Biking along the river

The bike trip started in Duisburg, in the industrial region of Germany.  The old factories have been turned into a public park, where artists sat, drawing the bizarre ramps and cylinders and chimneys, surrounded by endless.

It began, as all bike trips should, with a marathon. The next day, we packed up, hobbled outside, and started cycling.












The first night we stopped at Koln, home of one of the most beautiful cathedrals we've ever seen.  Then one day of riding to Koblenz, and finally to the Moselle!

There were dozens of picturesque towns along the way, which had little town squares and dense forests above rows of beautiful, old houses.

Lunch most days included German bread and strawberries.  German strawberries are either the best in the world, or it's been a really long time since we've had good fresh strawberries (or both).

Further along the Moselle, the hills were covered in vineyards.  A little like Napa, but with a winding river (for impromptu swimming) and far fewer people. And, crucially, separate bike paths!

Our last stop was Trier, near the Luxembourg border and home of Porta Nigra, the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps.

In all we bicycled about 400km in four days, but because the rivers are so winding, we wound up less than 200km from Duisburg as the crow flies!

Muscat: On the Water

If you go to Muscat, you must go out on the water with the remarkably genial Captain Salim, or -- as we did -- with his equally genial son, Akhdar. (Captain Salim was busy driving a boat to Oman from Bahrain. Better him than us.) The text messages alone will be worth it. There is also a little matter of honey cake (made by the Akhdar's mother) and Arabian coffee on board.

It was sweltering as we waited at the marina's bar (yes, that's another reason to love Oman) for our ride. But when we got out on the water, the weather was perfect. Breezy, even.

And....there were dolphins!  Big, graceful ones, giant versions the small graceful ones we saw on our last trip to Oman. And *lots* of them -- more dolphins than we'd ever seen all at once. Apparently, it wasn't too special. Akhdar told us he'd once seen a pod a kilometer long.

Akhdar was a clearly worried we wouldn't get to see dolphins; we kept insisting that it was amazing just to be out on the water. We meant it. The coast is beautiful, orange and rocky against the deep blue of water and sky.

We stopped to swim near a reef, when the honey cake suddenly found a whole new purpose. It turns out, fish like honey cake as much as we do; Akhdar threw in a few tiny pieces, and fish came storming over.  With just goggles and flippers, we drifted through the coral reef, where we ran into purple butterfly fish, big greeny-blue fish, little yellow guys, and even a few turtles! They're easy to spot when they pop up to breathe. But unlike us, they only do that once every half hour.

And then it was back again, to our friendly marina with its beer on tap. Oman, we love you.

Muscat: Forts and Palaces

Abu Dhabi has preserved only one of its forts -- and that fort is barely preserved (as our friends, visiting from Chicago, can attest....we scrambled through construction to take a look at a few of its exposed walls).

Does this story grow old? Yes, Oman has forts. And they are gorgeous, and huge, and interesting, and exquisitely preserved.

They make for crazy silhouettes on the city's wonderfully dramatic cliffs.

Some, the Portuguese built. Others, are Omani. Which, you ask? We wouldn't know. The only real fault we managed to find with Muscat is the impossibility of visiting even one of its many forts. But in a city with friendly locals and wide-open beaches....

...souqs that are distinctly different from malls....

...menus full of items like "shrimp cheese burgers"...

 ....real theater, varied and beautiful mosques....

...where even our hotel managed to be an interesting architectural space, without boasting giant chandeliers, too much glass, or ridiculous staff uniforms...

....we really, really aren't going to start complaining.

We'll just stand outside and smile.

Muscat: Royal Opera House

We planned our trip around tickets to the Royal Opera House to hear Joyce di Donato sing.  

The Oman Opera House is the cultural pride of the city; its impeccable programming is mouth-watering to Abu Dhabi residents who are spoon-fed Cindarella on ice and Moscow City Ballet's back up corps. (A child could leap higher than most of their principals.)

We didn't get a great picture of the building -- but check it out on this dress, which at least
one of us wanted to bring home.

But the inside is better. Here is the lobby.

The theater itself is small, but piled high with balconies and boxes, from which -- by some freak of chance -- the Omani ushers decided to extract us. Perhaps they knew that it was past our bed-time, and that sky-scraper dwellers like us are no longer pleased about the existence of stairs.

They deposited us in the second row.

And there we sat, on our violin-print chairs, listening to a heart-wrenchingly beautiful voice, and watching the tiny minutia of each musician's movements, surrounded by gorgeously arrayed expats gathered from all over the Gulf region, and a sizeable Omani contingent. (Omanis are always gorgeously arrayed.)

We have always wondered why friends from Abu Dhabi can do nothing but rave about Oman. But now we know. Oman is just the best.