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Crossing back from Qatar

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Indeed the Museum of Islamic Art is one of the must-see destinations in the Gulf, truly stunning architecture and restorative atmosphere.  The newly-finished library is a pleasant surprise as well, providing free educational resources and study places -- we met the newly-arrived librarians and Chris posed an interesting research question to them, about the artistic origins of a particular French vase in the collection (ask him for more details -- they did not know the answer, but I'll wager they are researching it now).

And the Souq Waqif represents another must-see tourist destination for the inveterate shopper and people-watcher.  The Qatar government re-built the old souk with new fire safety standards but keeping the crowded and warren-like mystery, with (literally) hundreds of independent vendors, a place for locals as well as tourists.
We happened upon a local confectioner just completing a batch of gooey Qatari Halwa -- a high-school boy encouraged us to wait and try some.

Later we bought some dates, on the advice of a local man who assured us of the quality -- he sends a kilo to his brother in New York. "Where are you from?"  "New York".

Then we chanced upon the row of falconry shops, each with a dozen or so falcons quietly perched on astroturf-covered pedestals.  Most had leather hoods, obviously to quiet them; some had curious blinders on:

To complete our tale, the following morning we drove out of town via Education City-- a useless detour because A.we got lost again; and B. there's little to see because of the construction walls and bypasses.
Noted that gasoline in Qatar is almost double the price in Saudi -- we got just enough to return us easily back to Hofuf.
The border crossing was uneventful -- the Saudi customs official simply asked if we had clothes in our suitcases.  "Yes." "O.K."  Stamp Stamp.  "Go"

The drive back was much faster, with no stops for sightseeing or detours, and we took the nice new bypass highway around Hofuf.   Cole's original plan was to join a gathering of classmates at Ras Tanura, but after a few phone calls he discovered that his buddies had not made it -- so we drove directly home, with a stop at the mall near Cole's old high school for some lunch at the food court--just like old times!  Then to Jubail by 6pm yesterday.

Following is a link to a slideshow of our trip, if you wish to see more photos:

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