LOUVRE TIME
The first universal museum in the Arab world, its sci-fi building designed by Pritzker winner
Jean Nouvel, the Louvre Abu
Dhabi features works curated chronologically, making a walk through the gallery feel like a journey through time. The collection itself, a compilation from French institutions and pieces from Abu Dhabi, highlights the connections and universal themes among global cultures and eras. louvreabudhabi.ae
chamber – as we make our way to Pier 71 for a waterfront lunch at Lighthouse, before backtracking to the F1 track.
Sliding doors that read ‘drivers only’ open as we step inside a cavernous building where rows of polished Ferraris, Porsches and Aston Martins are parked. Though these speed machines are available for hire (with or without a driver) to zip around the F1 track, that’s not what we’re here for.
Instead, my travelling companions and I head upstairs to don a black jumpsuit, gloves, shoes and a shiny white helmet. Visors down, we rev our go-kart engines and inch forward to our starting positions on the grid, before hooning around the track, trying to out-do each other’s lap times. Though we’re far from becoming stunt drivers for The Fast and the Furious (which, as a side note, was filmed in Abu Dhabi – movie number seven – including outside the opulent Emirates Palace), we leave pumped with adrenaline.
A 10-minute drive from the F1 track is the world’s largest indoor theme park, Warner Bros World. Pushing through the turnstiles, I look in awe at the central plaza’s high domed roof painted with wispy clouds, which gradually change colour to mirror the intensity of the midday sun, before shifting to a soft pink at sunset. The air is cool and there’s a city-like buzz as we walk through rows of buildings lit with neon lights. I line up for the Green Lantern simulator – an immersive 4D-theatre experience that feels like falling into another universe – but chicken out at the Scarecrow Scare Raid in Gotham City (where screams can’t be
Al Khatim desert © Emily McAuliffe; Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
Pool at the Park Hyatt © Emily McAuliffe; Emirates Palace © Reinhard Westphal; Louvre Abu Dhabi © Emily McAuliffe. Icon © Adrien Coquet/Noun Project