A short sail overnight brought us to Abu Dhabi, the Norwegian Dawn's first port-of-call. Abu Dhabi is the capital city and the second most populated city of the United Arab Emirates. Passengers went through a slow and long immigration process before leaving Zayed Port, the cruise terminal. Immigration officials met with each individual, checked, verified and kept their passport before allowing passenger to go on land. Since the ship did not leave port until midnight, we had quite a long day visiting Abu Dhabi despite the loss of 3 hours for immigration in the morning.
We had a long list of places we wanted to visit while in Abu Dhabi. Top of the list was the popular Abu Dhabi Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Along with another couple from the ship, we rent a private taxi for about six hours to visit the Grand Mosque and other tourist attractions in Abu Dhabi.
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Approaching the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
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| Inside the entrance. |
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The courtyard.
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View of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque from the courtyard.
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| The courtyard with vast marble mosaic artwork. |
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| Beautiful gold-leaf calligraphy columns and marble halls. |
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| Reflecting pool that mirrors some of the amethyst-and-jasper- embedded columns. |
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| Gold plated Swarovski chandeliers. |
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Beautiful floral design for the walls and the courtyard was created by Kevin Dean, a British artist and illustrator.
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Almost three hours later, we left the Grand Mosque. The driver took us through city's landmarks, skyscrapers and luxury hotels.
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| Capital Gate. |
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The Nation Towers A and B, connected by a sky-bridge.
Emirates Palace Entrance.
Mandarin Oriental wing in the Emirates Palace, a luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi.
The hotel ceiling.
Inside Emirates Palace's Oriental wing.
The Etihad Towers (five buildings) and Bab Al Qasr Hotel (brown building).
Going to Presidential Palce: Qasr Al Watan.
Presidential Palace.
Marina Villages across the bay. overlooking the Arabian Gulf.
Rixos Marina Abu Dhabi Resort, a luxy hotel in Marina Villages.
Lastly, we visited the Saadiyat Cultural District on Saadiyat Island. It is a unique area offering the highest concentrations of museums and cutural institutions such as the Cutural Center, The Louvre Abu Dhabi, Berklee Abu Dhabi. Guggenheim AD, Natural History Museum, Zayed National Museum are among many more under construction.
Saadiyat Cultural Museum.
The Louvre Museum of Abu Dhabi.
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| City skyline from Saadiyat Island. |
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| The Norwegian Dawn in Zayed Port. |
