Finding my pace

The next morning, I start my “big” trip in Munich. So here we are back at the airport at 7 am.

I popped into the Senator lounge near G24 for a pretzel and a cappuccino.

And another cappuccino handmade, this time (I was too impatient to wait for the staff for the first coffee).

Here’s the bar.

We sat onboard with about a 30 minute departure delay on a dreary morning in Munich, waiting ramp crew availability to load the bags.

After a very short flight, we’re approaching Frankfurt which is experiencing very pleasant weather.

I take the opportunity for a photo of my very special cabin baggage with its namesake aircraft behind.

In the tunnel transfer between A/Z and B concourse.

After a quick and painless exit passport control, I hit the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge for something different.

It has a nice view of the apron, but it was absolutely sweltering in there.

We have a more or less on time departure onwards to London Heathrow on a beautiful morning in this part of Europe.

I decide to take the light meal on offer – a chicken caesar salad with edamame. Very nice to have lots of protein since usually these light meals are all carbs.

Approaching London we bounce around a bit in the Heathrow stack as southern England is experiencing the effects of Storm Antoni. It’s not nearly as nice as in Frankfurt.

I’m only one of two passengers transferring from T2 to T4 so we basically have a private bus across the airfield. As much as I hate the idea of the bus transfer, as always, I love the possibility for apron views. Such as this Qatar 777 on the apron.

And the Air Mauritius A350 at a gate.

And a Qatar A380 also at a gate (I’ll be on one of these the following day).

After going through a deserted transfer security, I head to the Etihad lounge in T4.

It’s kind of a zoo in here.

Here’s the bar.

I had only one glass of bubbles as I knew that the onboard offering would be much better. I left after this as it didn’t feel relaxing at all in the lounge and I wanted to get some pics of an empty cabin, so I headed over to the gate to make my best gate lice impression.

I’m the third person aboard as some pushy business class passengers shoved their way past me on the jetbridge, but I was still able to get some nice photos of an empty cabin, and my home for the next 7.5 hours.

A vintage champagne as PDB – yes, please !

The Residence suite is unoccupied. I was offered a tour of the suite later during the flight. The suite consists of this “living room” with a full couch, and ensuite 3 piece bathroom, and a separate bedroom with a door and a double bed. They set up the suite exactly how it would have been prepared for a passenger, so especially the bedroom was gorgeous, and very quiet. Pics for paying passengers only though ! I feel like this would be too short of a flight to really enjoy it (I inquired about an upgrade at the lounge but it wasn’t possible… much better for my pocketbook anyway).

Mmmmm…. food…

After perusing the extensive menu I’m offered an Arabic coffee and dates as is customary on Middle East airlines.

And then a gift bag with pyjamas and slippers was delivered to my seat.

We depart Heathrow towards the west as the winds have shifted back to their usual direction. It’s trying to clear up now.

Unsuccesfully though, as this is the view from the tail cam a few minutes later.

After takeoff, I’m served more champagne and some nuts, wasabi peas, and olives.

And then the table is set for the main event. I’ll let the food pics speak for themselves.

It was really nice to have a palate cleansing grapefruit sorbet before the main course!!

After all this, I’m totally stuffed. The service was very efficient for this extensive service. It was 2 hours exactly from the post take off tray of nuts etc to my cappuccino.

I go and change into the jammies while one of the cabin attendants prepares my bed. I only take a short nap but it was helpful after all that food.

On boarding I booked the last shower of the flight, which I really think is a great ending to a flight. Especially after eating so much lol.

The shower suite is very small, about 1/3 the size of Emirates shower suite, but it is still a shower at 41,000 feet so who’s gonna complain about that !

After the shower I head back to the lounge area, which is much smaller than both the Emirates and Qatar A388 lounges, but is still nice all the same. I chatted with a couple from London heading to Manila and a fellow returning home to Jakarta.

Back at my seat waiting for me is a water bottle refresh and some chocolates to finish the flight.

And here we are pulling into the gate in AUH. What a great flight ! Crew was absolutely top notch, food and champagne were great, and I would love to do it again ! I booked today’s series of flights during a glitch where every first class seat on this route on any date was available for booking via Aeroplan points.

After going quickly through automated border control (a godsend), I’m off to my hotel on a typically sweltering summer Gulf night – 40 degrees at 1 am.

I’m staying at the Conrad Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi for the night. As another elite perk I got upgraded from the least expensive room to a much better one.

There was even a welcome gift of some fruit, chocolates, and a sparkling apple and date beverage, but I had no time to consume any of that stuff as it was already 2 am by the time I settled into the room 😦

After a short night, time for some room coffee from the Nespresso machine.

Here’s the view from my room now that it’s daylight. The building on the right is the headquarters of ADNOC – the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company which has brought the country a lot of its wealth.

And a view towards the Emirates Palace and Presidential Palace.

After a quick breakfast, my first stop of the day is the Abrahamic Family House. This is an interfaith religious complex undertaken in the spirit of togetherness and peace.

Inside the walls, there is the St. Francis Church (Christianity).

The Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue (Judaism)

And the Imam Al-Tayeb Mosque (Islam).

Here they are from the outside, in reverse order.

Inside the welcome center, there was a water feature embodying the facility’s values.

Across the street, the massive Zayed National Museum is being constructed. While I wait melting in jeans for my Uber. (Shorts not acceptable in these kind of faciltiies, just glad I didn’t have to throw on my hoodie too).

Next stop is the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.It’s massive and a significant tourist attraction. The entrance to the visitor center is through this egg shaped dome in the middle of a roasting parking lot.

Beneath the egg, you’re deposited into what’s basically a shopping mall, then after you pass through a ticket and security checkpoint, you walk down the Tolerance Path towards the main mosque complex. It’s a long tunnel from the egg to the main area.

At the end of the Tolerance Path, you pop out of another egg and are presented with these beautiful views.

There’s a designated “tourist route” inside the building, and there were supposed to be designated photo stops as well, but plenty of people were ignoring those and were all over the place.

I saw a few people get scolded for taking inappropriately posed photos, as this is a significant house of worship, they take signs of disrespect very seriously.

It wasn’t easy to get photos without people in them. It was pretty busy and this is the low season for tourists here since it’s so hot. I can’t imagine how packed it would be in the winter.

It was a very beautiful building, but I visited the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman, last spring; and although that one is smaller, I found I enjoyed it much more. Simply due to the lack of tourists, and no shopping mall surrounding the place etc. You could walk anywhere you wanted in that place, but seeing the amounts of people here I completely understand why they wouldn’t want that. It would be chaos.

Back in the mall, I see two familiar signs of home. I can’t stand Tim Hortons, but right next to it is one of my favorite restaurants.

So I settle down for a late gourmet lunch, some Wi-Fi, and air conditioning.

Did I mention its hot out?

It’s too hot to do any more walking anywhere so I go back to the hotel and check out the beach on the property. I though the sand was going to melt the soles of my shoes.

So I stick with the pool. Very refreshing.

My room is somewhere up there.

After my refresh break, I head up to one of the attractions in the same building as the hotel (it’s a multi use, residential, office, and hotel complex). The Observation Deck at 300 (300 metres up).

It’s part restaurant, part viewing area. If you’re a guest of the hotel you can go up for free without having to make a restaurant purchase.

Great view from up here although the windows could be a little cleaner.

The hotel that looks similar to Atlantis is Rixos Marina.

And after this, it’s back to my room to pack up for the next leg of my journey…