Day 9, December 31: Mosques, Museums, and Palaces (Part 2)

After leaving the Grand Mosque, we made our way across town to the Louvre Museum -- Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi has a thirty (30) year agreement with the Louvre in Paris, which allows the country to use the name and to exchange and/or borrow items and exhibitions from the Louvre in Paris. The Louvre Abu Dhabi is the anchor for an emerging cultural district under development. In addition to the Louvre, there is a natural history museum (already constructed) and there is a Guggenheim Abu Dhabi under construction. If you love museums, as I do, you would be delighted by the Louvre Abu Dhabi. To begin, its construction is such that much of the museum is physically seated on the water (sea water, at that) and as you proceed through different wings and galleries you will see windows with a view of the water. Furthermore, on each of these windows is written in Arabic, French, and English a quote of wisdom from a well known person -- artist, writer, poet or other. One that I particularly love is "The ignorant man affirms, the learned man doubts, the wise man reflects." This is attributed to Aristotle.

We spent less than an hour here, but it was splendid time indeed. Here are photos from some of the galleries.

I could have spent more hours there, except our schedule and my stomach required that we move along. If you ever get to visit Abu Dhabi, be sure to put the Louvre Museum on your list of places to see and allow 2-3 hours for a good visit.

We left the museum, headed for lunch at the Bab al Qasr Hotel. It was a very good meal, but not yet the end of our day. From here, although we were all a bit tired, we went to the Emirates Palace Hotel for the famous "gold coffee." The hotel is obviously a top tier hotel, lavishly constructed, decorated and furnished. The "gold coffee" is a regular coffee/cappuccino/espresso with decorative gold shavings on top. It is real gold! Not enough to be worth your while to skim it for sale: and since gold is totally inert in the human body, it is harmless t0 consume.

Bottom row: (l) mango cakes, (c) "Gold Coffee", (r) travelers enjoying gold coffee and cakes.

After sipping gold coffee at the Emirates Palace Hotel, we made our way back to the Marriott Hotel and prepared for the New Year's Eve celebration. Here are photos of scenes of Abu Dhabi and, at the end, scenes of the New Year's fireworks as seen from our hotel window. Not the best for taking pictures, but in our minds eyes, the pictures will bring back vivid memories.

1st row: (l) pictures of the sheikhs of the other six emirates -- Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Kaimah, Fujairah -- in the upper left and the ruling family of Abu Dhabi in the lower right, (c) the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC), (r) buildings

2nd row: building scenes

3rd row: (l) the beach, (c) oil rigs, (r) oil rigs

We kissed and hugged the new year in and expressed our love and gratitude to God and to each other. Our journey in the United Arab Emirates will soon end, and it has been a memorable one. Yet, our 2024 life journey together has been the more important one, for which we are most grateful. We look forward to living a 2025 journey together, with all of the highs and lows, ups and downs, births and deaths, joys and sorrows it will bring.