Day 3 (2023) Dubai: Museum of the Future, La Mer, Burj Khalifa

7th April 2023

Day 3

Visited Highlights:

Museum of the Future, La Mer, Dubai Mall, At the Top Burj Khalifa

The alarm goes off at 7:30. We're not here for fun 😜 But during breakfast, I realize that the Museum of the Future doesn't open until 10 o'clock, so our tickets are only valid from 10 o'clock. Well, at least we have enough time for breakfast.

We arrive at the museum at 9:00, but the parking lot doesn't open until 9:45. The employee gives us the tip to take the next entrance to the left into the Jumeirah Towers parking garage, where we can park for free for 2 hours. It would cost a lot of money in the museum parking garage. Interesting, let's do that 😁

We don't just walk through the Jumeirah Tower, where there are a few shops on the ground floor and the first floor. At 9:50, we drive the car out of the parking garage and immediately back in, so that we can now use the 2 free hours 😜

We go to the entrance of the museum across the street and shortly afterwards we are allowed in, exchange our barcodes for a bracelet and off we go. The museum is really beautiful, the architecture is very cool. The 'Library of the Genes' is a highlight. Visually a real eye-catcher! We find our way to the roof terrace on the deck with the robots and A.I.s and leave the museum after about 2.5 hours. It was definitely worth it!

We continue to the promenade 'La Mer'. We are puzzled that the beach is packed, but almost all shops and restaurants along the promenade have disappeared. It's deserted. Last time we were here, we had a delicious meal in one of the restaurants, but almost all the stores are closed and there are only food trucks in front of them. We decide to go to the Mexican restaurant, which uses the terrace of a closed restaurant, sit in the shade at a table and chill. It's quite hot, but the wind makes it bearable. The Laguna Water Park next door is also closed. Too bad, it used to be a really nice promenade.

At 3 o'clock we drive to Dubai Mall. We have tickets for the Khalifa at Sunset Time at 5:30. The mall is as crowded as always. We don't notice Ramadan. People eat and drink in public everywhere. A few years ago, we were in Abu Dhabi after Ramadan, and there were partitions and curtains in front of the restaurants in the malls so that the locals couldn't see anyone eating. Today, nobody here in Dubai cares about that.

We walk through the mall for about an hour and stop at the highlights like the ICE Rink, the Aquarium, and the Fountain, and then we want to exchange our QR code for tickets to the Khalifa. However, we get completely lost in this huge mall and reach the ticket counter at around 4:45, where we are told that we can go up immediately. Hm... Sunset is not until 6:38...

Anyway, we go up. Since we still have to go through the security check and it's quite crowded in front of the elevators, it might not be a bad idea to be a little early.

We are lucky and ride the 'At the Top' elevator all by ourselves. 124 floors in 60 seconds - pressure in the ears is guaranteed. Upstairs, we enjoy the daytime view. In 2014, we were here for the first time, but at that time we only went up the Khalifa in the evening and saw Dubai at night. It's interesting to see everything during the day. In the distance, it's quite hazy and sometimes you can't see the Burj Al Arab and the Palm.

We spend time on Levels 124 and 125, over 450m high, sometimes inside because it's very windy outside. The sun eventually disappears over the horizon and it slowly gets dark. We wait until it's completely dark. It simply looks the most gigantic then. Unfortunately, the way down is sobering. The queue is so long that it almost goes around the tower on both levels. Oh dear, it will take at least 1 hour until we get back down here. After 30 minutes, we have only moved about 3 meters forward and can see the 7:30 water show of the Dubai Fountain below us. Eventually, an employee waves us and about 15 other tourists out of the queue and leads us to the middle of the tower to the employee elevators. Ahh, Plan B. Well, if it's faster, we don't mind. We go down 1 floor, leave the elevator and walk to another elevator. It goes up again!? At least it feels like it. When the doors open, we are in a hotel restaurant area. Oh dear. Off to the next elevator, down to the hotel lobby, through the side door to the next elevator, and then through the fire escape door and we are back in the tourist entrance area with the 'At the Top' elevators. That was a special tour through the Khalifa 😂

In the Khalifa Café, we get 4 muffins, which are included in our ticket, and at Pizza Hut outside we find a seat in the front row to enjoy the Dubai Fountain while eating pizza.

After the water show at 11:30, we drive back to the hotel. We are exhausted. The pedometer shows almost 20,000 steps. That's almost like sightseeing in New York 🤪

Unfortunately, the traffic is very slow, we reach the hotel long after midnight and fall into bed. Tomorrow is all about sleeping in 😴