Journey to the Hague

What would my nineteenth century women travellers have thought of Doha airport? Travelling to the East for them involved days of sea travel, camel trains, boats up the Nile and more camels and donkeys if they were to venture further south to The Sudan or east to Arabia. It involved weeks of preparation, contracting local guides, hiring of guards, wearing of local costumes, risking heat, dust, sand and disease.

For me it involves 11 and a bit hours on a plane from Perth. (Strangely at the time it feels like forever). Landing in Hamad Airport, Doha  with its twenty-first century futuristic glass and steel feels alien and surreal to me, and would have been incomprehensible to them… Full of glossy products (mainly perfumes) and what feels like kilometres of designer shops and strange futuristic sculptures, it is another world from the one they experienced.

Doha airport

sculpture in Doha airport

supersize sculpture- note people sleeping on the right wrapped in grey blankets  

 

car showroom in the foyer

From Doha, it is 7 hours on a plane to Amsterdam, twenty minutes on a train to The Hague, a half hour walk through cobbled streets in November sunshine to my little hotel and I have reached my destination. it feels like a long ordeal, but in less than 24 hours I am here…

Hotel on Veenkade above the cafes