Today we returned to Diriyah because I wanted to photograph the front gate of this house as well as see more of the town that we had missed last weekend.

Well, it turned out to be yet another adventure and wonderful experience! We drove straight to this house, and this time there was no guard at the door as there had been before, so I took some pictures from the street. Suddenly, we saw four women exiting the gate and thought Great, we can go in! Except they said it wasn’t open, that they had just walked in out of curiosity and were told they had to leave, and that it was under renovation and looked like it would be beautiful when done. So we went up to the closed gate and took some pictures, and I managed to climb over a low stone wall (very humorous in an abaya, I’m sure ;-)) and got some shots of the verandah. We left to look at some other things on this street, and when we finally walked back to our car, noticed that the front gate was open. I was hoping to at least get a glimpse of the interior and was doing just that when the foreman drove up and invited us inside. Wow, I couldn't believe it! The workmen stopped what they were doing so I could take some photographs without dust (although there was wet cement around where I was walking, I’m afraid to look at the hem of my abaya). Then, amazingly enough, the owner appeared and invited us for coffee and subsequently lunch (which we didn’t stay for as it was almost dinner time for us). We chatted for a while and found out the foreman was Yemeni and one of his workmen was Syrian, having fled the civil war there with scars to show from it. It was a delightful time spent there, and the owner promised to send me a small, old door because he could see how taken I was with the work on the windows and doors on his property. I was thrilled!

Before we returned to this building, I was photographing a gate across the street when somebody invited us in there, too. They were setting up for a banquet but let us wander the grounds and photograph the interior of the main building. After that, we walked further down the street and met a Jordanian family who were having a picnic near the flooded wadi and invited us for tea. We had a pleasant time with them as well.

It’s not just limited to being invited in to places – today the driver of a car opened the window and waved to us and his veiled wife said “Hello!” and last weekend we were driving past some Saudi women sitting on a narrow neighborhood street and one of them waved to me. They may sound like little things, but they just don’t happen elsewhere and make us feel welcome here.

I don’t really know to what to attribute our warm welcome – several times now -- in Diriyah: Is it traditional Saudi hospitality? Are the people here friendlier than in other places? Is it that we’re obviously foreigners admiring their national legacy? Are they more familiar with tourists here (hard to believe because we haven’t seen hardly any but us!)? Do we just look like nice people? Perhaps a mixture of all these things? In any case, I’m sure it’s a place we’ll return to time and again (we have been officially invited back to our new friends’ farm in February) – not just for the historic value but for the warm hospitality we are lucky enough to experience there.