Summary

Anne Bonfert shares her experiences and favorite moments from her layovers in Qatar, reflecting on the beauty of sunrise flights, the comfort of Qatar Airlines, and her airport traditions.

Abstract

The author, Anne Bonfert, presents a personal account of her experiences with Qatar, focusing on her numerous layovers at Doha's airport while traveling with Qatar Airlines. Despite never having visited places like Queenstown, Queensland, Quito, Quebec, Quelimane, or Queluz, she finds a connection with Qatar, detailing the comfort and convenience of the airline and the memorable views from her flights. Bonfert recounts the joy of backpacking trips to Thailand, the luxury of A380 webcam views, and the unique tradition of enjoying gin and tonics by the airport windows while watching planes. The narrative is punctuated by stunning photographs capturing moments such as sunrise over Qatar and the city's skyline, emphasizing the beauty and excitement of her stopovers. The piece concludes with an invitation to readers to join a travel writing challenge and a nod to other contributors who have shared their own favorite travel destinations.

Opinions

The author expresses a strong preference for Qatar Airlines

TRAVEL WRITING CHALLENGE

I Haven’t Been to Q…

The A to Z of my favorite travel destinations

I haven’t been to Queenstown or Queensland. I’ve only dreamt of visiting Quito and Quebec and I must have missed Quelimane when I traveled through Mozambique and Queluz in Portugal.

So what am I doing with the letter of Q? The closest I have come to exploring a country or city with the letter is Qatar. In the last 7 years, I have spent countless hours in the airport of Doha and flew in and out with Qatar Airlines. It is our favorite airline to fly with. Comfortable, convenient and cheap.

So here we go. My collection of pictures from Qatar. From the air and from the ground. It all started in 2018. Together with David, I went on a two week backpacking trip to Thailand. Flying from Namibia via Qatar. And yes, I took this picture after take-off. We had the entire back of the plane for ourselves. Including the waitress. Ah, I mean stewardess.

Our space for the next 9 hours. 2018. | Photo credit: Anne Bonfert

I thought I was going to share some foodie pictures as I love the meals they serve us on the plane. Only with Qatar airways. Always a four course meal, always three options to chose from and always delicious. But somehow I don’t find any of these pictures. Those shots must be in folders of the destinations where we flew to or came from but I can’t find them.

Only found this picture of the screen. We flew a few times with Qatar with the big A380 planes and we were able to access its webcams. See below. That was how we were cruising through the air.

Webcam views of the Airbus 380. 2019. | Photo credit: Anne Bonfert

Not the best photo but all I found from the airport in Doha. Spending so many hours inside its terminal and having done so many touch downs, yet I can’t show more.

This also refers back to the fact, we usually land at night time and fly out again a couple of hours later. Always in the dark. Nothing to take pictures of except for lights in the dark.

Whenever we’re in the airport and have an hour or two, we head to the duty free shop, buy some the smallest bottle of gin (usually 200ml), then head to McDonald’s or a similar fast-food stand to get two cups of tonic and there we go. Sitting down next to a window, watching planes take off and land while sipping on our gin&tonics.

In Qatar.

That’s our tradition.

I want to say this was after take-off. Qatar 2023 at sunrise. | Photo credit: Anne Bonfert

Maybe one day we’ll turn our stopover into a transit and explore the city of Doha or even more of the country of Qatar but up until then, I can only share some pictures of last year’s sunrise when we flew from Germany to Namibia and took off just as the sun was appearing on the horizon.

Sunrise above Qatar. | Photo credit: Anne Bonfert

Sitting on my favorite window seat, my eyes were glued to the glass as hues of orange and yellow were appearing above the city. I could spot the city center with countless skyscrapers but also Meandering channels of water through the rest of town.

The city in the early morning hours. | Photo credit: Anne Bonfert

My excitement was high as always when changing flights in Qatar. When flying, we move continents to jump from one working season to another. We move our belongings from one country to another to face a new adventure ahead.

So, the sight of Qatar is always a happy one for us.

Views of Qatar. | Photo credit: Anne Bonfert

This is a response to a writing prompt started by Sam Millichap and many have participated since. I’m so happy to see the community is growing. So many amazing destinations coming up. We welcome anyone to join the fun. Write your own alphabet of your favorite travel destinations.

Sam Millichap with “Discovering Orkney’s 8,500 Years of Human Occupation”

Adrienne Beaumont with “Queensland”

Robert G. Longpré with “P is for Peru”

Darren Weir with “Old Fashioned Christmas in Quebec City — In Black and White”

Michael Rhodes with “ Joshua Tree National Park”

Dan Carlson | Meandering Naturist with “G is for Gavdos, Greece”

Jerry Dwyer with “Mariposa”

Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages with “G is For Greece”

Nishan Fuard with “Anaheim: I Remember the Parking Lot from the Hotel Window”

Ronald Smit with “A is for … Ada Foah”

And new to the team came Erie Astin with “The Bounties of the Bitterroot Valley, Montana”

You can find the full series of the “A to Z of my favorite travel destinations” in the reading list here. And these are my latest ones:

M — “Magnificent Moments in Mozambique”

O — “Sunsets of Oslo”

P — “Where the Sun Never Reaches the Horizon”

Join my email list here if you would like to read more travel essays or sign up for the Medium membership to receive unlimited access to my and other writers’ stories out here (I will receive a commission fee in return).