My Easter in Abu Dhabi

This is Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi.

They don't observe Easter here, so it was another day of work for me.  Well i did about 2/3 day of work and left for this sight that was on my list of things to see.

It is truly a "Palace"

 Fountains on both sides of the walk way, every thing was next to perfect.

 You can see in the picture that all the marble was polished to a mirror finish.  

And that's outside!

 There were 2 entries like this, the other just to the right.

 Even the door handles had so much detail and some type of cut stones embedded.

 You walk into a great room that had about 5 levels.

Everything clean, shinny, and mostly gold colored.

And then you look up at a most impressive dome.

All of the supports were in gold.

 All the pictures and frames were in gold.

 Sitting areas were in gold color and light colors.

 And the Easter display.  Even tho they don't observe Easter, they cater to the visitors and foreigners. 

 This is were i had my afternoon coffee.

Didn't quite know how to approach this chair. 

 So i went to the counter to look at the different deserts and the coffee list.  I chose the oreo cheese cake and an Americano coffee with cream.

It was really good, and you get a free date and some other thing i didn't eat.

Check please!

WHAT, i mean WHAT

Coffee was 34.00 Dirham, that is $9.26 US and they didn't even fill up the cup!

I'm not even going to tell you what the cheese cake cost.

Now i know how royalty lives.

Maybe that is why they have nice pretty flowers near by and

a pianist and a flutist.  Oh ya, now the 9 dollar coffee sounds about right.

View looking out the back of the building at the Persian Golf.

This was closed to people that think 9 dollars is to much for a cup of coffee.

The ladies in black.

 This was the entrance to a restaurant.  

Better have some room on your credit card for that meal.

This was a locked room for something, looked nice and Arabic.

 They have petrified palm trees inside with Swarovski Crystal Chandeliers.

 So much attention to detail.

 Notice the spiral stair case and how all of the carpet runners curve with a pattern.

They must be hand made.

 The flower pictures are for my Mom.

I know how much she likes flowers.

Fancy sitting room for 1.

 The shops were unbelievable.  I didn't even go in one for fear of knocking something over.

And of course the proper way to show up there is in your Rolls Royce. 

Not that cheap beamer in white.

 The gardeners just gave the flowers their afternoon bath.

 These are the buildings across the street.  Pretty neat looking.

Well i thought that if i walked out into the fountain i could get a nice picture like this.

It worked and no one told me to leave so i guess it was OK.

 These buildings were just so impressive.

They were more like statues of art.

When i go to Abu Dhabi most everyday, this Mosque is in my view at a distance.  Today i found a street that got me much closer to take a picture.

It is the Sheikh Zayed Mosque with marble domes and the eighth largest in the world.  It can accommodate 40,000 worshippers.

And it is snow white in color.