Each time we land back in Abu Dhabi, it’s like discovering a new international airport in the midst of a tear-down/build-up. We have an idea of what it looked like when we first arrived — one sort of antique-looking terminal, an Arabesque style, built in the round, with about a dozen gates. That was enough […]

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And so the Baltic cruise ends where it started … in cosmopolitan, friendly Amsterdam. The ship docked early, just after 6 a.m., because Celebrity had to offload 2,100 passengers … clean up a bit … and then load another 2,100 to head back out the same day at 4 p.m. Those who appreciate logistics probably […]

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Cruising is not for everyone. If mobs of senior citizens set your nerves on edge … stay away. If proximity with uninformed opinion annoys you … don’t come. If the notion of a bare brush with exotic cities and people leaves you frustrated … don’t bother. If a disconnect from the greater wired world leaves […]

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I am convinced a potential bestseller is waiting to be written. “Life Below Decks: The Secret Lives of Cruise Ship Staff”. In which a veteran employee of the cruise ship industry, preferably someone with a job that puts them in daily contact with passengers, dishes dirt on the cruisers as well as fellow crew and […]

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It seems as if humans are never quite satisfied with their portion of sun. At this moment, in Abu Dhabi and the UAE, the consensus certainly is that entirely too much of ol’ Sol is irradiating the parched landscape. While in Stockholm, which is closer to the North Pole than it is to Abu Dhabi, […]

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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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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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