So, what should we do today? Well… we’ve seen the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque at night… what about during the day? Let’s go!

So we went downstairs to the street, grabbed the number 94 bus, and we were on our way. About an hour later we’re here again!

The only difference is that today the sun is out. What does that mean? It is HOT. And, like at all mosques, you’ll remember that my partner has to wear pants. Well, not ideal. Like in Qatar, the Emirates blasts their air conditioning. Why do we bring this up? Because we waited for the bus outside and got hot, and then got on the bus where we froze in the air conditioning, and then we got outside again where we got hot again. What a life.

Well, we did all of the explaining we could yesterday, so today will just be day time pictures. We didn’t do another tour either. Just walking around taking it all in in the bright sunlight. Luckily, the heat here is pretty dry, so the shade makes it pretty nice. The white marble does make it pretty bright though!

Amazing. We really like this mosque, as we’re sure you’ve realized since we will have been on the bus for about 4 hours by the end of this all to come to this mosque twice.

But… we also can’t stay forever. Our days are numbered in Abu Dhabi, so we have to get moving again! But, first, there is something else we would like to visit while we’re at this end of the Abu Dhabi island. We just happened to see this on the internet, but it doesn’t seem like many people are aware of it… so let’s try it out.

We ask the security guard as we’re leaving the mall by the mosque on how to get there, and he tells us there’s a free shuttle bus. Perfect in this heat! The bus leaves every 30 minutes, on the hour and half-past the hour. Perfect! We get there at 2:25 pm. Could not be better timing! Well…. we ask the driver if this is the bus to our location… and it is… buuuuut, it won’t leave yet. What…? Okay… we ask if it’s a far walk, yes, very far. Well then, let’s wait. We’re waiting in the heat, but then the driver opens the bus up for us to wait in the air conditioned bus. But at least we know we’re in the right place.

So, from the picture you can tell we want to go to Wahat Al Karama (known as the Oasis of Dignity in English). It is a war memorial to the “National Heroes” of the United Arab Emirates. The bus driver gave us some tips on our way there on what to see and what was worth seeing (pretty much all of it) on our 5 minute bus ride. Yes, you read that correctly. We waited on the bus for 25 minutes for a 5 minute bus ride… But let’s move on. Soon we were there.

As soon as you get there there is a small museum about the memorial. It explains both the architecture and the people that are memorialized here. There is also a small art gallery with paintings people have done for both the monument and those memorialized. In the small museum we learned about the importance of the water running through the entire memorial, it is an oasis after all. So off we went following the water.

And the first part you come to is this reflecting pool. Extremely shallow, and it provides two functions, to both help cool the area where people can sit and reflect, but also reflect the image of the Grand Mosque that is across the road.

Just beyond the reflection pool is the main monument. They are 31 panels that are all leaning against one another in a symbol of unity of the country. The panels are adorned with poems/quotes from the many leaders of the UAE, and it also has the pledge of allegiance that the military has to recite when joining.

Beyond the monument is the Pavilion of Honour, what we took to be the actual oasis from the Wahat Al Karama title. It is where the water ends and has all of the names of the martyrs of the UAE. We couldn’t get a full picture because there was work being conducted, but you can kind of see it here.

The names of all the martyrs are written on the panels, while the pledge of allegiance is again inscribed in the centre glass tablets multiple times. It was an interesting monument to come and visit, and with it being so close to the mosque, it was worth it. Especially for the unobstructed views of the entire Grand Mosque.

But now a little tip. As we left Wahat Al Karama we didn’t see the bus. So… were we going to wait in the hot sun for who knows how long? Absolutely not. My partner is still wearing pants (required to dress modestly to visit Wahat Al Karama) and we think we can do better than the bus. So we ask the security guard in the parking lot and he confirms that the pedestrian bridge over the road will lead us back to the main entrance to the Grand Mosque. It gave us one last look at the Grand Mosque.

Well… let me tell you. My partner was very happy that he decided to walk. In literally 7 minutes we were here.

Which is the entrance that the bus and taxis take to the Grand Mosque. 7 minutes. 30 seconds later, we were waiting for the bus.

Weeeeeelll…… it’s getting pretty late and we have one more plan for today. We only have today and tomorrow as full days in Abu Dhabi, so we have to take advantage of it, right? We hop on the bus, travel about another hour, but get off before our hotel. Why? Because we think it will be a faster way to get to….

Well, not these monuments. This was just a happy coincidence. That was Union Square, a place displaying the heritage of Abu Dhabi and the Emirates as a whole. It was a coincidence that we walked by here, but we had seen some leaders of the UAE walking among these monuments in videos we had seen around the Emirate. But, in the time it took you to read this dear reader, we were already at our destination. My partner was walking fast. And for a good reason.

You can see that the sun is going down. So we want to swim a bit before it gets dark. We really wanted to swim while in the Emirates, so here we go.

You can see that we did get to swim. We changed at the public bathrooms and then jumped in. And good thing too. The above picture was taken at about 5:45 pm. You can see that the sun is almost at the horizon. Well… that’s important. It is a public beach lined with lifeguards, and at sunset they start blowing their whistles and that’s the end of the swimming day. So we managed to get in just in time.

We were surprised at how cold the water was. Did not expect that at all, but the temperature had also started falling as the sun went down. Maybe it’s not as cold during the middle of the day. We say “cold” but it’s still warmer than the water at home.. our standards have just changed, hehe.

Well, with our swimming done with, there’s only one thing left to do. We go back towards the mall to go to the hypermarket to get some food. Of course we enjoy our walk between here and there, and we hope you do as well. The Corniche area and the land/parks close to it are extremely well maintained and pretty.

And in the evening everyone comes out. Maybe we weren’t wrong with our idea about the fountains. The people are out, and the fountains are on. We watched some guys play a bit of football in the park, but then we were too hungry. We got our food, went back to the hotel, and started thinking about what to do tomorrow. Goodnight from Abu Dhabi!