Changing Face of Abu Dhabi

I have an absolutely lovely day today that will require several posts to chronicle. Tony, Liane, Peter and I drove downtown Abu Dhabi for the day, which was quite the challenge because it is both completely torn up and also very different than Peter and Tony remembered. We didn't know if Liane was going to make it or not because she was out fairly late at the Beady Eye concert last night, which was literally a five minute walk from our hotel. Yas Island holds a series of concerts once the weather breaks and this was the first. Rafael, the amazing waiter/bartender/conscierge who dominates happy hour ar the Radisson scored us free tickets, even though I begged off - although I have my name in already for Metallica, who are coming in a couple months. Anyway, as part of the trip we both drove out to the point of land past the Marina Mall which gave us a great view of part of downtown (there are big buildings going up everywhere, and this, the second picture down, is just one little corner). We also made it to the insanely posh Emirates Palace Hotel, which has a deal with the British Museum which allows for rotating exhibits actually in the hotel itself. There was also a shop where you could, literally, buy actual artwork such as Tang three-color statues or Moche pottery. I'm not talking about souvenir reproductions - I'm talking about the real deal. I gues if you can afford to stay there you can buy artifacts. I was really taken by a Tang dynasty three-color camel and a Moche pottery of a crouching corpse - my birthday is in early January - I'm just saying. Anyway, the Mesopotamia exhibit had just closed but there was a new exhibit focusing on the work being done on Saadiyat Island, which is the island that will host the new cultural center. Part of this complex will feature the branch museums of the Guggenheim and the Louvre that I mentioned the other day. Sadly, they're just beginning construction so, even considering how quickly things are put up around here, I don't think it will be completed before my year is up. Now, if I stayed . . . Here are the pictures - the top is a few shots from the exhibit of Abu Dhabi in the 1950's when Sheikh Zayed took over, then there's a nice skyline of today, and then the last shot is a model of the Saadiyat Island complex. The mass of bizarre geometic shapes at the bottom is the Guggenheim, right above it, and looking like an extraterrestial/aquatic version of Captain America's shield is the Louvre, and above that, and looking an albino whale crawling back towards the water, is the new performing arts center. These folks dream very big.