Abu Dhabi & Dubai

Wow, what can I say about the UAE? It is absolutely unreal. Imagine it, and they can make it happen: hotels made completely of gold, ski resorts in the desert, women in traditional Islamic dress running corporations, investing in real estate, and speaking English with perfect American accents. Thanks to my dear Zayed, my accomodation in Abu Dhabi was a palace known as the "Emirates Palace Hotel", which I got lost trying to find my way out of. Just to give you an idea of the caliber of hotels here, I had a jacuzzi, roses, chocolate with gold-leaf in it and tons of fruit in my room (suite?), a butler, laundry service, flat screen TV/DVD, and the view from my balcony was a palm-dotted clear-blue beach with white sand imported from Algeria.

I got to meet some really kind-hearted members of Zayed's family, and check out the poet section of one of the local bookstore's dedicated to Zayed's dad. We took an abra (small boat, like a gondola) down the river and enjoyed yummy Lebanese food, and of course, room service! The local dress is actually pretty similar for men and women here, just completely different colors, with men in white night-dress type clothing and red-checkered head-scarves, and women in black, often with designer diamonte, feathered or embroidered head-scarves (I got myself an embroidered one:).

Jetting in Zayed's 4-wheel drive Porsch to Dubai, we next checked into the beach resort, Madinat Jumeirah. Our butler there was absolutely bursting to tell us that Tiger Woods currently occupied the upstairs section of our private villa. We left him alone, which I'm sure is why he won the Dubai Desert Classic while he was there. I loved this hotel though-- it mixed up its opulence with pretty colors, beach themes, and cool oragami towels, man-made canals, abras, pools, palm trees, restaurants, markets, and of course, the beach. We checked out the famous Talisse Spa, the Jumeirah Souqs (Markets), and the Jumeirah Mosque (the biggest Mosque in Dubai, which unfortunately does not admit non-believers outside of certain tour hours, so I only got to see the outside). The other mosques do not admit non-believers at all. Zayed took me to the Virgin Megastore and gave recommendations on the local music, had a beautiful sea-breeze quiet high-tea at the Ritz Carlton, an oasis among the taller than NYC's skyscrapers, and an all-you-can-imagine brunch at the GHP Hotel (yes, the theme here is hotels). But best of all was the desert safari. We "dune-bashed" in 4-wheel-drives (no whip-lash at all!), watched a desert sunset, rode camels (I made good friends with one), visited with a falcon, ate local food, danced with a belly dancer, smoked sheesha-- well, I held it while Zayed took pictures, anyway, got temporary henna tattoos and watched the stars of the desert sky. The weather was perfect when I arrived and I enjoyed a couple of lovely beach walks up to the Burj Al Arab, the tallest hotel in Dubai, shaped like a sailboat and set on a tiny man-made peninsula, so it looks like it's floating in the sea. It's hard to remember that outside your hotel or car, it's just desert:)

Goettingen, Germany

Next we travelled via Mallorca (and wished we had a longer stop there!) to Dorthmund, from which we trained it to Goettingen, the HQ of the Speyer family, arriving just after midnight. As we dragged our luggage through the pretty university town I suddenly felt a a calming sense of familiarity wash over me; everything here was known to me in an almost unconscious way, even though I had only been to Goettingen once before, it was still the Germany I grew up with.

We got to spend time with Raph's youngest sister Noemi, and hear of her travels to Chile. Andrea and Ken made us feel at home (thank you!), and as per usual, we stayed up late on long talks and long walks with Ken. We also got to have a lovely dinner at Raph's brother Matthew's place, catching up with Anna and their son Nick as well. Despite all the lovely fresh, organic meals cooked at home, I managed to sneak in a real Bavarian Bratwurst when nobody was looking (unfortunately, no Black Forest cake this far north). And no visit to Goettingen would be complete without a gander at the Gaenseliesel, a statue in the centre of town dedicated to a rather feminist fairy-tale heroine, Liesel, who dressed up as a boy to get a job tending the King's geese, so that her family could have enough money (of course, the king finds out she's a girl, falls in love with her, and marries her-- hey, it is a fairy tale!).