Our friends took us to the major tourist attraction in their area, Hasankeyf.  It’s a cave city on the Tigris River, dating back thousands of years.  It was larger and more amazing than we had expected (we were expecting just a couple small caves, not a whole city).  It still has the remains of a Roman bridge from the 12th century.

Walking through the market street into the cave city.

Unfortunately rumor has it that everything you’re looking at will soon be under water as they plan to created a water reservoir in this area of the Tigris River.

We took 2 short work trips, Moscow in June and Dubai in July.

We only had a couple of days in Moscow, and most of the time was spent in meetings.  So the only tourist day we had we went to a souvenir bazaar to get some matryoshka dolls and stuff.

After some shopping our friends treated us to a yummy Central Asian lunch!

And of course we had to go to the Red Square.

St. Basil’s Cathedral has such a unique architecture. Instead of one big chapel like most other cathedrals in the world, there are several small chapels and winding hallways inside St. Basil’s.

It was extremely hot and humid in Dubai in July, naturally.  I could hardly take pictures because anytime my camera was out the lens would immediately fog up.  One evening we went outside the Dubai Mall to watch their daily water show.  Even though it was after dark we were still sweating like nobody’s business.  The water show was very nice though; it was played to a famous Chinese song.  The world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, is right next to Dubai Mall.

You may have heard about the crazy stuff they have in the malls in Dubai - aquarium, ski slope, etc. Here’s the ski slope in Mall of the Emirates.

More updates from 2011 to come…

We went to Potsdam outside of Berlin for a day.  We spent most of that day in Sanssouci Park, the summer palace of the Prussian king, Frederick the Great.  I must say, this was one of the more impressive palaces we have seen.  The park was enormous, and there are several palaces in the park.

Sanssouci Palace

There was a Chinese House in the park, although it didn’t seem very Chinese to me.

View from the Orangery Palace

Special footwear to enter the palace

After the park we went to the Dutch Quarter.  I just love the quaint little shops and restaurants!  But to our disappointment chocolate hail (hagelslag) and stroopwaffle were nowhere to be found.

On our last full day in Berlin we hit the Berlin Zoo.  It was a very good zoo.  At times it felt like nothing was between the animals and us, which was both good and bad.  For example, King Kong was sitting right in front of me, and I’m not kidding, there was just a rail between us.  I wondered what was keeping him from jumping over the little ditch to escape.

I guess he was thirsty, that’s why.

Elephants are like my favorite!  Look how agile he is!

Also saw some ugly hogs.

We spent our entire vacation devouring Asian cuisines.  I’m sorry to say that we didn’t eat at a German restaurant once.  Currywurst from the street was about it.  A Taiwanese restaurant we found online happened to be close to our hotel!  Oh I’m hungry just looking at it.

And what’s a trip to Berlin without going a classical concert?  No, it really was Konzerthaus Berlin.  We weren’t sure what the Turkish flags were doing there.

Mark was so nice he got us a room at this very nice hotel.  I enjoyed several cups of espresso everyday from the espresso machine in the room!

Museum Island

Brandenburg Gate (and Yoda)

Berlin Philharmonic Hall.  I’m a big fan of the Philharmonic.  Unfortunately tickets were sold out way too early.

We learned a lot about the Berlin Wall.  That’s Mstislav Rostropovich (one of my favorite cellists) playing by the wall the week after the Wall fell.

Checkpoint Charlie

What’s left of the Wall

To be continued…

In our part of the world it’s hardly a trip without a visit to the local market.  The electrical wiring is complicated to say the least.

The city is situated between two hills.  If you look closely, the little black spot on the side of the hill, an ancient cave, is our destination.

We hiked up the hill and came to this cave where some ancient carvings, which supposedly date back to 700′s BC, are found.  Unfortunately it has not been given the best care (starting a fire under anything historic is not a good idea).

Mark doing what he does.

View of the city from the cave.

We visited a local family, had lunch with them and visited their baby sheep while the son went delivering lunch to his father who was shepherding.

If you can’t tell already, I am very inexperienced at holding livestock.

This is a very old bridge in a neighboring city.  Sorry I don’t remember the historical facts.

I had to post it.

The view from our hotel.

Personal vehicles are prohibited on the island.  People get around on bikes or horse-drawn carriages.  This was our ride to tour the island.

I guess these little guys have their own way of getting around.

See how beautiful the scenery was (if you can overlook the barbed wire)!

It’s a fish market.  They must be waiting for lunch.

We had raspberry cheesecake and chocolate waffle for lunch.  It was my birthday.

Let’s play again!  Where’s Waldo?

So here are some more pictures from our trip to Ephesus.

On our walk to Ephesus we saw this little buddy walking along the sidewalk, perhaps on his way to Ephesus as well.

And we saw this house.  It was funny to us that the top floors are already painted and in use while the bottom floors are still being constructed.

Now pictures of Ephesus for real.  The weather started out awful.  We thought we had to tour Ephesus in the rain and not able to take many pictures.  But as the day progressed the weather kept getting nicer.

Can you imagine sitting so close to someone while going?

This is the famous Library of Celsus at Ephesus.

This road used to lead to the port when the water was much closer to Ephesus.

The larger of the 2 amphitheaters in Ephesus.

Where is Waldo?

In the evening we came back to London to go to Royal Albert Hall.  Soon after we arrived London we found out the BBC Proms (a classical music festival that takes place in London every summer) actually opened during our week in London.  I was not about to let go of this chance of going to a BBC Proms concert in the Royal Albert Hall!  And to hear one of my favourite pieces ever!  Mark was very kind to let us do that  on his birthday.  In my opinion we could not have ended our London vacation any better!

We caught the end of the changing of the guard at Windsor when we arrived.

I’d like to think of our snack as royal ice cream.

This is a house in the town of Windsor.  Can you tell what’s wrong with it?

Going to hear Rachmaminoff’s piano concerto No.2 in the Royal Albert Hall!

Prince Albert Memorial across the street from the Albert Hall.  To be honest, the memorial seemed a bit out of place there.

The grand finale.  Thank you, London, we really enjoyed our time with you.  I hope to see you again in the near future.

On day 6, which was a Sunday, we first visited Covent Garden market.  We watched some street performers perform, shopped in the market a little.  We had lunch at a pub next to the market, I had the famous Sunday roast.  I love me some roast!  Then we spent the afternoon at the British Museum.  There was simply too much to see.  It was a nice and relaxing Sunday.

Covent Garden

“I ain’t done nothin’ wrong by speaking to the gentleman. I’ve a right to sell flowers if I keep off the kerb. I’m a respectable girl: so help me, I never spoke to him ‘cept so far as to buy a flower off me.” – Eliza Doolittle

I thought you might like a picture of my half eaten Sunday roast.

The British Museum

Assyrian lion from the 800′s BC

The Rosetta Stone

Mark wished he was one of them

What’s a trip to the British Museum without visiting the mummies?  Apparently everyone else thought so, too.  It was so crowded I couldn’t get a good picture of them.