Bit of culture for the less avid vulture -Louvre Abu Dhabi- 🌎 The 24 hour stopover travel blog! 🌎

If you’re like me and associate museums with musty smells and parquet flooring, long words and middle aged people in tweed suits then the recently opened Louvre museum might just get those nonchalant neurones the kick up the backside they need.

Firstly the architecture will blow you away before you even step into it’s often fridge like interiors. It’s designed to look like a mini city which you can get to by sea or road. The canopy roof is a fascinating layer of metal which looks light and floaty but weighs more than the Eiffel Tower and the sun, in ever constant supply(!), rains through 7850 starlike holes giving the dappled effect of sun filtering through oasis palms onto the solid and liquid surfaces.

Secondly once you get in and pay a reasonable 15€ entrance fee, fortify the body with some necessary caffeine and enjoy the views a bit more, you’re not super daunted by the amount of rooms to see - just 12 rooms so easy to skip the bits of less interest without feeling guilty.

But to be honest, your interest is easily piqued as the whole thing is about us, yes humanity! And we all know the thing that most interests us is ourselves and how we got to where we are and if you want to take a more intellectual step into the unknown - the future implications for mankind. Or just give your brain an easy time and buzz around looking at the amazing stuff us human beings have done in the relatively small time we’ve bossed this planet. 

Ancient samurai armor

There’s the earliest known statue of two heads (although disappointingly anthropologists have definitely proved we didn’t actually have two heads 8,500 years ago), original religious books in a rather spooky darkened room, old maps and navigational tools, and generally smatterings from all cultures along a general timeline, which is much better for the museum intolerants than room after room on the same topic. You’ll see some pharaohs hanging out with some greek goddesses and the odd Buddha or two.

For the art lovers they’ve got some top acts - Picasso, Gaugin, and of course you’ll always see a bustle of people around the Van Gogh and Da Vinci’s and plenty for the modern art lover too.

Whistler's Mother painting

We got there using EKAR. EKAR is a car rental company that you sign up to online, and they have cars spread around the cities they work with, once you have found one near you, from the app on your phone you unlock the car and take the key from the glove compartment. You only pay the time you are driving  which worked well because as the Louvre is quite remote it’s unlikely anyone will book it out while you’re whiling away the hours inside so you’ve basically got your own car hire but not paying for the time you are inside enjoying. You could always do as we did an take in the Sheikh Zayed Al Kabeer Mosque on the way back!

Deffo give it a go, it’s certainly taken the crustiness out of museums for me!

Thanks for the read guys, take care!