We had enjoyed our day tour of the Grand Mosque and set out on a night bus tour with Sylvia who was from Croatia. It was a driving tour, with occasional quick stops. Unlike the morning tour, Cindy did not have to wear a head scarf, just long pants and a long-sleeve shirt. At the pier, we quickly took pictures with our travel mascots, Spuddy Buddy and Willy P.

Our bus took us to Saadiyat Island aka Museum Island. All of the museums were closed for the evening, but were still very interesting from the outside. One of the museums is the history of the “royal” family. Sheik Zayed loved the falcon and declared it the national bird. Therefore, that museum looks like falcon feathers. Sylvia told us to look for the vendors in Dubai, that will walk around with trained falcons that you can pose with.

The main museum is the Louvre AB, which contains works of art. There is an agreement with the official Louvre in Paris that the name can be used for 30 years. The building has a large dome surrounded by 4 large boxes and the entire structure sits over the water. The is even a small area for water taxis to drop off guests.

We drove past the Guggenheim Museum which is still under construction, but will house 28 galleries of Asia and African art. It has a very unique design.

We had heard earlier in the day about how excited everyone gets when it rains…well it rained for 5 minutes, the first in 8 months, and everyone was very excited!!

We made a stop at the “Corniche on the Bay” for a night view of the city. Across the bay is the Emirates Palace Hotel which is over a half mile in length. All of the sand in the UAE is reddish brown and white sand is more appealing to tourists, so white sand was barged in from Algeria for the hotel beach.

The royal family has numerous palaces. We could see two of the palaces on opposite sides of the bay. One is a working palace for official visitors and the other is where the royal family resides. Only sons are in the royal succession line.

Our last stop of the evening was at the Wahat Al Karama which translates to Oasis of Dignity. It is a war memorial and monument to honor all the fallen Emiratis killed in the line of duty. The first name is a 20 year old policeman in 1971.

From the memorial you have an amazing view of the Grand Mosque as the memorial as a large reflecting pool.

It had been a full day, so we went to O’Sheehan’s for a late night snack and then back to our room, where we decorated our Christmas tree, as the next day was Christmas Eve. We used our charging cords for decorations and a family friend had given us a paper nativity with battery powered tea lights. It was beginning to “look a lot like Christmas”.