Road trip to Riyadh

According to our master travel plan, it was time to visit Riyadh (the capital of Saudi Arabia).  We wanted to go there soon while it still sounded exciting and worth the effort.  We knew that this was not going to be one of our more glamorous trips, but we felt it was going to be very valuable growth experience to go for many reasons such as 1) can we be daring enough to travel on unknown roads in the middle of the desert 2) are we brave enough to go to the heart of CONSERVATIVE Islam during Ramadan and live to tell about it, 3) will we be able to adjust to the unknown surprises that await? etc. 

I think we were all feeling a bit of stress, but no one wanted to admit it to others so we put on a brave face and jumped into the car. 

Long story short, the 4 hour drive to Riyadh was fairly uneventful other than the; VERY primitive rest stops,

cars travel around 125mph (no kidding),

and a few camels resting alongside the freeway under palms trees.

The GPS has been a Godsend because it has given us the confidence to go and see many things, however there are still a few nuances we are still adjusting to.  For example it will say "keep to the left" what it means is to exit to the left.  It took us a couple of missed exits to figure this out, but by the end we were getting around like natives.

Our first impression of Riyadh as we drove into the city was pure amazement.  This relatively young city has to have one of the most diverse architectural landscapes of any city I've been to so far.  It's an architect's dream between friendly building codes and available money for brick and mortar masterpieces. 

 

Once we arrived to our hotel, we took a quick nap, ate some snacks (remember we can't eat in public yet until sundown) and then headed out to see the Mazmack palace.  This is a very important site in the Saudi history because a revolutionary battle for the city took place here.  I'll spare you the details here (please google it), but it was an impressive place. 

The added bonus was that a very large souq (outdoor street shopping) was close by so Emri found her some cool sandals and Kris bought a brass vase (looks like an erne).

About that time, we decided we were hungry so we found a Johnny Rockets and feasted on hamburgers and lemonades.  There were curtains around our stall, they take the family seating area very seriously here.  There is absolutely no mixed seating in restaurants, if you are a solo woman or with your husband/family you are asked to eat in a covered booth.

We then headed back to our hotel which was within walking distance of the Kingdom Tower.  This was very fortuitous because the less we needed to drive the better (crazy drivers everywhere).  We went to the tower paid 6 dollars each to ride the 2 elevators (99 floors) to the sky walk on top. 

The view is absolutely amazing and gave a good perspective of the city where 5 million people live. 

After the ride down, there is a 3 level mall with all the high end stores.  Level 2 is interesting because it is for women only, they call it Ladies Kingdom".  On this floor females don't have to wear their head dress (scarves, masks, etc) and not have the eyes of the men on them.

Day 2

Our plan was to see the national museum in the morning and then check out the Old Dariya ruins.  Unfortunately with Holiday Eid Iftar (to celebrate the end of Ramadan) going on the times were different so we weren't able to get in. 

After a route recalculation we went to Dariya.  This was the original Saudi capital that was eventually destroyed by the Ottoman empire (please Google it).  There were some cool old structures as well as side streets that made some great pictures.

All this sightseeing made us tired and hungry, so after a nap we found the nearest Applebys (notice the curtains again) and pretended we were in America. 

(closed for Prayer!)

We caught our second wind and decided to find another souq.  Unfortunately due to the heavy holiday traffic and a bit of fatigue we weren't able to find it so we back to the hotel.

An important learning for us concerning hotels is that when they say a room has 2 double beds, it's not the same arrangement as in the states. Here it means 2 single size beds specifically designed for married couples who don't want to share the same bed. This meant that we had to be creative as far as bed assignments, but we managed and everyone got there beauty sleep.

Day 3

Ramadan officially ended today, which meant we could eat breakfast in public.  With that positive news we thought we would visit the museum and then have brunch before we headed back home.  But alas, the museum again had different hours from what we were told the day before and so we couldn't get in (maybe next time).

With little else to do, we got some food for the road and made the 4 hour drive back.  I think we all felt a sense of relief as we pulled into the camp, but also proud of ourselves that we made the trip.  We definitely faced some fears and worked through them.  We are gaining confidence and more comfort being in a foreign land, but careful not to let our guard down.

All our love.