine, and felt really rough, especially after the racket coming from the room next door from 1am to 2am. It really didn't feel like Christmas day.
We packed up and got ourselves downstairs by 6am, in time for the hotel hoppa shuttle at 6.11. Christian's complaints about the noise the night before fell on deaf ears. Nice.
The bus arrived, and we were dropped at terminal 4 with no fuss; we took the lift to departures to drop off our luggage. At the business desk, we asked about an upgrade, and the woman shrugged and told us that it didn't matter how many points we had, because they were just handing out upgrades anyway. Wasn't going to complain. She gave us the last two centre seats (right at the back) so we could talk to each other, and we toddled off with our shiny boarding passes, very pleased with the world.
We went through security and passport control, and towards the business lounge, me still shuffling along rather pathetically. We took seats in the lounge, and relaxed for a while. We both chose eggs benedict for breakfast, and I had two cups of tea, gradually feeling human. Christian went off to buy tissues, because he'd got the traditional holiday sniffles already, and came back with some discounted chocolates from Harrods as well.
Boarding was called, and we made our way up the stairs (me slowly), and walked straight through the gate onto the top deck of the plane - yay! We had the obligatory glass of bubbly (only a few sips for me), and played with the massage settings on the seats. Cabin crew took our orders for lunch, and we settled in for the flight.
There were no people sitting around us or in front of us at all. It felt like we had the plane to ourselves. Amazing. We both watched the new Ghostbusters (it was good), and then it was time for lunch. I had tomato soup to start (yum), and grilled fish, with a chocolate mousse log for desssert. Very tasty. Then I put my seat down flat to rest. I managed to get an hour or two of sleep.
I was woken by the announcement that we were commencing our descent. We landed in Abu Dhabi at 8pm. Passport control was quick, and we got our visa stamp with no problems. Luggage also didn't take too long. Christian was right that Abu Dhabi is primarily a transit airport - no one else was leaving here. It was very odd to be following the signs to the exit, when we'd always gone via transit before.
After coming out of the funnel into the real world, we found the man holding the sign with our name on it fairly easily. He straight away passed us to another man, who handed us an Expedia welcome pack, and told us that we had an appointment to meet a rep the next day at 1pm. He then told me to wait for another man, while Christian went off to get a Du SIM for his phone.
That man showed up, and I told him that Christian wouldn't be long. He went outside briefly, and when he came back, Christian was finished. He then passed us on to another man, who took us to the road and showed us into a car driven by another man. Is such complexity really required?!
Anyway, it was an easy drive to the hotel, and we saw the beautifully lit Grand Mosque on the way. At the hotel, helpful people took our luggage away the instant we got out of the car, and we went to find the check-in desk, and were greeted and guided there (somewhat redundantly) by yet more staff. The foyer was brilliantly lit with huge hanging chandeliers, a giant Christmas tree, and a gingerbread house. The floor was gleaming marble and the furniture plush lounges.
We checked in without difficulty - the man we spoke to was very kind and friendly. He directed us to the lifts and told us to go to the seventh floor. The room was huge, and faced the sea (which I didn't expect), and everything was new and solid and high quality. The view out over the Emirates Palace and the presidential palace were pretty spectacular, and we spent some time trying to get good photos out the window. We unpacked, and went back downstairs in search of food.
We decided to eat at Kamoon, which is their Arabic restaurant, next to the pool. We chose an outside table, and took our seats. There was dew everywhere, and the woman taking our orders kept wiping the tables down. It was also quite cool, which was unexpected. There was a big group at a table near us smoking shisha pipes, but apart from the odd waft, it wasn't a problem. I thought it might be fun to try, but in the end, we didn't get the chance.
We chose a reasonably priced three-course set meal. To drink, I ordered cranberry juice, and Christian a pomegranate mojito (which was spectacularly good for a non-alcoholic drink). First they brought us olives, with a couple of dips and bread (which I thought was the mini-mezze). Then the actual mini-mezze, with falafel and lamb mince kibbeh, vine leaves, (really good) tabbouleh, and three more dips. We were brought more bread to go with that. Then came a huge main of chicken and chips, and vege pizza. Then baklava. It was an obscene amount of food, but extremely good. We took most of my main and all the dessert in a box back up to the room.
By now, we were exhausted, but it was still fairly early UK time. We eventually went to bed at 1am, when in hindsight, we should have adjusted to the new time zone by having a much earlier night. Oh well.
We packed up and got ourselves downstairs by 6am, in time for the hotel hoppa shuttle at 6.11. Christian's complaints about the noise the night before fell on deaf ears. Nice.
The bus arrived, and we were dropped at terminal 4 with no fuss; we took the lift to departures to drop off our luggage. At the business desk, we asked about an upgrade, and the woman shrugged and told us that it didn't matter how many points we had, because they were just handing out upgrades anyway. Wasn't going to complain. She gave us the last two centre seats (right at the back) so we could talk to each other, and we toddled off with our shiny boarding passes, very pleased with the world.
We went through security and passport control, and towards the business lounge, me still shuffling along rather pathetically. We took seats in the lounge, and relaxed for a while. We both chose eggs benedict for breakfast, and I had two cups of tea, gradually feeling human. Christian went off to buy tissues, because he'd got the traditional holiday sniffles already, and came back with some discounted chocolates from Harrods as well.
Boarding was called, and we made our way up the stairs (me slowly), and walked straight through the gate onto the top deck of the plane - yay! We had the obligatory glass of bubbly (only a few sips for me), and played with the massage settings on the seats. Cabin crew took our orders for lunch, and we settled in for the flight.
There were no people sitting around us or in front of us at all. It felt like we had the plane to ourselves. Amazing. We both watched the new Ghostbusters (it was good), and then it was time for lunch. I had tomato soup to start (yum), and grilled fish, with a chocolate mousse log for desssert. Very tasty. Then I put my seat down flat to rest. I managed to get an hour or two of sleep.
I was woken by the announcement that we were commencing our descent. We landed in Abu Dhabi at 8pm. Passport control was quick, and we got our visa stamp with no problems. Luggage also didn't take too long. Christian was right that Abu Dhabi is primarily a transit airport - no one else was leaving here. It was very odd to be following the signs to the exit, when we'd always gone via transit before.
After coming out of the funnel into the real world, we found the man holding the sign with our name on it fairly easily. He straight away passed us to another man, who handed us an Expedia welcome pack, and told us that we had an appointment to meet a rep the next day at 1pm. He then told me to wait for another man, while Christian went off to get a Du SIM for his phone.
That man showed up, and I told him that Christian wouldn't be long. He went outside briefly, and when he came back, Christian was finished. He then passed us on to another man, who took us to the road and showed us into a car driven by another man. Is such complexity really required?!
We decided to eat at Kamoon, which is their Arabic restaurant, next to the pool. We chose an outside table, and took our seats. There was dew everywhere, and the woman taking our orders kept wiping the tables down. It was also quite cool, which was unexpected. There was a big group at a table near us smoking shisha pipes, but apart from the odd waft, it wasn't a problem. I thought it might be fun to try, but in the end, we didn't get the chance.
By now, we were exhausted, but it was still fairly early UK time. We eventually went to bed at 1am, when in hindsight, we should have adjusted to the new time zone by having a much earlier night. Oh well.
No comments:
Post a Comment