The Emirates Palace

Obviously, someone thinks we’re important (and there was only six people in the room). I had been to the Emirates Palace Hotel before. Early this summer, while I was in Abu Dhabi for other meetings, I went to a Picasso exhibit at the Hotel. But this time I got to walk around a bit… and some of that was unintentional. The place is huge! It is sprawling! It is LUXURY!!! The Palace was built and is owned by the government. The Emir has a few floors here. They have concerts here… somewhere (Christina Aguilera is playing tonight). And if you are staying here – you’ve got LOTS of cash. Too much in fact. Everything is gold and marble and there are antiques everywhere and high end shops and art exhibits and that’s just the first floor! There was one little sign in the front lobby that said gave the room number for my meeting and a feeble arrow pointing “that way”. It was akin to the sign on Route 34 in Colts Neck that tells you Atlantic City is straight ahead… somewhere. After a while of wandering the first floor, I tried an elevator. There are many elevators, but if you don’t have a room there they don’t move. Eventually, I asked a porter. He asked another porter and together, we ascertained that I was downstairs. After descending two floors down the escalators, I weaved around for another ten minutes before finding my room in the very expensive and attractive bowels of the Palace. After leaving the first floor, I rarely saw another living soul – except a butler or two.

Lovely place - but so was the hotel in “The Shining”.