Monday 4th August - Abu Dhabi
This morning we check out Abu Dhabi’s biggest attraction, by several meanings of “biggest” - the Grand Mosque, aka the Sheikh Zayed Mosque (there isn't much not named after Sheikh Zayed, founding president of the UAE and an Abu Dhabi boy). It's apparently the third-largest in the world, though I'm not sure what the criterion is since Wikipedia seems to have differing opinions. All white, built around a courtyard with lots of pillars and onion domes of various sizes. I'm expecting to be separated from Adeline when we get to the prayer halls but it turns out those are muslim-only so we we're both in the main hall at the same time though still separately because we'd got into that mind space. Adeline has to wear a cloak-with-hood and it's synthetic so unpleasantly hot.
I don't have words for this place. It's huge and ornate but I suppose you guessed that. When the Russians were deciding whether to adopt Christianity or Islam they went to Hagia Sofia in Constantinople and said later, "We were not sure if we were in heaven or on Earth." Take away my blasé well-travelledness and secular skepticism and I guess I might have had that reaction, it just seems unnaturally large and from memory it's roughly of a size with, say, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. The decoration includes a lot of semi-precious gems and pictures of plants. Compared with a large Christian church it feels minimalist - Christians seem to have felt obliged to fill every corner of a big church with a piece of art and not worry much about unity of style. This place is very much the work of one mind.
There weren't many people there at the time, all tourists, alas no information provided.
Afterwards we get paranoid about our flight to London and go to the airport stupidly early.
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