Julianna, Hugh, and I flew to Riyadh on December 1st for a quick visit to Saudi Arabia’s capital and, of course, to see AlUla. We left late morning and arrived mid-afternoon. Our guide met us at the hotel, and after checking in, we headed out for a brief tour of the city.

I managed a quick glimpse of the Zaha Hadid building, the King Abdullah Financial District Metro Station, and I would have loved time to photograph it, but it flashed by before I could even lift my camera. What was clear, though, was that Riyadh is one giant construction site — cranes everywhere, roads being reworked, new towers rising — all in preparation for Vision 2030.

After the tour, we drove to a place called The Boulevard Boulivard World. All of us assumed this was some grand, historic street in the center of Riyadh. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead, we found ourselves in a kind of Disney-style entertainment complex, complete with themed areas representing different cities and countries. Not at all what I expected from Saudi.

But the best part came when we tried to leave. Our guide needed to reconnect with our driver, and somehow she persuaded what looked like a security guard on a golf cart to take us around the massive parking lot until we found the car. She had told the driver to meet us at “DD,” but he heard “BB,” so off we went toward BB — only to learn he had now moved the car to H1. Why the parking areas were labeled with an unfamiliar alphabet is still a mystery, but apparently H1 lived somewhere between BB and DD.

Julianna just laughed and said, “Now you get to experience Saudi culture.”

Many of the places we visited in Saudi Arabia did not have their own websites.  So the links will take you to information about the locations we visited.  For example, the information on the King Abdullah Financial District Metro Station links to information about Zaha Hadid’s buildings. 

 

 

Airort

Our hotel lobby

Our hotel lobby

 

 

Zaha Hadid’s building (see above link) in the background, the one with all the domes on the roof.  Her buildings are always so amazing.  I can spend hours photographing them when allowed!

Unfortunately, on this trip, the image was what I could capture while moving in a car!

Zaha Hadid building