Middle East 2024 - Day 2 - 11/30/2024 - Doha museums + quali

Today was the first time since I met Fran that we had been apart on her birthday. Fortunately, I later found out that her family and friends surprised her with a small gathering, which somewhat made up for my absence. It was kinda cool that they watched on TV some of the event that I was attending.

Anyway, today I did a bit of sightseeing before heading to the racetrack. I had a decent night of rest before getting complementary breakfast at the hotel about 30 minutes before it closed at 10a. The breakfast buffet was at their Thai restaurant, so there were a couple of “interesting” additions (e.g., noodles) to the standard fare; nevertheless, some decent options, even for a vegetarian.

Right after breakfast I took an Uber to the National Museum of Qatar. The exhibit there was a path through the complete history of Qatar, all the way from the geological formation of the peninsula to modern culture. It was visually catching and fairly well done, though I wouldn’t say that I found the subject matter riveting. I would also add that the last part begins to border on national propaganda, which is fine I guess. The building itself (with a design inspired by the desert rose) was quite striking.

After that museum I walked over to the Museum of Islamic Art, situated right on Doha Bay. On the way I made a short detour to Flag Plaza to find the US and Nigerian flags. The Islamic museum was less interesting to me, though it was also well done and a nice building. I finished up there around 2p, then took an Uber back to the hotel. I also want to point out that things seem to be fairly cheap here, perhaps due to a favorable exchange rate. The 15-20 minute Uber rides were the equivalent of about $8 or less, and a small bottle of water at a convenience store was 1 QAR, or 30 cents.

After some poor time management at the hotel, I decided to skip a late lunch and head for the Lusail International Circuit a little after 3:15p, hoping to make it in time for the 5p sprint race. What ordinarily might be a 25 minute drive was obviously going to take longer due to race traffic. However, we ended up making a bunch of detours (some forced by traffic cops,  couple perhaps due to the driver’s impatience), and didn’t get to the drop-off until about 4:45p. I did make it to my seat right before they began the formation lap at 5p.

 

The sprint race was fine in terms of performance; George Russell started 2nd and finished 3rd while Lewis Hamilton went from 7th to 6th. The car noise from the main grandstand was louder than at the previous races I had been to, probably because I was closer and the location is somewhat more enclosed than my previous seats. They later gave out ear plugs, but I didn’t feel a need to use them. After the sprint I want for a bit of a walkabout to check out the grounds and find some appealing food. The food lines were pretty long, especially at places that might have decent veggie options (like pizza). There was a mix of classic fast foods and some ethnic options, though seemingly less “Middle Eastern” fare than I would have expected. I ended up waiting about 45 minutes for a couple of veggie bao, and missed most of the F2 sprint race. With more time to kill I waited another 45 minutes for a slice of NY style cheese pizza, which was better than I expected.

The next event of significance was F1 qualifying for the main race at 9p. George did well to qualify 2nd (later promoted to 1st after a penalty on Max Verstappen) while Lewis was down in 6th. I hung around for interviews after quali, attempting to avoid the mad rush to leave; I’m not sure this was the best idea. I began heading out a bit after 10:30, and found that there was no taxi or Uber service - only shuttles to the Lusail QNB metro station (next to the Lusail Stadium). The line for the shuttles was long, and I didn’t board one until around midnight. Once we got to the station I decided to try the metro route back, instead of trying for an Uber or taxi - they were strongly pointing everyone in that direction, as they were apparently running the trains later than normal. This actually ended up being fine, as I took the train (which I think only cost 2 QAR) to DECC and walked 20 minutes back to the hotel. I was back in my room around 1:15a.

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Trip highlight photos can be found here.