UAE, the land of superlatives – for fun I decided to note when something was the best, tallest, largest, etc in the world. After weeks of calm in Oman, it was time to be pick up the pace and be bedazzled. It didn’t take long to understand why Dubai in particular has earned its reputation for creating world-class sights. Situated within the Arabian Desert, it was interesting to fly into as the outer reaches slowly gave way to the city. Apparently, sand has to be imported for Dubai to build on as its native sand is too smooth to support concrete foundations. (Dubai, Nov 15-23/22)

Built almost 20 years ago, the iconic Burj Khalifa building remains the tallest in the world at 163 stories. An elevator goes to the 124th floor in 60 seconds and it was so smooth we didn’t realize it was moving until we were almost at the end.

The 360-degree view from its observation deck extended from the sandy outskirts of the city to the west and the ocean to the east. Above: the view down into just a portion of the ‘Downtown Dubai’ development of Burj Khalifa and its fountains, opera house, Dubai Mall, hotels, and restaurants. The scale was staggering.

A couple of times, during each weekend night it became the backdrop for a light display set to music.

The Dubai Fountain made a gorgeous base to the Burj and watching the water dance to music made for a quiet reprieve from the bling elsewhere. It’s the world's largest choreographed fountain system.

The Dubai Mall has over 1,200 stores (Metrotown has 330) along with a 4-story aquarium and an ice rink. Fun fact: Canada makes the list - our West Edmonton Mall ties with the Dubai Mall for 26th place in the largest ‘gross leasable area’ category. Anything will be measured :). Because the mall was on a transit line, we made it a regular stop to walk through enroute to our next destination. Every time we got lost. It has the largest aquarium viewing panel in the world.

The Opera House rounded out the Downtown Dubai property development. It was designed to look like a traditional boat (a dhow). The best part was a large area adjacent to it that was covered in turf, and surrounded by flowers, for people to hang out in a quiet space overlooking the fountains.

Half the size of the Dubai Mall was the Mall of the Emirates, but it had Ski Dubai, a ski ‘resort’ and snow park complete with skiing, snowboarding and a set of luge runs. It was a little surreal watching people walk around wearing ski jackets. Above: a boy racing his friend down the luge.

Away from the glitz was the Al Seef Historic District. Homes and businesses had wind towers over the top floor to provide natural air conditioning up until the 1970’s. The openings in the tower would allow air in to cool as it made its way down the shaft to the lowest floor. They had been restored here, adding an architectural touch to the neighborhood.

With over 150 million flowers, the Miracle Garden is the world’s largest natural flower garden. Each year the display takes a hiatus during the extremely hot Summer and then returns with new creations. For me this was like Disneyland in flowers - I loved the beauty and magic of the place.

Inviting little seating areas with food nearby made it easy to recharge and stay for a few hours.

It turned out we needed to book tickets weeks in advance to visit the Museum of the Future, but seeing it from the outside made the trip worthwhile. It was just one of the city’s architectural highlights… we loved spotting buildings with playful spheres at the tops, lights running down others, story-high skyways connecting sets of buildings, one with a pool on the skyway, etc.

Getting around… without fail, when we take transit, I am offered a seat and Rick is often as well. We’ve had a few bumps though - one day we were obliviously standing in the ladies only car and on another enjoying an actual seat until we realized we were in the gold transit card car. At the next stop we slunk out and joined the cattle cars (wearing masks). Although Uber is in some Gulf countries, Careem dominated the market. We knew we were in Dubai when every Careem we took was a Lexus.

Palm Jumeirah, the 5km long palm tree shaped community of all things luxury, was made by creating a group of islands. How they dredged sand from the Arabian Gulf and rock from nearby mountains to accomplish the engineering feat is interesting. As a result Dubai got an additional 300 km of coastline. In my mind it was what put the city on the map for us as a tourist destination.

The expansiveness of the property was much larger than expected with each beach lined ‘frond’ covered in mansions and barely visible from the heights of the monorail that ran down its center.

The hotel Atlantis, The Palm at the tip of the palm tree made a stunning point for the monorail to terminate.

Down the road from Palm Jumeirah was the Madinat Jumeirah, a modern take on an historic Arabian village complete with a souq, waterways, traditional boats (abras), palm trees and the ubiquitous bougainvillea. Situated by the Arabian Gulf, taking an abra ride through the saltwater canals was a scenic way to see the exclusive neighbourhood.

The abra driver only had 4 of us on board, so he went into professional photographer mode taking several pics of each couple with the Burj Arab building behind us. Its sail design set along the coast with a blue sky in the background was another architectural fave. Fun fact: it's the tallest all-suite hotel in the world and in 2008 it made the Guinness World Record for the most expensive cocktail ($9.835 CAD)!

We expected our credit cards to crash and burn here, but for the average visitor not going to the Burj Arab for cocktails, we found prices comparable to Vancouver. And public transit and Careem was less expensive. Rick found us a nice apartment (no quaint guesthouses here :) on the canal with a huge patio about a 20min walk from Burj Khalifa - the biggest draw in the city - for less than a Vancouver hotel room.

A selfie taker’s dream – the tallest picture frame in the world. An elevator goes 48 stories up one side of the Dubai Frame. Once there, the viewing platform extended from side to side with a trippy glass floor running its length.

The Global Village was like a world fair for shoppers. With a pavilion each for nearby countries and smaller ones for continents further afield we spent hours checking out the regional food, lively entertainment and goods for sale from each part of the world. There were some serious shopping opportunities, from fur coats in the Afghanistan pavilion, leather goods in Turkey and fabric from Pakistan. For the high-volume consumers there were porters to follow them around as they filled their Costco sized shopping cart.

The Presidential Palace for all the Emirates sits along a stretch of sand on a property the size of 53 football fields. No one lives here, rather its grand halls are used for hosting world leaders and government functions. (Abu Dhabi, Nov 23-29)

This couple must not have read the memo. Any type of public display of affection is frowned upon. We've rarely seen anyone touching. At the mosque, security guards were on hand to ensure that no one put their arm around their partner for pictures.

One of several halls to convene in. Each person had a full couch. A soft palette of blue (for the ocean), and yellow (for the sand) ran throughout the building. Although it had a soothing effect, we found it a bit disorienting and easy to get lost.

After the sun set a light display represented the 3 phases of growth for the UAE. The first set of images depicted the sand dunes and caravans of camels, the second of early inventions and world maps and the third, images of technological advancements.

In partnership with the Louvre in France and with the ocean running beside and under it, the Louvre Abu Dhabi was stunning. The pewter-coloured dome that perched over a collection of buildings was designed to create the effect of sun dappling through a canopy of date palms when you walked through the various open spaces and seating areas.

Rather than large displays of similar objects, the museum showcased only a few of the most impeccably preserved pieces. It made the museum collection less overwhelming, but often you had to take a second glance at a date to appreciate how long ago a piece was crafted. This statue is one of only 15 found (when a highway in Jordan was being excavated). They’re believed to be 9,000 years old and one of the earliest representations of the human form before the age of pottery made them commonplace. It’s amazing that the bitumen outlined eyes are in such pristine condition after so long.

As luck would have it, a collection of impressionist pieces was on loan from France. The Louvre here is part of a cultural park just in its infancy. There are plans to also add a Guggenheim.

The Emirates Palace hotel is one of the most luxurious. Above: UAE National Day celebrates when the Emirates became a union half a century ago. In preparation, the national flag was being painted on the lawn in front of the hotel.

Inside the hotel it was all opulence (surprise :) with gold being the main draw. Everything is adorned with 24-carat gold, including desserts. Apparently, they buy 5kg of gold every year just to maintain the gilding.

For a small fortune we sipped lattes and shared a rich dessert decorated with edible gold flakes.

From the moment we arrived in Abu Dhabi we liked it. While there’s glitz, there’s a more relaxed feel to the pace and staying by the turquoise ocean helps too.

Rental bikes and a dedicated bike path ran 8km along the manicured corniche. There were lots of places to eat to stretch out the ride.

Abu Dhabi’s Grand Mosque is the 3rd largest in the world and ripe with fun facts: 82 domes, 1,000+ columns, the world’s largest hand knitted carpet, 100,000 tonnes of marble and 24-carat-gold gilded chandeliers.

Of the 7 crystal chandeliers, the largest weighed 12 tonnes.

One goal of the new mosque is to embody diversity. To that end this one departs from the usual style of primarily Islamic geometric design to include flower patterned tiles splashed throughout, and in the most beautiful hall, 3D flowers in multi-coloured marble climbed the walls.

A lighting system is set so that the pure white marble clad mosque changes colour with the phases of the moon. Across the highway from the mosque is a memorial site with a reflection pond. We, along with a handful of others, waited for that magic time when the sky and the mosque lit up. With that, we’ll say goodbye to the UAE. Home and an over 30C change in temperature awaits us.