beentouring's Guestbook

Calgary
Great pictures. Our daughter, her husband and their two boys were in Lake Louise in early March. They had a great time there. Looked like there was more snow than in your pictures. We have white tailed deer in out local park where we take daily walks.

Calgary has done some wonderful work, making the river valleys accessible for recreation. I love your shot of grasses in the morning light.

Architectural details
In my opinion, we could do worse than to integrate some of the decorative detail on these buildings into our own public-space architecture. I especially like the curves that merge into a single point - if there's a name for that shape, I don't know it. :-)

Perfect day indeed
Beautifully narration Judith. I felt like I was there. Brought back memories of my time at Athens’ Monasitiraki market during the heat wave in August 2000. My rubber-soled sandals were sticking to cobblestones. So glad you patiently negotiated- carpet looks beautiful. Where dis you place it in your home?

Kitchen knobs
If I knew, I'd forgotten where the knobs came from. That explains their exotic appearance: sort-of similar to Mexican ceramics but hardly to be mistaken for them. I'm impressed that you arrived home with the right number . . .

Approximations and window shopping
I laughed at your approximate burger. It reminded me of your "North American" supper in Nigeria - meat, starch, vegetable, all cooked separately (I think) - that no North American would recognize as familiar. As for the window shopping, it looks like fun, and the best way to interact with pricey jewelry!

American University of Sharjah
Very beautiful and impressive buildings.

What fun to be able to indulge your love of silk in a market with different product sources from what you're used to. (Lorna imported specialty batiks and Japanese fabrics for quilting because she couldn't find them for sale in Canada or the USA.)

Wow
What an amazing mosque. Your photo is better than the one on Wikipedia, says me. I went there to see if there were any shots of the interior. Some of the photos associated with that website make me almost ready to consider travel in the region, for the architecture alone. Looking forward to reading about your fabric purchases.

Nothing all good or all bad?
I can't say that I'd like to live in a place where I always had to have a male member of my family with me in public to avoid being pelted with, well, anything. Nor would I necessarily appreciate an emir-style polity. On the other hand, it sounds like the result of having one brain behind the aesthetics of public infrastructure is yielding good results. Maybe it depends on whose brain . . .

Interesting observation - the street-level infrastructure (and the streets) do look remarkably familiar, allowing for the completely different alphabet on the signs. Functionality trumps all, I guess. I checked out the site of the first hotel. Clearly, there is no upper limit to luxury.