Julianna, Hugh and I flew to Riyadh on December first for a quick trip to see the capital of Saudi and to see AlUla. We left late morning and arrived mid-afternoon. Our guide met us at our hotel and after checking in we left for a brief tour of the city. I got a quick look at the Zaha Hadid building. I would have loved to spent time photographing it, but I barely got a glimpse of the building. What is obvious from driving around is that the entire city is a construction zone, getting ready for 2030. After the brief tour, we drove to a place called The Boulevard. Now all of us had ideas that the Boulevard was a famous downtown street in Riyadh , we couldn’t have been more wrong.
We ended up in a Disney-like area that had various cities and countries throughout the world depicted. It wasn’t what I expected from Saudi.
the best part came when we were leaving and our guide had to reconnect with the driver of the car. Somehow she corralled what looked like a security guard on a golf cart to drive us around the parking lot until we located the car. She had told the driver to come to DD but he had heard BB, so we set out for BB only to have the driver move the car to H1. Why they were using an unfamiliar alphabet wasn’t figured out. But somehow, H1 was between BB and DD.
Julianna had a good laugh and said, “now you get to experience Saudi culture”.
Zaha Hadid building in the background, the one with all the domes in the roof. Her buildings are always so amazing. I can spend hours, when allowed, photographing them!
Unfortunately on this trip it the image was what i could capture in a moving car!
The Boulevard
