Len goes to Europe

Dear Friends and Family

I was in Europe last week on a business trip.  It was rather busy, a different city / appointment each day Monday through Friday.  Naturally I found some time to take some photos to share with you, hope you enjoy them!

Traveling from the Middle East to Europe is different from US business travel.  All the flights leave about mid-night or shortly thereafter and arrive early in the morning in major European airports.  The flights back are just the same.  So on a 5 day business trip, I only spent 4 nights in hotels and the rest in lounges / airplanes.  Well at least it was Business Class travel!

First stop was in Germany, where I was able to take some photos of Dusseldorf.  I learned that Dusseldorf was much like Pittsburgh in that it had a heavy coal mining and steel industry that are serviced by the Rhine river.  Unfortunately, much of WW II activities took away that industry and Dusseldorf has been rebuilding since.  They have hired some unique architects!

First a photo of the rebuilt areas along the Rhine (including my hotel at the end on the right)

you may notice one of the buildings in the middle has come colored things on it, here is a close up!

and if that isn't strange enough, they have hired some very famous architect to develop 3 buildings that look like they are falling in on each other.  One is red brick, one is white brick and one looks like it is made out of aluminum foil!

We then went to France to visit a few other companies.  Most of the time was spent in Lyon with a bit of travel to a small town in the mountains that had a fabulous restaurant (called The Radio, named as such because people gathered around the radio to hear news during WWII).

A view of a snow capped mountain near Cleremont- Ferrot in France

Lyon is the second largest city in France and wants to remind Paris of that.  They have built a version of the Eiffel Tower on top of the closest hill

Lyon had some very pretty older buildings along the 2 rivers that come together there (the Soane and Roan), I particularly liked this church scene

an old statue in the town square

and a river scene in Lyon

We finished the trip in London for 1/2 day meeting and dinner and then a mid-night flight back to Saudi.  I didn't really have enough time for photos, but I've also been to London enough times.  (I just had to say that, to sound like a real world traveler!)

Take care and keep in touch!

April in Saudi

Hi Friends and Family

It's April now and time for the weather to start to turn back to high heat in the Middle East.  The past couple of days have been in the high 80's and lots of sun.  As it turns out, one of the departments I work with at Saudi Aramco has their picnic this past weekend (remember weekends here are on Thursday and Friday).  So we drove down the coast about 10 miles to the Saudi Aramco Beach for a picnic.

We were able to hold the picnic at the sailing beach, which seems to have the least number of visitors.  Just to let you know, there is also a beach / dock for motor boats and then a separate 'family' beach.  A family beach means just that, it is only for Aramco families to come and enjoy the surf and sun.

The sailing beach is used only by Saudi Aramco employees who have a small one or two person sailboat (sunfish or laser) and all boats are stored and maintained at the beach.  The photo below shows the sailboats that were out that day.  The dolphin you see in the near ground is actually a shower that you can use to wash the sand off.

Soccer is the primary sport of choice for most of the Middle East, and Saudi is no exception.  Children of all ages engage in the game at any chance they can get.  The photo below has several of my colleagues enjoying a game on the beach.  It was all for fun, until they decided that a championship game would be held between the VP's team and the Finance team.  You would think those Finance guys would have learned who should have won that game by now!

Picnic had all kinds of kids games and tents to eat and smoke / drink coffee.  Just to give you an idea I took a photo of the smaller tent.  Note that there are carpets on the ground to allow folks to rest and feel at home!

Interestingly, one of the entertainment items was a falcon trainer.  This Saudi apparently trains dozens of these types of falcons at a time.  They fly across the Arabian Sea from Iran, Pakistan, even Russia as part of their annual migration process.  Apparently they can fetch several hundred thousand dollars for a well trained bird.

Last, but not least, I mentioned that I traveled home to Houston for spring break with Lauren and Jane.  One of the keys to the trip was to visit NYC.  Lauren has been accepted into the Joffrey dance school.  The three of us visited the school to decide that yes, she will go there next year for her Junior and probably Senior years.  Lauren will receive a vocational degree in dance and complete here high school requirements in an on-line program.   Naturally, like any good woman, she did some shopping in NYC...

Hope that you are enjoying the blog!  Take care and hope to see everyone soon.