BEIJING TO LONDON CRUISE- 78 DAYS : ABU DHABI PHOTOS

Wednesday, April 24

Our tour for today

Exiting port and looking at new construction.

Part of skyline

Tile wall of tunnel

One of the many office buildings

Typical home "compound" of Arab family. Makes the Dallas mansions look like guest houses. They have courtyards and pools.

More compounds

Grand Mosque--Not world's largest but largest in Emirates. Largest mosque is in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Front of the very impressively beautiful mosque.

Women had to cover there heads (hair) with scarves. Also their necks, legs, and arms. Men had to wear long pants. Everyone had to remove their shoes. Holding hand (public displays of affection) is not allowed. There were security people in the mosque that made sure these rules were observed.

40,000 can worship at one time here. It was huge.

Beautiful pools on both sides of entrance.

We are getting ready to go into mosques.

Here is sign showing what is and what not allowed.

Main entrance into courtyard

Still looking at front of mosque. Have not entered yet.

Now inside and looking at the marble floor of the outer courtyard.

Looking at the entrance to go inside the grand hall of the mosque.

There are 1000 of the pillars around the court yard. Each adorned with mother of pearl and semi-precious stones inlaid in them.

This is where you have to leave your shoes.

Entrance to grand hall

Wall just inside doorway

Hallway

Now inside grand hall

Beautiful carpet covering entire floor.

There were 3 of these incredible chandeliers

This is the prayer clock. There are specific times during the day that the muslims had to pray.

Better photo of the columns.

Entrance to Ritz Carlton hotel and resort

Not a very good shot but this is an office building.

Again not good photo but this is Ferrari World, largest inside amusement park in the world. They have world's fastest roller coaster with speeds up to 200 mph.