Dubai, OAE
The MSC cruise was over. In Abu Dhabi, my husband and I left the Opera after breakfast and went to the airport by bus to take a flight to Doha. As we were flying during the day, the coast was clearly visible and the views were amazing.
Doha was actually a 1-night stopover for us on the way to Tunisia. We checked in to the hotel, left our backpacks and walked to the Corniche, a waterfront promenade along the Doha Bay.
By then, I had enough of tall glass buildings and insisted on going back to the Old Town with its narrow twisted streets full of authentic Oriental charm.
While we were on board of the Opera, we were not affected by the Ramadan. All meals were served as usual. We ate nothing since breakfast but in Doha, they followed the rules and all places to eat were closed. We went round and round the market in circles waiting for the blessed hour of sunset, chose for ourselves a small restaurant and set down to a Gargantuan dinner. My husband and I got a whole fish grilled with herbs, tomato salad, eggplants with peppers, hummus, and traditional bread. Pity, I did not take a picture of this feast. The fish was juicy and melted in the mouth, the vegetables and hummus were spiced just right. We could not stop until there was no food left on the table, even though we were bursting from eating too much.
Our hotel, La Villa, near the market, was quite interesting inside. It was an old building renovated to be a hotel. Our ‘room’ looked like an apartment with a separate bedroom, a lounge room with a kitchenette, and a bathroom unusually spacious for a hotel.
Next morning, we got breakfast that we ate in the room. Breakfast was served on 2 plastic trays, again with so much delicious food that we shared one tray and packed the other to take it with us to the airport where we boarded the plane to Tunis.