Fun Afternoon Exploring

Headed out on the Metro late morning to go to the Palm Jumeirah Monorail and to visit the Atlantis Hotel.

Got to the monorail via the metro and tram.  Right now there are only two stations - beginning and end.  A couple others are in the works.  This sign indicates one stop will be at Trump Tower.  He's everywhere!

Shots from the Monorail of condos on the Main Street of the Palm...

And private homes on the fronds of the Palm...

Approaching Atlantis on the beach side...only views are from the Monorail.  They do a good job of protecting the residents and guests from all the tourists!

Only views of the water park are are also from the Monorail.  Looks like fun!

Assuming those are slides and waters falls off in the distance...

The monorail ends at Atlantis.  There is a mini mall at the hotel, complete with a nice aquarium.  We didn't go in but we did enjoy this clever colorful dome ceiling.

The hallways were magnificent.

There were several restaurants...we went to the Burger Joint and had the largest hamburger ever with fries and a large Coke for $16.00.

Of course there were jewelry shops and souvenir shops.

This friendly guy was making the interesting sand designs of camels in a small bottle.  Quite an art with color and very small camels.  He said it took him about 18 months to get really good and efficient at making them.

We did go outside to walk around and enjoy the views. This is the view of the Persian Gulf from the back side of the hotel.

I took a couple of pictures for a young couple and he proceeded to do a photo shoot for us!

Atlantis is very pretty - on the water front and back.

The entrance to the Souk Madinat was wonderful.

We caught a taxi from the Hotel to Souk Madinat.  What a gem - so glad we went!  It's in a very high rent district near the Al Arab. Loved the architecture, the canals, the restaurants, the little shops, the outdoor amphitheater, the regular theater, the high end housing and hotels, the river walk, even the bathrooms...just lovely on a very nice day.  

I hope that the high temperatures are gone now.  It's quite pleasant!  The buildings are all new but made in an old style, inside and outside.

An outdoor restaurant - don't those bean bag type chairs look comfy?

This is as close as we ever got to Al Arab!  A young Moroccan security guard let me go through a gate to a bridge to take some pics.  He didn't like the heat in Dubai and missed home.

We think these are man made canals around the hotels and shops.  Very quaint and inviting.

High end bathroom signs! Nice attention to detail!

This is probably way too many pictures and detail, but it really was a wonderful area of the city - with very few people.  I'm guessing the place comes alive in the evening!