Middle East 2024 - Day 10 - 12/8/2014 - Louvre + Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

After breakfast we took an Uber to meet Ngozi at Louvre Abu Dhabi, an art museum renting the name of the original in Paris. This was yet another museum where the building greatly outshined the works within, though this time it was partly because the three of us were spending more time chatting than paying attention to the art. We had also considered doing a kayak tour around the museum, but we found out that it was only offered in the evening. Instead Ngozi drove us over to the nearby Mamsha complex also on Saadiyat Island. We took a short stroll along the boardwalk and then stopped for a light (but luxurious) lunch at Valgerand Nordic Grill. After that she kindly dropped us off at the track about an hour before the 5p race.

 

We were in our seats about 35 minutes before the start, and caught the national anthem and A380 flyover. We also got a glimpse of one of the cars from the upcoming F1 movie (starring Brad Pitt) doing a lap. The race was pretty entertaining, especially the couple of incidents on the first lap. We also caught a little bit of argy-bargy in front of us at turn 6. Lewis had a great recovery drive from 16th to 4th on his last race with Mercedes, passing George on the final lap. Despite a Ferrari double podium, Lando Norris' win ensured that McLaren clinched the constructors' championship. We left during the podium celebration (and also later found out that we missed the fake podium celebration for the F1 movie), and were able to snag an Uber without nearly as much hassle as the night before. We made it back to the hotel around 7:40p, and had (a somewhat expensive) dinner there.

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Trip highlight photos can be found here.