Inside the Grand Mosque and the Louvre

Our second day in Abu Dhabi started out with a half day tour that took us back to the Grand Mosque. This time we got to go inside. Inside is even more beautiful than the outside, You walk through the main entrance and you must take your shoes off. Again I had to be fully covered and had trouble with the scarf slipping off all the tine at first.  After a while I got the knack of keeping it on.

The mosque is huge with 1000 pillars and 82 domes. As you enter through the front entrance you come to a magnificent Italian marble laid court yard. It has floral motifs inlaid of mother of pearl and precious stones.  Each pillar also has these floral motifs. As you stand under each dome the detail is amazing. As we made our way around the outside of the courtyard we could see the cleaners walking up and down continuously cleaning the marble. The mosque is a recent edition to Abu Dhabi and took about 7 years to build. It was commissioned by the Sheikh Zayed who wanted the building to be built from material sourced from all over the world.

Inside the entrance that leads from the courtyard there is a beautiful Swarovski crystal chandelier that is nine metres high and wide. The are more marble floors and walls.

This time the decoration on the walls have carved stone 3D flowers that climb their way up the wall. I thought this was amazing until I walked into the main prayer hall.

There is another amazing chandelier that is even bigger than the one in the previous room, in fact there are three of them! They were 30m high and 10m high.

On the floor there is a 5627m² handwoven Iranian carpet that took 1300 women over two years to complete and it covers the entire hall. It's made from Iranian and New Zealand wool.  Words cannot do this hall justice nor do the photos.

Did I mention how clean it it is? This is what my socks looked like after walking all around the indoors and around the courtyard.

I ca't resist one more photo of the Mosque

After this mosque we were taken to what we were told was an art gallery. Just a slight exaggeration, we were introduced to “our guide” and were whisked through the so called gallery to a very comfy couch area where he preceded to try and sell us a carpet. As he had no luck with that he then took us to the jewellery and watch showcases. Two of the ladies in our group were hooked and the rest of us were left to wander around the store because that’s all it was, an expensive retail outlet.

After wasting what felt like an hour we headed for the Heritage Village hoping this would be more interesting. There was no guided tour for this part either. Our guide just told us a bit of the history of the place and then we were told to wander around. There wasn’t a huge amount to look at. We followed our noses to the camels where there was the various types of housing and tents. We wandered back pass the souks. There was a museum and a few shops of which most were closed because of prayer time.

Our last stop was fruit and vegetable market. This was kind of true but actually it was just another opportunity to purchase something. This time it was dates. We were ushered into to this packed shopped and were offered a variety of dates to try, I have to say they were delicious! Looking around the crowded shop I has no idea how many ways you prepare the dates for eating.

As you’ve probably gathered apart from the mosque, I wasn’t a huge fan of this tour. The mosque made it worthwhile though.

In the afternoon we made our own way out the Abu Dhabi Louvre, This is a very new attraction having only opened in November 2017. The is the first of a number of attractions the will be built in this area, The Louvre is another stunning piece of architecture. It is a series of pavilions that is topped by an intricately patterned dome. It was designed by a French architect (of course) and the light filtering through this patterned dome is meant to represent the light that shines through palm leaves.

It is very modern and beautiful gallery filled with some amazing artefacts and artwork but the whole way through you are almost distracted by the thought of seeing this amazing roof. I worked out that I was more interested in the design of the building than what was in it. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy what was displayed.

Finally, the wow factored arrived and oh my goodness it didn’t disappoint! As you got the end of the exhibition pavilions you got a glimpse of what was to come. When we finally entered into the domed area it was jaw dropping. Going through the door your eyes were immediately drawn up to the intricate roof.  This is another thing that I don’t think that words can do it justice. I was madly clicking away with my camera but the lens kept fogging up. The building is built out over the water and it makes for a very humid environment. Not good for my camera. Fortunately, my phone came to the rescue and my good camera recovered on the way back to the hotel.

Well that’s our Abu Dhabi experience over with. It is a beautiful clean and modern city that is more business focussed, but they are putting a lot into developing tourism. With what they’ve built so far, in a few years it will be fantastic.

It will be disappointing to leave our hotel because I’m pretty sure our accommodation in Italy will definitely by more about character than the luxury we’ve been spoilt with here.