It was a fascinating four days in southern Iraq, but now we are on our way to Oman. When I looked for flights from Iraq to Oman, there was the option to fly from Baghdad to Muscat directly, but it was more convenient to fly from Najaf given our Iraqi itinerary and for me a stopover in Bahrain seemed to be a feature, not a bug! Our Gulf Air flight gives us a seven hours in Bahrain before we carry on to Muscat, and seven mid-day hours proved to be enough time for a very enjoyable visit, and we are leaving with an extremely favourable impression of Bahrain.
Then we crossed the road over a pedestrian bridge . . .
Once we reached the end of the path, there is a visitors centre located at a former warehouse site.
As Canadians we had to buy a visa on arrival for 6 dinar (~$18 Canadian), which was too bad given how short our time is here, but nonetheless we were through passport control super quickly, and then I changed a small amount of money so that we could pay for the bus, and about an hour after deplaning we were in Manama, Bahrain's capital, and outside the Avenues Mall.
Gulf state malls are often impressive places, I am learning (for example, in this case there is a skating rink inside) . . .
. . . but we were less interested in the mall's interior and more interested in finding a restaurant patio outside the mall along the Bahrain Bay.
Soon we found a perfect waterfront table to eat lunch.
It was close to 16:00 by the time we finished our lunch in the sun, and from Avenues Mall we caught a taxi to the Bahrain National Museum.
I imagine the museum is worth a visit, but we did not come to see the museum. Rather, we were here to catch a boat to take us back over to Muharraq (the island where the airport is) so that we could walk the open air Bahrain Pearling Path Museum, which is teased on this board by the boat dock.
The boat ticket costs 3 dinar, and it is actually good for a roundtrip, but we are just traveling one way. Of course, we could have taken the taxi right over to Muharraq directly, but I was keen to experience the boat, and the lovely 15 minute ride with great views did not disappoint.
As we approached Muharraq Bumaher Castle came into view.
The boat dropped us off right by the castle, which is where the pearling path begins.
We explored the castle a little bit . . .
. . . and walked into a residential neighbourhood.
The light posts like the one in the right of the photo below mark the path (I suppose a white globe looks vaguely like a pearl).
The path is 3.5 kilometres total, and there are 17 restored historic structures and 17 public squares along the route. Some of the historic buildings include museum exhibits, like the one below.
As may be obvious in the photo above, much of what you see is specific to Bahrain's legacy of pearling, but in many places it is more general. For example, you can visit a pharmacy, homes, etc.
Pearling-inspired and other street art is also present along the route.
Besides the historic sites and the art, just strolling through the residential area at sunset was interesting and very relaxing.
Once we reached the end of the path, there is a visitors centre located at a former warehouse site.
From near the visitors centre we could catch a bus back to the airport, but we had another hour before we had to go, so we explored a bit and had tea on a rooftop.
Also, we found more than one 200 fils store (we would call these a dollar store in Canada) and for some reason Diana found these to be very interesting!
Around 19:00 we caught the bus back to the airport, arriving just after 19:20. By the way, the Bahrain airport is gorgeous.
Our flight onward to Muscat departs at 20:40.
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