Stopover in Abu Dhabi

On Thursday morning we arrived at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for a stopover. We took a cab to downtown and one of the first questions the driver asked us was "How many wives are you allowed to have in Austria?" ;-) While the cab was air-conditioned, the town is obviously not. We were able to experience that while walking along a rather short road, at least it seemed so. However, after reaching the Abu Dhabi heritage village 15 minutes later we both were completely wet and desperate for a bottle of water. At least we found a geocache there! On our way back a nice guy gave us a lift and wanted to bring us to the near-by shopping center. When he heard about our plans of visiting the 7*-Emirates Palace hotel he took us there, as you can only enter by car. Wet like hell we didnt't really fit there - but anyway, great place! We'll post photos as soon as our laptop is working again (sadly, it's already damaged).

Other sights visited include the Grand Mosque, the Marina mall, Corniche, and the Gold Souk. Woman usually don't have to wear a head scarf, but inside the mosque it was mandatory - as you can see on the picture. We were pretty impressed by the mosque, the 7*-hotel, and the nice sea - but that's it. Abu Dhabi is not our favorite place to live: foggy, stuffy, and incredibly hot ;-)