At 9:30 in the morning, we glided into the port at Warnemunde, at the mouth of the Warne river, just downstream from the Hanseatic city of Rostock, and by 10 or so several hundred passengers had left the boat and got into buses. Their plan? To take a three-hour bus ride to Berlin … and […]

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Gliding along, hour after hour, seemingly to nowhere … water, water everywhere, and little of it choppy … would not be such a bad way to spend a day, if it weren’t for the other 2,100 people on board a cruise ship. A sail day, in cruising parlance, is one in which you do not […]

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Of all possible datelines, the “aboard the” something or other is one of the most treasured by journalists. The connotation being the author is on the move, and out of reach of dreary, land-based forms of communication, even when it is as insignificant as a blog post. Being aboard the Celebrity Constellation (above, circa 2008) […]

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This was not the first place in the city we visited. Nor was it the second or third or fourth. And we came close to not visiting at all. But the reality, at least among English speakers, is that one of the first questions we would be asked about Amsterdam, when back in Abu Dhabi, […]

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This was one of those days that seemed overly ambitious, afterwards. From Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam. Via cab, plane, train and tram. Ending with a “slow food” dinner in the suburbs of the capital of the Netherlands.

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A few days ago, we noted the coverage in The National on the plan by Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways to come up with the defining first-class experience. The one that apparently will cost $20,000 for a one-way flight to London.

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One of the most fascinating concepts in sports is the spectacular collapse. A team is way up (Dodgers over Giants, 1951; Yankees with a 3-0 ALCS lead over the Red Sox in 2004) , a sure thing, no problem at all, a fat lead … and then a break in momentum, a turning point, panic […]

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At times, it seems as if one of the primary impulses in the UAE — and the Gulf, for that matter — is discovering innovative ways to spend astonishing amounts of money. “Gold” class is not enough. It must be “platinum”. The new watch, the most expensive car, the hotels that declare themselves to be […]

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The Mackinaw peach is an invention of the sitcom Seinfeld. But I could not avoid thinking of the fake fruit when reading this story in The National about a real fruit: The Alphonso mango, also known as … the “king of fruit”.

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A Friday night, finished with work fairly early … we decided to go to the leading Mexican restaurant in the city. Let’s call it El Serape, which is not its real name, but everyone who lives in Abu Dhabi, especially the North Americans, will know what place I mean. We could not get a reservation […]

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