Janadriyah (officially The National Festival for Heritage and Culture) is a Saudi cultural festival and the single biggest event in Riyadh, attended by millions of people. I went it twice two years ago, although Tim was out of the country, but they cancelled it last year due to the death of King Abdullah. It restarted this year, and I was so excited about going, although wasn’t sure until the very last moment that I really could manage it, still being somewhat unable to get around well. I started out by walking without assistance, but it quickly became clear that I would slow everybody down when two of our handlers came to tell me to speed up. So Tim got my wheelchair and pushed me around most of the festival, much to my disappointment, because it dampened my enthusiasm for picture taking, and there were a lot of things I missed because trying to get up in the middle of all that human traffic was simply impossible. I guess I sort of gave up in the end. Also, I was warned it might get cold at night, but I was shocked at how bitter it really was. I had a heavy, long-sleeved T-shirt, an abaya, a jacket with wool lining and the shemagh (Saudi head covering) one of our hosts draped around me as a shawl, and I was still freezing. Anyway, this is what I got, for better or worse!

There were around 50 Americans attending this VIP event, most of them part of the Saudi-US organization of which Tim is co-director. We had quite the security detail traveling there, maybe an hour outside of Riyadh. It was fascinating to watch how they handled errant motorists who got in the way our cavalcade, sort of like frightening bugs away ;-). We were in two buses, not the black vehicles.

Impressive attention to detail in Tokyo, posted earlier.