Going to the Mosque

Last Sunday instead of  going to church like many of you did, I went to the State Mosque of Qatar.  The QWA invited several women's groups to tour the mosque and mingle.

The adventure started with our confused driver, John kept saying the state mosque, you know the biggest one in the country that we drive past all the time.  After we gave him directions, we realized his confusion was not where the mosque was, but rather why I was going there.  We explained I was invited there.  Of course I entered through the ladies door, covered my head and took the elevator up to the second floor, the first floor and larger area is for men.  From the female area you can look down onto the men's area.  This mosque has beautiful wood carved panels and plaster work on the walls.  There is some decorative stained glass windows and huge brass chandeliers.  A mosque is nothing like a church, much more simple and of course no pews, just a wide open room in order to kneel and pray.  The real treat was we got to go up in the minaret (where the call to prayer comes from) and see great views of Doha.  This was a real treat to be invited and all who went where glad they did!

Laddies Prayer Room

Back to Doha with fanfare

As many of you know we fly using American Express points, which means we are always on different airlines and different routes.  This time we took United, a small plane from Detroit to Washington DC with a short layover then to Doha.  When we got the the gate in DC we realised this was United's inaugural flight to Doha, which meant cake for everyone!

We were in business class (yes Kate, I got champagne) so the seats were 2/4/2, except that our row of 4 was facing the tail of the plane (like on a bus) and the 4 behind us, but we couldn't see them because that is where the monitors were and the 2s were back to back, very strange.

We had to stop in Dubai and get off the plane, which meant going through security twice, then back to the gate, where they hand sandwiches for everyone.  There were plenty of United people on the plane for their first flight into Doha and we told one lady how stupid it was to have to get off the plane, wait 40 minutes then get back on.  Later she said they are working on fixing this problem.

I was the first passenger on the flight! I didn't get anything for it though.  When we landed in Doha, there were more people to greet us then were passengers on the plane.  In Doha you have to take a bus from the plane to the airport, with this flight we had the most plush buses I have ever seen and the plane was as close to the airport as possible, that was neat.  Now it's back to normal life here.