Museum of Islamic Art

Islamic Art Museum

After soaking in the views from our balcony on Friday morning, we headed up to the Club Lounge for breakfast. When we checked in we were told to "think of the lounge as your living room while you're here" and we did, spending more time there than in our room. Three meals a day were served there (with all you can drink booze) and we literally could have just had all our meals there if we were so inclined. After breakfast we decided to check out the pool after seeing it from our balcony. We were greeted at a cabana hut and told to pick out our seats so that the pool boy could make up beds for us and bring us a buckets of chilled water bottles. Such pampering!

We lounged at the pool for a couple hours before heading up to shower before lunch and then go to the lunch buffet in the Club Lounge. Since it was a Friday (the Islamic holy day) pretty much everything was closed in the morning, but we thought we would spend Friday afternoon taking in some of the culture in Doha. I was excited that there were actually proper art museums in Doha, as Dubai has NONE and little to no 'cultural' life. We took a taxi from the hotel and were dropped off outside the Museum of Islamic Art, located right on the Corniche (waterfront). The museum itself is really pretty and a work of art in that it was designed by the famous American architect I.M. Pei.

Ceiling inside the Islamic Art Museum

We wandered around the museum for a couple hours looking at ancient Qur'ans, beautiful Turkish pottery, and Persian rugs (Jared's fav), listening to the museum guide headpieces which were conveniently free to use. I just loved actually being in an art museum again, something I completely took for granted when I studied abroad in Rome. Dubai's 'culture' mostly consists of hanging out at the mall.

Museum Sign

The Palm-tree lined path leading up to the museum. So pretty.

Whole front of the museum. I was just a little bit obsessed.