Going Back In Time At The Abu Dhabi History Museum

It's not all brand new Louvre bling in Abu Dhabi. There's a funky, old history museum (and aquarium, weird mashup) in a park, a place filled with dioramas that depict the history of the area. Visitors take a tram through the exhibit, tripping forward in time to modern Abu Dhabi.

Let's start with ye old desert days. Camels, tents, and women huffing heavy stuff while the men chat.

The fish merchant and his hanging stock at the beach.

Mining arrives, the dirty, sweaty business of refining sulfur, copper, bronze.

Small-time miner. Oil arrives and suddenly it's all modern classrooms for the next generations. So says the progression at the museum.

Rig work. Drill it.

The Glowing Night At Masdar City

Cool places can look just as cool at night as during the day. Masdar city, with its striking architecture, stays alive when the sun goes down.

Buildings with screens for daytime sun protection pop when the lights start showing through at night.

Angles against the sky and the wind tower, looming.

The curves of a terracotta apartment building.

The local shopping mall with lit up construction cranes across the street. More construction, a bit quieter and mysterious in the dark.

Welcome! The glowing sign leaves no doubt on your arrival at the pseudo future.

Desolation Around Abu Dhabi

Maybe it's the desert environment. Maybe new development. A feeling of empty space, desolation can be found everywhere in and around the UAE capital.

Downtown Abu Dhabi, open space.

Out in the residential neighborhoods and new commercial developments, big, empty expanses.

At the Sheikh Zayed museum, rows of seating, no sitters.

Highway truck parking, quiet. A camel racecourse, silent.

A street has been completed. Going someplace? Not sure.

Wandering Masdar City, A Sustainable Community

Abu Dhabi leans into the future with the pre-planned mini town of Masdar City. It's billed as a green, sustainable, renewable, carless, future, woke, cool, transformative, environmental, and any other forward, kind, neutral words one can use to describe a city that treads lightly or not at all on Mother Earth. Something like that.

Sustainable or not (right now, not is winning), the architecture is great. Signature, unique buildings dominate. You want to live and work there, just to enjoy the building eye candy.

Views of a wavy apartment building. Little blue, electric troll-y trams are supposed to move the peeps around.

The angles and textures are lovely and varied.

One of the signature elements of the city, the tall wind tower. Through natural convection, the tower sucks up hot air from the plaza, cooling the area. Looking up the core of the wind tower. Small dogs have been known to get sucked up and flown six stories in the air. Seriously. Seriously kidding. Watch your hat.

The place is still expanding, the dream ongoing.

Gawking At The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque In Abu Dhabi

So grand. Sheikh Zayed, named after the first president of the country, is a massive mosque in Abu Dhabi and the largest mosque in the UAE. A giant, white marble structure, complete with parking garages, an underground shopping mall, grocery store, and, yes, no kidding, a McDonald's. Come to pray (the place can hold 40,000+), stay for a halal burger.

Big. Marble inlaid bling. Gorgeous.

The atrium for the underground shopping mall. McDonald's sign toward the back. To get to the mosque, there's a serpentine, subterranean path that includes many moving sidewalks and sternly-labeled sections for carts. Keep the faithful moving.

Gawk time.

Details. Funky gold column capitals that suggest palm trees. The fancy call to prayer times clock. And security camera.

Another look at the main courtyard, with the broom crew, always keeping the marble shiny.

Getting Out There At A Resort Near Abu Dhabi

If you've had enough of Abu Dhabi and all that city hustle, you can head in any direction for a couple of hours and land at a secluded, desolate desert resort. Let's get sandy.

Sunrise and the sky is clear at the resort.

The parking lot. At the pool.

The camel ride. And selfie in the desert.

Looking for exactly, what? At sunrise. Riding horse with eye protection.

Go have breakfast and then come back in an hour or so.

Resort nightlife. The entertainment stage by the outdoor dining area. Movies screened on the dunes.

Another day arrives, the slow, calm reveal.

Wandering Around Greater Abu Dhabi

Fun stuff in and around Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Wide open spaces, major construction, fancy consumerism. An interesting mix of the past, present, and fuzzy future.

Desert power transmission line.

The under construction Zayed National Museum. Big. Complicated. Inviting, slightly creepy photo mural in a shopping mall parking garage.

Truck stop portrait.

Rural camel crossing. They're off for training at a nearby race course. In case you need a reminder of the course's proximity, the mural at the nearest underpass will remind you.

UAE51 celebration bling in a city park.