Captain's Arms

And here are a few pictures of the very cool pub that we visited while on a driving tour of downtown Abu Dhabi on Saturday. The high point was unquestionably the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (worthy of a very lengthy post or two later), which was awe-inspiring, but ending up at a little English pub in a quiet, tree-lined little courtyard was a pretty fantastic way to end the day. As it turns out it is really easy to get there because the Radisson Blu has a shuttle that runs downtown to the Abu Dhabi Mall repeatedly throughout the day, and once you're at the mall it is probably around a two block walk to the pub itself (even I could pull it off). I suspect that this is going to be a regular Saturday event. Now, to be fair, it, like almost everything in Abu Dhabi is expensive - as I pointed out a couple posts it did cost around $30 for fish & chips and one beer, but I think I can treat myself occasionally. In fact, I would say this Saturday. My passport actually arrived safe and sound this afternoon, complete with my Emirati visa (which, mysteriously enough, is good through 2014, which may be part of Jyoti's scheme to lock me up for three years), which means I can go to HSBC and complete the process of setting up my bank account. Oh, and one final note - you have to love the happy hour sign. As my good friend Mike Kelly opined, "the hours are right."