Oman Part II - Sur

I found Sur to be a very interesting place.  Other than the fact that it seemed that we were always travelling around in circles, there were hills and the ocean was never that far away.  Besides the fact that the above picture has some beautiful blue sky and mosque in it, I couldn't get over the whiteness of the buildings.  Muscat was the same way.  Everything looked so clean and bright, and of course up against the blue sky, it looks even better.

This is the castle that we visited in Oman.  I believe that it is Bilad Castle.  The pictures below are from inside the castle.  You can still see some of the original walls of the castle.

The one employee of the Castle.  He was willing to have his picture taken with us.

I still couldn't get over the fact that I was finally seeing something other than flat land!!!  It seemed that every chance that I had, I was taking pictures of the mountains.  Okay, I know that compared to the Rockies these are not mountains, but for me, coming from Kuwait, they were mountains.

Remains of the original wall inside the fort.

Interesting Door.

The next three pictures are of produce that we saw at a local grocery store.  I think the above are a type of cucumbers or zucchini, take your pick, and the one below is definitely tiny eggplants.  The third one, I don't have even a guess as to what they are and since no one spoke English very well, we couldn't find out what they were called in English.  Anyone for mystery turnip?????

This mosque caught my attention simply because it is the first mosque that I have actually seen being built.  In Kuwait I have seen several mosques receiving face-lifts, but not a new one being built.

This is the lighthouse at Ayjah.  Ayjah is across the bay from Sur.  It is known for lotus-pillared porches. The picture below is an example of one such lotus-pillared porch

This was taken from the lighthouse.  I had fun watching the fisherman casting his net into the water.

The bridge on the right of the picture is relatively new.  It links Ayjah and Sur.  Prior to the bridge being built, you had to drive a bit out of the way or take a ferry across the bay.  To see the new bridge along side the towers of an early era caught my eye.

And yes, another example of the minarets and mosques in Oman.  I was totally captivated with all the variations in colour.  (More to come).

Sur is known for it's dhow (boat) building.  We drove around Sur, looking for a museum and/or dhow building yards.  At last we found this dhow.  It had been restored and and gifted to Sur by Yemen.  The museum was not open, but we were able to get up close and personal with this example of boat building.

This building as right across the street from the dhow.  I was again impressed with the use of colour and patterns.