Grand Mosque getaway

On my way to the Abu Dhabi Ritz-Carlton, I unexpectedly stumbled upon the eighth largest Mosque in the world.

Miranda may work at the Ritz when she gets here so I wanted to do a little on-location research for her but after I jumped in three different cabs and mentioned the Ritz-Carlton, they had no idea what I was referring to.

"It's a huge hotel, near the Grand Canal," I said. "I thought you cabbies knew everything."

They thought I was talking about a cracker factory. A few cabbies made personal calls to knowledgeable friends but they had no answers either. From my Internet map research, I noticed it was right next to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque so I mentioned it.

"Oh, the Grand Mosque, yes. Yelda, yelda..." the cabbie said after I sat down, but before he slammed down on the gas.

The place was amazing. It was Saturday so the tourists were out in full force and I quickly looked at my attire and realized that I would fit in perfectly. My long hair was out and about and flying all over the place with the wind. I was wearing a bright red DC Nationals T-shirt and had blue shorts on.

Since they know everything, I asked the cabbie if I was dressed appropriately to walk on to the Mosque grounds with the rest of the sight-seers. He pointed to a sign and sped away before I could ask another question.

The sign said men can not enter wearing shorts. If you look closely, Rafael Nadal-style capri shorts were acceptable but I was revealing my sexy knees, which is a little too much in this Muslim culture.

Despite my scandalous appearance, I asked the security guards if I could enter. They gave me a quick look over and gestured me inside. Later on, I had to take off my sandals before I actually walked into the Mosque.

Sure, I was a little freaked out to be sharing bare-foot space on soft carpets with all these weird people but then I thought about all the nasty feet that have stepped before me at the beach. And of course, people have been walking, kneeling and praying everyday at this Mosque since 2008. It accommodates more than 40,000 worshipers at a time. That's a lot of bare feet.

During my walkabout, the cell phone cameras were flying so I had to get in on the fun...