NOV 16, 16 .. ABU DHABI WRAP UP ..

The time has come for me to wrap up my 6-hour visit to Abu Dhabi with the Rayna Tour Company.

Sometimes even an ordinary, mundane, photo will show something of interest.

I am amazed at the condition of the automobiles. It seems like they are all late-model vehicles. You do NOT see junkers on the streets.

Clean and then even cleaner.

Numb. One gets numb to the proliferation of beautiful buildings.

On the road 'home' to Dubai.

And there we have our last look at Abu Dhabi. Many of you, all of you perhaps, will not be visiting the Mid East. If I would have let my inner critic run loose, many, most perhaps, of the above photos would lay dead on the cutting room floor. So I screened out a few no-brainers and posted all the rest.

Much Joy .. Cap

NOV 15, 16 .. ABU DHABI .. LUNCH ..

After visiting Ferrari World .. Just for you 'Zilla! Just for you! You too Robert 94596!

After visiting the Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque .. 

We took a lunch break.

Lunch was .. in two words .. something else. Our restaurant was located within Heritage Village in Abu Dhabi.

The below photo 'says it all'. It was a buffet. All the food you could eat. 

Buffet's do not work well for me at all. Atta Boy Captain! We like honesty here!

Sometimes (Captain! Remember that this is a program of honesty here!) I usually / I always will begin with the desserts! Who wants to fill up on lettuce and veggies? If I have room after I have demolished the desserts then I will get into some other foods on any given buffet.

Desserts mix very well with some good, healthy, Middle East food.

I did Muhammad. I really gave you a great recommend.

Look over there girls. Snap! Gotcha! And you didn't even know I just snapped your photo.

Short and I hope sweet (with all of the desserts). You all need a break from these long posts I have been putting up here.

Smiling from ear to ear .. Cap ..

Possibly only Gullible  will understand the below photo. I have several (Captain! This is a program of honesty!) I have a bunch of digital memory chips containing photographs I have taken during my travels. Some of these memory chips contain a few thousand photos! The photos are organized into up to 21 folders within each memory chip. I was sure the memory chip I put into my card reader contained the photos of the above restaurant in Abu Dhabi.

Wrong Captain!

Obviously I had the wrong memory chip. BUT I love the photo of the below child taken in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia last year. Or was it this year in the Spring. Actually this is one of my all time favorite photos that I have ever snapped.

Words fail me. 

NOV 14, 16 .. ABU DHABI .. SHEIKH ZAYED GRAND MOSQUE ..

Let's begin here with a word.

Sheikh.

I always wanted to pronounce this word sheikh as .. She eeK!

And why not.

Sheikh.  She ikh. She is she. eik is eeK. It is a no-brainer!

But this is not the case.

This word sheikh is pronounced, well at least here in the Arab world, SHAKE.

All you ever wanted to know huh?

Whoa! Wait a minute! Hold the presses Captain. What is this?

SHAIKH ZAYED GRAND MOSQUE.

Ho Hum Captain. As you know, this is 100% normal for this part of the world. Spelling differs all over the place. 

But for this word of all words? SHEIKH and SHAIKH.

Get it Captain? The word SHAIKH pronounces as SHAKE! For by this time clarity has been found. The proper spelling of SHEIKH is probably SHAIKH.

Until I saw this mosque, The Sheikh (SHAIKH) Zayed Grand Mosque, I always thought that the Taj Mahal was it.

Well Mumtaz .. You ARE still IT.

Patti's expression of wonderment says it all about Mumtaz.

I will 'hedge my bet' as follows:

"Mumtaz! My Dear Mumtaz! You have some SHAIKH company over here in the United Arab Emirates."

"You my Dear Mumtaz, without a doubt, are much more photogenic. You are smaller and much more compact and I can capture you in one photo."

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. Meister Eckhart.

Lord God of Abraham, creator of heaven and earth, THANK YOU for the countless blessings you have showered down upon me! That I am able to see and I am able to visit the places I see and visit and then share my joy with my followers.

Whew! Wow! I do not take this all for granted.

In the below photos, you will see that I was only able to capture bits and pieces of The Sheikh (SHAKE) Zayed Grand Mosque. 

You had better believe, that in visiting the grand mosque, the ladies on our tour donned the proper Islamic attire that was provided for them at no cost by our tour company, Rayna Tours.

I love it. Selfies and smiles and photos galore!

My first view of Sheikh (SHAIKH) Zayed's Grand Mosque.

Now we are going to turn-the-corner. You will now more fully appreciate the size of The Grand Mosque!

The Grand Mosque is simply: Enormous. Gigantic. Stupendous.

I very carefully, to the best of my ability, snapped my photographs without showing you the crowds of visitors. So, since this is a program of honesty, there were indeed a few other visitors here with us.

"A few other visitors Captain?"

Yes! This indeed is my bus. Home Sweet Home Bus. Turn ON Turn UP the air conditioning.

What a DO-NOT-MISS experience seeing Sheikh/Shaikh Zayed's Grand Mosque was. 

Words simply fail me.

/ SIGN ME AS /  .. Wordless Cap