Abu Dhabi & Dubai- Day 6- Our Longest Single Flight Yet!

Our last day was really just a travel day. Drove from Dubai back to the Abu Dhabi airport, dropped the car and went through the usual airport routine.  One cool thing was that the US flights are actually through their own wing of gates once you're through normal security. You go through security again which follows all the US protocol as well as US Customs before you even leave, so it's smooth sailing once you land which was nice.  Flew back home and conquered our longest single flight to date!

Whirlwind trip overall and we were exhausted, but so thrilled we did it.  Could have used one more day to try to do more of the deserts (there were some hikes etc we couldn't quite fit in), but would definitely go back in the future since it seems like an ever-changing place and the development underway is a bit mind-blowing. Will probably be a different city in 15 years, just like it was 15 years ago!

Abu Dhabi & Dubai- Day 5- In Which We Travel By Camel & Helicopter

Got up nice and early and droveout to the Al Sahra Desert Resort for a camel ride.  Totally cheesy, but it ended up being a lot of fun! Our guide was great, the camels were actually nice, and it wasn’t too hot since we went so early.  Really just ambled around, but it’s funny how we could now see the similarities to giraffes after hearing how they are related on our safari!  Getting them up and down is one of the coolest parts—they put you on their back while they’re laying on the ground with their legs folded under them.  Then the unfold their back legs so you’re basically pitching forward, then rise in the front.  Surprised by how tall they were though! And we got to try camel milk which kind of reminds you of goat milk, but was tasty.

Drove back into the city and headed toward the waterfront, hitting some boutiques along Jumeirah Beach Road (The Closet and Comptoir 102 were the favorites). Drove over to Omnia Gourmet for an amazing lunch along the waterfront (truffle labneh, anyone?) and then raced down the coastline to The Palm island to catch our helicopter ride.

When we were planning the trip we really wanted to do something to appreciate the architecture and height of Dubai. Debated between going up the Burj and doing a helicopter ride, but we’re so glad we did the helicopter.  Going up the Burj would be cool, but because it is such a key part of the skyline and it’s not that close to the water, not really sure what you would be able to see from up there—though you could then say you’d been up it.  Anyway, the helicopter was amazing—15 minutes of seeing the sights of Dubai from the air and they circle you out over the World island as well. Totally worth it and now we know that we actually really like helicopter rides…

Went out to dinner at Qbara, which was great modern Middle Eastern food, but word of warning, the tasting menu has ridiculously large portions and we literally almost had to be carried out by the end of it.  Food was awesome though and a great end to the trip!

Abu Dhabi & Dubai- Days 4- From Modern Kayaks to Old-Fashioned Abras

The Abu Dhabi area is actually full of islands (it is a coast line…) so despite being a desert region, there is water and plenty of water sports.  We got up early on Sunday morning and went kayaking through the mangroves which was very peaceful and probably the opposite of what most people do when they come!  Saw some herons, crabs, etc and really it reminded us a lot of South Carolina and Florida, which was just comical.

It was nice to get out and do something different though before hopping into the car and driving up to Dubai. It’s about an hour and fifteen between the two cities, and really easy by car as it is a straight shot.  The most challenging part of driving is really just in Dubai as it has one major highway up the middle and then a million over passes, under passes and interchanges branching off of it. Totally doable but can be a little challenging if you make a wrong move to recoverJ  Driving in we got our first glimpse of the Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest building in the world and looks like a needle reaching for the sky.  The way Dubai has been built up, all along the major highway are skyscrapers but then on the water side and the desert side, everything else is short.

We checked in at the Conrad and after checking out the waterview, headed over to lunch at a great Middle Eastern restaurant called Zaroob.  Really funky décor and amazing casual food, this might have been one of our favorite meals of the trip (and it’s when my addiction to labneh really kicked up a notch). 

Next we drove over to the Heritage Village, dropped the car, walked around there a bit and then continued along Dubai Creek to the textile souk.  Definitely very tchotchke, but it’s a souk with barkers and it would be weird to not at least walk through. We headed over the Dubai Museum next, which is in Dubai’s restored fort, then wandered more of the Bastakia Quarter, which is just narrow lanes, etc.

It was getting really hot at this point, but it worked out perfectly that it was time to catch an abra (basically an old water taxi) across the creek to check out the spice and gold souks.  Totally overwhelming for their sheer size, we ended up wandering through but only picking up a few spices on our way out.

Headed out to dinner at Toko which was really good and then walked across the street to the water fountain show at the Dubai Mall in the shadow of the Burj. This area all felt a little Vegas-y; huge restaurants, people everywhere, ridiculous buildings, fountain shows etc.  The malls in this part of the world are a major attraction though—everything from high end restaurants, to luxury shopping, to aquariums, to indoor ski slopes, etc can be found in there.  Think it’s mostly a result of the weather, but it is such a juxtaposition from the down-trending mall culture in the US.

Abu Dhabi & Dubai- Day 3 - The Grandest of Mosques

The next morning we woke refreshed, grabbed some breakfast and immediately drove over to the Sheikh Zayed Mosque.  If there’s one thing you see in Abu Dhabi, it’s this.  We were really lucky that it was also a gorgeous (if really hot!) day, full of blue sky and the white mosque against it was absolutely picturesque. 

Definitely recommend taking the tour as you get to learn more about it and break away just a bit from the main crowd (make sure to check out the tour times as they’re not hourly,but it is free and you don't have to sign up beforehand).  Also important to note, is that you can get the proper coverings there. The mosque is definitely the strictest dress code where you need to be totally covered. Also, when you're taking pictures, men and women cannot touch, hold hands etc. This is true throughout the Emirates, but the only place we actually saw people being told not to was here.

Started in 1996, this huge mosque was finished in 2007.  It can hold around 40,000 people and it was constructed as a monument to help represent the culture and religion of the area as well as educate visitors (you cannot go into most mosques as a visitor so it’s great that this one was built with that in mind). 

From the inlaid columns to the gold minarets, from the former largest chandelier in the world to the largest single rug, they really spared no expense and the place is breathtaking.  The lines in the carpet were pretty neat—think of them like pews in a church. When people come in, they line their toes up to the lines in the carpet starting at the front left. Shoulder to shoulder is how they calculated the 40,000 capacity.

Two of the things we found most interesting were the prayer clock and the interior wall.  There are 5 prayers during the course of the day but there are 6 times on the clock. The trick is that the first prayer has to be done between the first and second times, so it’s more of a window, and then the others are done on the actual times. 

The wall is what they face when lined up for prayer.  On it are 99 characteristics Allah; generous, forgiving, etc.  There is one blank tile at the top to represent the fact that Allah is infinite.  Pretty amazing.

As we were leaving, we actually heard the call to prayer while still on the mosque ground. Incredible and so interesting to think that the call you hear all over the city originates from this mosque. 

Next we went downtown to go to the old Fort. Didn't have any issues driving around, but it was almost comical to note how similar a lot of the street names are, so many involving Sheikh Zayed!   Unfortunately, they only open up the Fort once a year during the festival, but there is a small museum that documents the change in the area over the past few decades.  Pretty crazy to think the UAE only came into existence in 1971 and before that they were really just separate villages….

Headed down to the waterfront for a nice outdoor lunch and then rented bikes and biked along the Corniche.  Seemed like a lot of people were really in Abu Dhabi for a beach vacation, which struck as strange at first, but there beaches are nice and if you live in Europe, it’s really not far to travel (and is consistently hot year round!).  Stuck our toes into a new body of water—check!

After our lowkey afternoon, we headed to the Emirates Palace Hotel to check out the massive and opulent building. Unfortunately, there’s an attire check and you can’t wear shorts. Headed home to get ready for dinner and then popped back by on our way out that evening, so it all worked out. The building is ridiculously large and worth seeing for the sheer scale alone.  Headed out to a late dinner, then back home to grab a few z’s before getting up for our next adventure!

Abu Dhabi & Dubai- Days1 & 2- A Whole New World

Back over Christmas, we heard about a mistake fare for Ethihad Airlines and jumped on the chance to hit Abu Dhabi/Dubai for significantly less than it would normally cost.  Since we had taken most of our vacation time to go on our (amazing!) South Africa trip, we decided to keep this one short—2 days off work which ends up working out to 3 days on the ground once you factor in the long travel time. Amazing race here we come!

We were on a 10:30pm flight out of Dulles on a Thursday night.  Unfortunately, someone on our plane got sick and had to be taken off, so we didn’t end up leaving til about an hour later.  In the interim, we got to know the girl sitting next to us—she was 25 or so, from Austin (so she had already hit a few legs that day), and this trip was the first time she was flying.  Absolutely incredible that her first real flying was being done on such an aggressive trip! Apparently her friend had decided they should all meet up there for her birthday (?!) so they were flying in from all over the States. She was admittedly nervous, but we actually were too given that the attendants were going through the carry-ons one by one asking people to identify that it was theirs in an attempt to find the bag of the person they had to take off.

Anyway, we were off and flew across the Atlantic, Europe, down the Black Sea and into the Middle East. Pretty surreal to see where the plane was on the map given the constant news stories about this part of the world. Also a fun fact that there was a Mecca Locator as an option next to the normal flight tracking map; pretty cool,  We arrived on Friday night, touching down when it was dark so we could have been anywhere.  After going through the long immigration line, we grabbed our rental car (a Nissan Sunny—who knew that was a model?) and that’s when we realized we were truly in a totally different part of the world than we had traveled to before.  With the evening heat, palm trees lining the road, and Arabic on all of the signs we were excited the new adventure. All of the signs had English on them too and we managed to navigate to our Hilton without incident, passing the beautifully lit mosque on the way and grabbing a quick bite once we arrived.

South Africa (Cape Town)- Day 12- This Little Piggy Went To Market

Last partial day in Cape Town! We planned a super lowkey day to end the vacation on a relaxing note before our marathon trip home.  One of the things we were excited to do in Cape Town was to check out the NeighborGoods Market that happens in the Old Biscuit Mill space on Saturdays. Definitely our kind of place full of all sorts of food vendors (biltong, sweets, sandwiches, pizzas, dim sum, kebabs, etc), artisans and crafts (clothing, jewelry, leather goods & more).  It was definitely one of the perks to staying in the DoubleTree in Woodstock since it is so close to our hotel.  Had a really great time relaxing, checking things out, and eating (surprise...) and then came back to the hotel to finish packing before we leave.

Hard to believe the trip is over, but what an amazing one it was! Flight at 6 from Capetown to Joburg, then flying from Joburg to Amsterdam starting at 11pm, then Amsterdam to DC at noon tomorrow... phew! Will not be the easiest travel for sure, but there is no question that is absolutely 100% worth every minute of it. Fingers crossed for more safaris and time in South Africa in the future:)

South Africa (Cape Town)- Day 11- Sippin' In Stellenbosch

Now for one of our favorite days on each of our big trips—wine tour day! As per usual, Brennan did a ton of research up front and found some places he was really excited to try.  So we remember what we had for later cellar-stocking, I included a full list of the wines we tasted on the trip below, but I’ll just include a short recap about the wonderful day too!

We focused on the Stellenbosch region; just like Napa & Sonoma, there are several smaller wine regions right in the area—it only took us about 35 minutes to get to Stellenbosch, wish it was always that close as wine here is surprisingly affordable!!  First up was Rust en Vrede which was absolutely stunning and only produces reds (all of which were really fantastic and they have some of their nicest bottles on the tasting menu).

After that we went to de Trafford which was a really small vineyard all the way up a twisty, turny dirt road. Basically if you think you're totally lost, keep going.  Followed by an incredible lunch at Jordan, outside on their patio with the sun shining, eating delicious food… really couldn’t ask for anything more.  We headed to De Toren after that which is very small and only produces two bottles for mass consumption and then two more super limited edition wines.  

Finished up the day at Mulderbosch which we’ve had before in the states and we wanted to check out their premises. It felt a little more like an established American winery in that they had a beautiful outdoor space with a lounge area, games, outdoor brick pizza oven, etc.  Quite a relaxing day and a terrific way to wind up our last full day in South Africa. 

Headed to dinner at Burrata, a wood-burning pizza place in the Old Biscuit Mill (our favorite placeJ) and then we’ll have a half- day tomorrow and we’ll jump on a plane for our loooong ride home. Can’t believe it’s coming to an end soon but we’ve really been able to relax, explore, and check out for a little bit which was exactly the goal!

Wines We Tried This Trip That Made the “Like” List

Meals, Etc

Meerlust Red 2011 *

Erne Els Chenin Blanc (The Big Easy)

Silverthorn Green Man *

Beaumont Hope Margeurite **

Vondeling Babiana *

Haute Cabriere Chardonnay/Pinot Noir **

Rust en Vrede

Cabernet Sauvignon *

Merlot *

1694 Classification Red **

Estate Red Blend **

Estate Syrah **

Single Vineyard Syrah

Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

De Trafford

Elevation 393 **

Syrah 393 **

Merlot *

Sijnn Syrah *

Jordan

2012 Chenin Blanc

De Toren

Fusion V**

Z*

Mulderbosch

Fable Mountain Vineyards 2012 Jackal Bird **

2014 Chenin Blanc *

2013 1000 Miles Sauvignon  Blanc *

2013 Faithful Hound-White

2013 Faithful Hound- Red