The Adventures of Excited and Nervous: Part 1: Holiday time in Abu Dhabi

We started our journey as guests of Dan & Andrea, Rich's brother and sister in law, his almost three-year-old niece Zsofia and as yet unborn nephew.

Abu Dhabi corniche

As we imagined from the standard of living we witnessed when visiting them last year in Doha, their flat is stunning. A multi-roomed apartment on the corniche (the waterfront) in central Abu Dhabi. Up on the 21st floor, the views are fantastic both day and night, and the beach is a 5 minute walk. In the mid to high 30s it was too hot to make use of the outdoors during the day, with most activity limited to mornings and late afternoon, through to the evening.

Thanks to the generosity of Dan and Andrea we were able to experience some of the UAE high-life. The Viceroy Hotel on Yas Island goes across the Abu Dhabi F1 racetrack and on Fridays they do a 4 hour champagne brunch with the most amazing buffet I have ever experienced. Fresh sushi, caviar bar, freshly prepared oysters, cooked to order steak and the most amazing shots of various fruit mousses plus a number of other things I can't even describe as I was so in awe. With staff constantly topping up your champagne glass it must be one of the most out of this world experiences I've eve had. If you've got money in Abu Dhabu, there is plenty to spend it on. On the way there we passed Ferrari World theme park...

We spent another day at a private hotel pool and beach resort with a pool bar. Also amazing and lovely to spend some time splashing about with Zsofia. Other highlights included a trip to the main mosque, heritage village and Masdar City.

Grand mosque

Women must be covered inside - Andrea & I model the latest in mosque appropriate Abayas

The opulent mosque interior

Masdar is currently under construction to be the first car-free completely carbon-neutral city (but I've read that achieving low-carbon status might be the revised goal). The ambitions are fantastic and the transport in magnetic pods to reach the city very cool, but as it is still under construction I reckon you'll get more from a visit in 10 years time.