Abu Dhabi 17.12.09

OUT AND ABOUT IN ABU DHABI
Yesterday Gerron and I, encouraged by Heidi, decided to be adventurous.
After dropping the kids at school Heidi took us through town to the end of another little island at the end of the main island of AD (all connected by bridges). It's a wonderful spot because one can look across the water and get a wide vista view of the town. Impressive also is the flag pole, according to Heidi the highest in the world!
The picture taken of us by Heidi shows, in the background Marina Mall topped by the high tower which has a revolving restaurant where we had dinner a couple of nights ago. The second picture shows the lights of Abu Dhabi taken from the top of the tower.
Drop off was outside the Heritage Centre which is a little museum devoted to early AD ie before the 1960's! We enjoyed walking around and were there for about an hour before the busloads of tourists (about eight in all) arrived. Most of them were folks of our vintage enjoying their visit to AD but to us (feeling rather superior) they really seemed like sheep. They descended en masse on the 'souks' which we had foolishly decided to leave until the end of our visit and the crowds were so impossible that we gave up and set off on our long walk across AD.
We walked back to the bridge, across the bridge, past the Emirates Palace then went back, U shaped to walk along the waterfront. Walking along the beautifully paved paths, near the wide (man-made) beach, through roadside parkland one would never, never believe that this was just desert only a few years ago. I wanted to walk in the water to cool the feet but there were palm frond fences or barricades going right down to the water and entry to those sections of beach were through gates or turnstyles. We thought that maybe they belonged to hotels which line the waterfront but Heidi told us later that they are 'family beaches' accessible only to women and children and men accompanying them. No single men or groups of men or male teenagers allowed! How nice - like the trains in Dubai!! Anyway there were plenty of open beaches at which one could paddle in the water.
At about 1pm we decided that the time had come to test the AD public transport system so we crossed the wide, busy roads separating the Corniche area from the town and eventually managed to find a bus stop that would supply a bus that would take us in the right direction (we weren't too panicked as we knew that if the worst came to the worst we could always get a taxi!). We climbed onto the bus with all the locals and popped our fare into the money box at the entrance - all of Dhs1 (R2) each. Now there's value for money and rather made up for the Dhs60 spent on two glasses of mango juice and one bottle of water earlier on! I cannot comment that the bus was quick but it did get us across town and we hopped off at what we thought was a suitable spot. At this point we could have easily caught a taxi (there are plenty) or phoned Heidi but no - we would walk. Crossing the roads was traumatic - the town is full of mad drivers and the roads are not at all geared for pedestrians. But we didn't get squashed and were very excited when we spotted some familiar landmarks. What we hadn't realised was how far it would be to home - turned out we walked 5km from bus to home. Add that to about 10km walked earlier in the day so these two late middle-agers walked about 15km. Feet very sore when we arrived after a very satisfying and interesting day.
Tomorrow (Friday) we are planning (I say that advisedly - with the Bergesens nothing is certain!) To go to the oasis town of Al Ain, a couple of hours into the desert.