Midnight clicked over as we were over Krakow, Poland at 36,000 feet. Rachel started to watch an old film, Hello Dolly, even with no sound this film has dated badly. I listened to some music and noticed that both Bob Dillon and Willy Nelson had recently put out new albums and it would appear that time has been kinder to Willy Nelson. I love the line from his recent song "This morning I woke up and I was still alive".

The plane arrived at Doha just as the sun was rising and descended into mist which hung in the air all day.

Then I woke up "are we there yet".

We picked up our vouchers for our transit hotel, passed through immigration and were taken to our hotel for the 13 hours we were in Doha. Outside and onto the hotel bus and we were hit with heat and humidity that made my glasses fog. Greg has decided that in this city air-conditioning should be renamed life support. We arrived at the hotel and both collapsed onto the bed and promptly fell asleep for four hours. After a nap we went to reception and booked a short tour of the city, and had a very nice lunch in a Spanish restaurant in the hotel.

We were picked by our guide, Ibrahim, who took us to his heavily air-conditioned Land Cruiser, Greg noticed that it had bald tyres, but it doesn't matter because it never rains here, and with nearly 50 degree temperatures and no rain the tyres still have near formula one adhesion, from Greg's perspective, as we zoomed around Doha's numerous roundabouts.

Our first stop was the spectacular Museum of Islamic Art, we wished could have spent the whole day there. The museum displays a wide range of ancient art from Iran, Syria, Iraq, Turkey and India. The displays featured carpets and textiles, tiles and beautiful jewellery. They were beautifully displayed in a beautiful air-conditioned building which was nearly deserted.

Then onto the Islamic Cultural Centre, which included an amphitheatre which had amazing natural acoustics and could seat over 1000 people.

The city has only truly developed over the last 20 years and there are some impressive new building being built.

We finished up at the only remaining souq in Doha, Souq Waqif. Souqs are noted for selling traditional garments, spices, and handicrafts. It was renovated in 2006 to conserve its traditional Qatari architectural style. The souq was made of mud and has straw insulation in the roof and the covered walkways and alleys, which helps keep it naturally cool.

We are now in the lounge getting ready to head home on a very long flight. We've had a great holiday but we are looking forward to sleeping in our own bed.

See you at Cafe Ella on Wednesday, I'll have a flat white and Greg will have a long black with a dash of milk.