Final Visit to EXPO 2020

(3/4/22)
Despite a very late night last night, we woke early to leave home by 8:15 to give one last shot to visit the only three remaining countries left to see at EXPO 2020, i.e. Germany, Egypt and Japan.

We got to the Germany pavilion at 9:10, and I was horrified to see how long the queue was. I thought the gates only opened at 9 AM, but it was clear they had opened earlier. Armed with umbrellas to shade us from the sun, we duly went and stood at the end of a very long queue that snaked around the building and extended beyond its perimeter.

Ten minutes into waiting, an official announced that the queue had to close as the maximum waiting time limit of 5 1/2 hours had been reached!! I can't think of anything I want that I am prepared to give that amount of time to, especially in the sun, so we decided to go to Japan and try to plead our way into it.

What a good decision that was. Japan has had a lot of complaints about how impossible it is to get into it because of the way they ran their booking system. Today, at 9:25, they were allowing groups of two people to enter without a booking. Only two sections of the pavilion were accessible, but that's OK. They even opened early, so we didn't have to wait until 10. Magic! I am so impressed. I don't know why Germany didn't do something similar.

My thumbnail is of G feeling victorious, having achieved the impossible. That done, we walked leisurely towards Egypt, knowing that they fast-tracked seniors. However, we re-visited Kazakhstan first as we really enjoyed the last exhibit. Egypt was next, although we still had to wait almost thirty minutes. Whilst waiting, we chatted with two ladies behind us who had travelled from Bahrain and Kuwait to be there on the last day! Incredible!

Having done what we set out to achieve by noon, we re-visited a few of the pavilions we had really liked (Mission Possible, Cyprus, Kyrgyzstan) before G popped into the Germany gift shop and bought a souvenir! We've both visited Germany in real life and can go through the pavilion on virtualexpo, so I had no qualms about getting a stamp on my passport. 192 countries. Done. Woo hoo!

We walked back to the gate through heaving crowds already building up from 2 PM. A kind buggy driver gave us a final ride to the car, and we were home by 3. G had her Zoom lesson at 7, and enjoyed it. We watched the closing ceremony from the comfort of our sofas. :))


PS. My extra is the "Miniature World" exhibit in Japan. It was fascinating. Best seen in real life; it was hard to capture the detail under domes with lights reflecting on the glass. Honestly, who thinks of these things??