Traveling with the parents – Part 1

In September Mark’s parents came to visit us and we traveled together to several places in the country, getting a glimpse of the vast variety of scenery in this land.  The day after they landed we took them all the way out east to visit some good friends, as well as a region that is very different than the big city we live in.

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.

Dubai and Moscow

Wow… we are incredibly behind.  And is it 2012 already?!  We’ve got work to do, people.  Lots to catch you up on.  To begin we must take you back to June and July, 2011.

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…