After an exhausting and weary evening yesterday trying to sort out our route for our trip up the tallest building in the world, we were up early again and down for breakfast about 0650 hrs. having packed our bags as we were also checking.
We left the hotel, walked to the Metro Station, bought our all day travel card, caught the train which was “heaving”, got out at the Burj Khalifa station and started our trek to the Mall. About 15 minutes later we walked into this very empty mall but as we knew where to go we
The Entrance into Burj Khalifa
arrived at the entrance to the tower lifts about half an hour before our appointed time. Too early we were told and had to sit out and enjoy a coffee, what a shame!!!
Back to the entrance at the right time, we decided to hire their audio systems, and at the same time handed in Christine’s bag (security) and then we were off, through very strict security as
A Plaque on the way in
you can imagine, belts off, empty pockets etc., then the walk to the lifts which took about 10 minutes but along the way there were all the facts about the towers construction and the associated time lines.
A Plaque on the way in
The speed of the lift was incredable, it travels at 60 KPH, we were at the 124th floor in about 60 seconds, wow!!! and whats more we didn’t feel a thing, amazing. Mind you everything about this tower is amazing, here are just a few of the headline records: Tallest structure ever
The Outside Observation Deck Floor 124
built at 829.8 meters (2,722ft);
Building with most floors; Worlds highest lift
Looking down onto the Dancing Water Fountains with Dubai Creek in the Background
installation; Worlds longest lift travel; Worlds highest Night Club; 163 floors and the list goes on and on. It is worth looking on their web site www.burjkhalifa.ae for more fascinating details.
The only blot on the landscape today was that it was raining and overcast but fortunartly the clouds were higher than we were when we went to the observation deck so had a reasonably good
One of their Many “Spagetti” Junctions
view. The commentry was excellent but we think the gift shop
The Expensive Gift Shop
only catered for the wealthy, to collect the ‘photo taken at the bottom was about £60 and if one had a “funny”
Inside Observation Deck After the Clouds Arrived
‘photo with an exciting background it was more like £100, we declined and took our own pictures instead.
Inside Observation Corridor
After filling our boots with the views
and watching the clouds come in and block out the views we decided to go
More from the Top with Beach Sea in the Background
back down. Again this lift, which is a double decker though we didn’t know that until we arrived at the top, was another record as it serves two floors at once! About an hour and a half after we went up, we returned back on terra firma after a thoroughly
The Clouds Arriving
entertaining experience, worth every penny to go up.
A cup of coffee was called for now whilst we checked our e mails, yes there was Wi Fi in the
The Fountain Lake in the Rain
coffee shop below, naturally! then back out to watch the dancing fountains to music, this time
Waiting for the 1 o’clock show in the rain
in daylight. It was still raining so we sheltered until 1300hrs when the show started. This time we had a oriental music and the fountains danced as if they were ballet dancers, again very spectactular, well worth this third visit.
A Model of the Burj Khalifa with a Fireworks display
Now we headed off for the moment we had been waiting for, well I had anyway! When we were here back in December with Jane and Dave we ate at an American Texas Steak House next to the fountains lake, below the Burj Khalifa tower, where we enjoyed a superb steak. Now we were back again and whats more we were remembered. Why you may ask, why were we remembered; well the first time we were there we wanted a certain table away from
The Exit Corridor
the smokers but the chairs around that particular table were hard and we wanted the soft ones, so we went about swapping all the chairs around, much to the anxiety of the waiters, but we accomplisehed it and had comfortable chairs for our meal! Today we sat inside but again, the 2 of us had a table for 6, this also confused them as they wanted to give us a table for 2, still we did have very good steaks but of course no alcholol. This is not an oasis where it is available and it is the second time I have
Christine’s Raspberry Mocktail
enjoyed a steak with water, not wine, but Christine had a Raspberry Mocktail, different!!!! We don’t want to make a habit of this!!!!!! Again we couldn’t manage a pudding so paid the bill and started the long trek back to the Metro though we did have to
Some of the Fish Behind the Glass
make a few detours to see the Ice Skating rink ,
The Olympic Sized Ice Rink in the Mall
the aquarium and the waterfall, all inside this big mall; also I had to buy a new pair of sandles, old ones have seen better days!! On our way through the Mall we came accross a Cinnabon Outlet, these are some of our favourite “naughties”, we were introduced to them in Bahrain and though there is an outlet for these at
Cinnabon Counter
“Lakeside” the only good ones seem to be here in the Middle East; but guess what, we were so full from out steaks we could only ‘photograph the outlet, we walked straight by, thats a first! We then set off back to the hotel to collect our cases and on our way through the Mall we came accross a Mall Taxi, that telss us
One of the Mall’s Taxis
how big the Mall is and no, we wailked!!!
The aquarium in the Mall
When we walked out of the hotel it started to rain and naturally
The Inside Waterfall with Divers
we had neither umbrella or rain coat so got a taxi to the local Metro station, then caught the Metro to the Airport. We knew there was a shuttle bus between Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports so thought we would catch that, after all we had an Emerates ticket for a flight back to UK and a return Etihad ticket to Sri Lanka but unfortunatly we did not have any boarding cards, also it turns out we should have booked the bus seat 6 hours before using the bus, oh dear! At this stage we could get an other bus, but that meant going back into Dubai on the Metro, picking up a taxi to get to the bus station, and had we done that, the bus would have taken us inbto the middle of Adu Dhabi and we would then have to get another taxi back out. to Jane and Dave’s house! Isn’t it always the way, when you try to do things on the cheap, something bites you up the behind and it eventually costs more!!!!! Now we jumped into a taxi and told the driver to take us to Abu Dhabi International Airport and we then arranged for Jane to collect us from there; The airport is fairly close to their home and a lot easier, we should have just done it fom our hotel, as it was nearer to Abu Dhabi than the Dubai Airport!!!!!!
We had an exciting day, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and now we are looking forward to a lie in tomorrow.
We Were There
We were there