After writing about a variety of topics in each blog, I decided to switch it up a little. Writing about life and travel one week and about my crafting another week. So, when reading the headline you can chose to continue depending on your interest.

Abu Dhabi is a city of contrasts from the desert sands in between construction sites to the manicured lawns surrounding lavish homes to fascinating architecture. One of the latter is Masdar City: it has been build to the highest environmental standards and is worth a visit anytime of the year. We picked a Friday around 11 am and had the most Utopian experience. Fridays are quiet until the afternoon with prayer services at the mosques. On our way we were the only car on the road trying to find the parking lot from where an electric unmanned pod (car) would take us to the center of Masdar. Eerily, besides one security person there was no one else in the parkade or on the platform to the pods. We had a choice of 3 and entered after a door opened on the push of a button. An electronic voice welcomes you in Arabic and English and asks to sit down in the big seats, relax and enjoy the ride. Through lightly lit cement tunnels the pod silently rolls for about 5 minutes to its final destination.

departure hall to Masdar city

inside the pod: 4 comfortable seats

entry hall to city centre

exhibit in entry hall

Still: no other person visible. We were feeling a bit insecure if to proceed and walk up the stairs or not. Well, Masdar was supposed to have stores and restaurants as per the Visit Abu Dhabi website. Upstairs we found another security guard and he had a map for us to explore the outside with its 15 buildings, the core of Masdar. And there they were: people! Not a futuristic ghost city after all.

In our quest to find things to do and share with our guests later this year we are exploring some air-conditioned activities. Jalboot is a “guided” round trip boat tour on a catamaran starting and ending at Abu Dhabi mall. They stop for passenger drop off and pick up at Al Bandar, Yas marina, the Fairmont hotel, the Etihad towers (a hotel and office complex) and Abu Dhabi mall. The entire round-trip takes 4 hours with short 10-minute-stops at each location. It is just enough time to stretch your legs, take a few photos and return to the boat. Ours was their newest boat with comfortable seats and lots of safety features. We found the 4-and-a- half-hour tour a bit long for our liking since it involved mostly sitting and looking outside. The commentary/guided part was given via a short video on a big screen just a few minutes before each stop and could have been more in depth. Some information was provided by a map in each seat pocket, but it was difficult to figure out our location in relation to the landmarks. Having a GPS on our mobile phone helped when we wanted to learn about a building we saw shore-side. The Fairmont hotel stop was inaccessible due to low tide and the last 30 minutes between the Corniche and Abu Dhabi mall around the port were in choppy waters which made for a bumpy ride. Overall this is a good tour for a hot day – the air conditioning was great! -, for adults (children may get bored by looking outside for hours) who like to sit and are not getting sea sick when the boat starts to rock the waves. The most exciting part was the first half of the stretch between Etihad towers and Abu Dhabi mall as the boat goes along the coast with views of the Sheik Khalifa’s palace, Marina Mall and the Corniche beach with its skyline. There is an option to buy a one-stop ticket for just that part and I would highly recommend it. Buying tickets at the kiosk in Abu Dhabi mall or online in advance is the easiest way to get started. Ticket purchase on board by credit card is advertised as well. .

Two weeks ago we got access to a car, a 2005 VW Touareg V10 diesel. Not a car we had planned to buy, but it came our way for such a low price that it was a great deal. It comes just at the right time when summer is starting and escaping the heat in our own car becomes a real pleasure. Not only buying a car in a foreign country is exciting, so can be the seemingly easy task to buy diesel fuel for it. Abu Dhabi and the UAE are a country with plenty of oil, natural gas and therefor gasoline as well. But because it is a young country and still growing at an amazing speed the number of cars on the road increases faster than the ability to build gas stations for them. On any given day one sees shorter and sometimes longer line-ups when going to fill up the car. Diesel is a special commodity and subsidized in Abu Dhabi. Because it is more expensive in Dubai and the other emirates of the UAE there was a big illegal trade especially for trucks and heavy machinery (click on the highlighted section for a good article). Which lead to the “diesel card” for each vehicle licensed in Abu Dhabi. The card came with our car and is re-loadable as it is the only form of payment accepted. All other gas can be purchased with either cash or credit card.

Additionally, one has to find a station which sells it. Most locations will sell only gasoline which is similar to Canada’s diesel distribution set-up. Luckily, we knew about it and found an ADNOC station about 10 minutes away in Khalifa city. Still, we were confused which of the lines we  should chose to arrive at the only diesel pump and were helped by the attendant to jump into the right queue. we will be “in the know” for next time at that station, but may have more surprises elsewhere.