Living the retirement dream

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A Quick Stopover in Doha Qatar

We flew through Doha on our flight to Bangkok but only had a few hour stopover. Flying from Hanoi to Boston involved a longer stopover which we extended to 20 hours with our bags checked through which allowed us to book a hotel and a four hour tour of the city.

We were on our own with no speeding through immigration. This is the line that we had to wait through.
A dust storm in Doha was causing limited visibility and rose colored skies.
This is the Burj Doha, also known as the Doha Tower or Burj Qatar, it is one of the most iconic skyscrapers in Doha.
Lobby of the Marriott Marquis City Center. We did not have a good experience here as our room wasn’t ready for an hour and a half. When we walked into our room it reeked of cigarette smoke. Sandy raised a big stink so they promised an upgraded room but it was not ready yet.
The father son Emir rulers of Qatar. We actually saw the son when he came to Rome and again when he and his wife came in to the Hermes store in Madrid.
This is the Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani meeting with the Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, on November 20 2018. We just happened upon this meeting while visiting a nearby museum.
We headed out on our tour without a room. The tour guide was initially very hard to understand. He had us stop and get out to explore a museum which was not very interesting to us. The heat was intolerable so we asked him for a driving tour only. We also learned to understand him better. This is the Venice of Doha which refers to The Pearl-Qatar. A luxurious man-made island designed with Venetian-inspired architecture and canals.
Our first view of the iconic Katara Towers in the Lusail quarter of Doha.
These are known as zig zag towers which is a residential complex.
We next drove to Lusail which is actually not part of Doha and is the second largest city in Qatar.
A few views of this building, one half is a Raffles Hotel and the other half is a Fairmont Hotel. You can see that every room has a balcony.
Wish that we had stayed in Raffles all suite hotel. The rooms start at around $500 USD.
This is the administrative office of the Emir of Qatar.
A video of The camel parade in front of the Amiri Diwan—the administrative office of the Emir of Qatar. This parade occurs twice a day. We were lucky to be able to see it.
Camel stables.
Skyline of Doha.
We were upgraded to a junior suite at the Marriott which was very simple and unimpressive. This is the following day heading for the airport. The sandstorm had cleared.
Doha’s Hamad International Airport has been named the best airport in the world. It has a private entrance for business and first class passengers.
This is The Lamp Bear, a massive, 7-meter-tall (23 feet), 20-ton yellow teddy bear sitting under a bronze desk lamp. It’s not just airport décor—it’s a major piece of contemporary art by Swiss artist Urs Fischer.

That’s all folks. We took very few pictures in Doha and no pictures of arrival back in Boston. We have settled into a lovely home routine with our family in Newport. At the time of this writing we are booked to fly out of Boston tomorrow night for a two month stay in Copenhagen Denmark.

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