Two Days in Jeddah!

I had a fun trip this week.  An expat compound in Jeddah was arranging a tour of the "floating mosque" in Jeddah and they set aside 3 seats for my two friends and me.  I think that this was a new experimental program to let a small group tour this mosque.  Anyway, my friends and I were driven to Jeddah and spent the night at the compound.  Look and my beautiful friends and this great tree!

I think that a lot of engineers must stay at this place.  This tissue box for glasses was on the wall in the dining room.  I have never seen a tissue box specifically for that purpose.

After unpacking, we were ready for a night on the town!  Well, as much as you can do that here.  We were told that there was a great sushi restaurant in the Sheraton hotel.  So, a driver picked us up and dropped us off at the Sheraton.  We asked on which floor was the Japanese restaurant Sakura located.  They said that there wasn't a Japanese restaurant there, it was a Chinese restaurant.  But they suggested that a Sushi restaurant was located outside of the hotel and around the corner.  So we went out of the side of the hotel and around the corner.  There was a small, fast food sushi restaurant, but not the one we wanted.  Here we were at night on the street in Jeddah, not always a good idea for 3 ladies, with no driver.  So, my friend called one of the ladies that recommended this restaurant to find out directions.  It turned out that it was in the Crown Plaza, a good distance away.  She called the driver and we waited a bit and he took us to the correct place.  It was so nice walking into a restaurant that looked normal and pretty.  There were no obvious family rooms.  There were two small fan-like dividers, that could have been signaling that there was a family area, but it was not obvious.  The windows which had "paintings" of cherry blossoms changed colors as we ate.  To the important issue, the food!  One of my friends ordered tuna sashimi.  Look at these beautiful colors!

 

We also ordered an assorted platter of sushi that came out on a boat!

We also got mixed grilled vegetables.  Everything was so yummy!

The next morning, the compound bus took us to the floating mosque.  It is not actually floating.  It is "over" the Red Sea and can give the appearance of floating.  I did not see it, but it is still beautiful.  As we entered the gate, they closed it behind us.

 Those are my two friends in disguise:  one has a coral purse and one has a lavender head scarf.

 

This is the prayer area for women with small children.

 The sign indicating that women with children are not allowed in one of the areas.

 The view of the men's prayer area from the women's area on the second floor.

Carved woodwork on the walls:

Beautiful tile work below:

 The water of the Red Sea is very clear.

 I don't know what this sign below means, but it reminds me of Monty Python.

 Below, behind the wooden fretwork upstairs is where the women pray.

 The chart below shows that they want all of the congregation to pray together.  They said that they get a lot of Muslim Indonesians visiting on their way back from pilgrimage to Mecca.  They tend to pray in their own group and this is frowned upon.

 The place where the imam speaks is designed so that if he faces the curved wall, it acts as a magnifier and everyone can hear him.

 There is an "app for that".   A young Muslim girl in our group was telling me that the altar is always facing Mecca and that is the direction that the prayer mats should be placed.  To determine where Mecca is, there is an app for that now.  :)

 This is the digital clock that tells when the various prayer times are.  They are determined by the position of the sun.

 This has verses from the Koran.

 They showed us such great hospitality.  At the end of the tour, they served us coffee with cardamom and cookies/biscuits. 

 All around Jeddah, there are sculptures.  These are lit up at night and beautiful.  They cannot have sculptures of people or animals because of the concern of idol worship, but there are sculptures of whistles, sea waves, etc, etc.  One day, if I get a chance to take more photos of the sculptures, I will do a blog just on them because they are always interesting choices of subject.

 We went to the Danube grocery store in Jeddah and look what my friend found-GIGANTIC jars of Nutella!

 There was a wide assortment of raisins in the bins.  The orange ones on the left are Iranian raisins.  The second from the left is American Jumbo.  :)  The third set contains green raisins and the fourth black raisins from Yemen.

Very fun two days in Jeddah!!