Dubai Marina in the rain

Today was a little more low-key. The forecast called for rain, so we spent our day at the Dubai Marina, which has a lot of indoor activities, and is accessible by the Metro. Our first leg took us to the Atlantis Hotel on the Palm Jumeirah man-made island. It takes three trains to get there: regular Metro, tram, and then a monorail! Unfortunately, by the time we got all the way out there, it started raining pretty heavily, and a foggy haze rolled in from the Persian Gulf, so, there really wasn't much to see. There's no beach there; just a promenade walk and huge rocks. Oh well.

We hopped back on the monorail, then the tram, and went back to the Marina Mall. After a nice cappuccino, it had stopped raining, so we decided to walk along the waterfront. The buildings here are some of the most amazing in a city that is known for amazing architecture.

However, in a city that's known for architecture, it's also was very obvious that many of the buildings in the Marina are incomplete, and many others are vacant. Most of the buildings there are built as either hotels or apartments; only a few were offices.

After walking along the waterfront, we tried valiantly to get out to the Gulf beach again. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful. The beach is not public here. You can only access it through the fancy hotels, and they don't want people walking through off the street. So, no beach for us! Oh well.

By this time, we were getting hungry. We found an Egyptian restaurant along the waterfront that looked promising, and we definitely weren't disappointed. Neither of us had ever tried Egyptian food before, and we really enjoyed it. Of course, we started the meal with fresh juice drinks. We tried a cheese appetizer (similar to spanikopita, but with more seasoning) that we wolfed down without even taking a picture! Sean had a roasted leg of lamb with rice and vegetables, and I had macaroni with béchamel sauce and meat (similar to Greek pasticio).

For dessert, we had more juices with ice cream added. It was all delicious!

After we ate, it was dusk, and the beautiful Jumeirah Mosque turned on their night lighting.

A short walk back to the Metro station, and we were back at our hotel. We have an 8 AM flight tomorrow to Amman, Jordan. From there, we are renting a SUV and making the 3 hour drive to Petra. I'm sure it will be an interesting day!