Since our last visit to Doha an old run down area close to the souk was in the process of being redeveloped into a more eco friendly environment and interchange for the the new metro system. Last time we were here we saw the plans in a floating museum and whilst the area is not complete some old qatari houses have been converted to museums to show aspects of it's past.
There are four: one dealing with slavery in an old slave trader's house,one in "company house" the original oil exploration base in the 1940's which unsurprisingly deals with the early days of oil exploration and discovery,a third is in n old emir's house and recalls the changes in Doha and finally an old family house from the 1920's showing life before electricity and after its arrival in the 1950's . The houses are rather dwarfed by the huge blocks that now straddle them but they were very interesting,in particular the one dealing with slavery which didn't really end in Qatar until very recently. We were virtually the only visitors and were personally escorted from each house to the next. In one were given a cup of arabic coffee and another a free bottle of water.
We strolled across an enormous square that last year had been a huge building site to the edge of the souk to try and catch a cab to take us to the old fire station which is now an art gallery. It was only after we managed to download a screen grab of it's location did we get a taxi driver who knew where to go! You can't really miss it as it is on a prominent corner with a couple of fire engines outside. An exhibition of picasso and giacometti has just opened showing how their work was mirrored and influenced by a close personal relationship. Angharad met us there after work and we caught a cab home with their local uber service which was a much better experience than earlier in the day. In the evening we treated ourselves to an all you can eat and drink barbecue at the St Regis hotel,absolutely delicious.