Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

One day, we visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Located in Abu Dhabi, it is the largest mosque in the UAE and the 8th largest in the world. 

Lots of pictures. Be sure to go to the end and continue reading.

                                     

 This is a water fountain. 

 These are the times for the Call to Prayer. 

 An amazing chandelier made from Swarovski crystals.

A flower design between four columns. 

 Arabic writings on the wall.

 The Quran

 Intricate details in the glass window

 The view of the mosque as we were leaving. 

 Ladies have to be covered from head to toe. So rather than borrow clothing from the mosque that others have worn, we wore long sleeves and pants and took pashminas to cover our heads. 

 Place inside to wash your feet

While the mosque was quite grand, beautiful, and immaculate, I  did not have the sense of peace and reverence that I have felt when entering some beautiful, grand churches. Now. was it the children running around, the constant photography, or something else? I do not know but I didn't feel it. 

All good things must come to an end!!!

All good things must come to an end....Mom and dad have been here with me for 2 weeks. It has been amazing!!! We have laughed and explored all kinds of new places. Over the next few days, I will be uploading pictures and telling stories of our adventure. This picture was taken at The Rainforest Cafe on New Year's Eve. Usually, on NYE, we all stay home and watch the ball and peach drop on TV and dad goes to bed early. However, this year I told them that it wasn't every year that they could go to Dubai for NYE and we would be going. For those of you who don't know my dad, he HATES crowds!!!! 

So, we went to Dubai with a million of our closest friends...hahaha!! We watched the fireworks from the base of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. While it was fun being there on NYE, the fireworks were not as grand as I expected them to be. Leaving there was crazy!!! And that is putting it mildly. With millions of people trying to leave at the same time and the ability to use lines is virtually non-existent here, it was basically a mob of people PUSHING their way to the exit which was not clear. It was very difficult, hot and smelly. Several people needed lots of rock salt (see previous post if you don't know what that means). 

Anyway, we finally made it to the exit, to the car and home by 2:30am. Then, we called all our friends and family back home to say HNY!!! We finally went to bed around 4:30am and slept late the next day. 

It was a lot of fun!!