back where we started

and now we are back......
and pampered ourselves with some famous local food and drinks in Munich....

welcome back to Europe...

what a trip!

What a pity that these three weeks have now come to an end.....

we had it all....from giraffes....




to our mountains....


to our summits....



... from a morning sightseeing show in Nairobi with a visit to the Giraffe center as a warm welcome to Kenya
to the acclimatization trip up to Mount Meru
to the wonderful atmosphere on Kilimanjaro (which we still have seen WITH all its glaciers....)
to the most varied safari possible including the black rhino, elephants big and small, lions from all ages and in all locations- even in a tree above us, nosy and interested giraffes again big and small, fighting hippos and so on
to the visit to paradise including swimming with wild dolphins...

we had it all and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

our last amarula

and of course we had to drink a last amarula....to wash down our disappointment with the Thorn Tree and far more to commemorate our great trip which has come to an end here in Nairobi.....

the famous Thorn Tree

Nairobi has a very interesting sight....a big Thorn Tree were the pioneers and globetrotters has been posting their messages for years and years and years....
in former times where there was no internet and no mobile phones the necessary meeting points and news were shared by nailing a message onto a big old thorn tree which grew inside the famous Stanley hotel......
we knew that they cut the old tree in 1991 and planted a new one...but still we were not expected to find THIS.....
(could be called a Touri verarschung again........couldnt it????!?

!??)



but it still serves the old purpose of leaving a message even when now there are far fewer messages .....



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so next time you go to Nairobi check out The famous Stanley...maybe my message is still there....

Nairobi downtown

welcome back to a big city....quite the opposite of what we had lived in the last 5 days.....

back to Nairobi

and after a flight from Zanzibar International airport (where the check in is still done manually...so you even get a hand written boarding pass....and the tags for your luggage are written by hand as well of course...
and of course you need to tip the guy who is supposed to put the tags onto your luggage ...even when it is his job anyway...)
so once the hand writing was finished (which took us about 35 min to be checked in...) we flew to Mombasa, got off the plane , immigrated to Kenya, checked our luggage, gave it back to the attendants and re entered the same plane to continue to Nairobi.....

Hakuna Matata!

good bye Zanzibar

and after 5 days we say good bye to paradise.....
what an intense 5 days and what a miracle island....
and still the highlight was .....
the swimming with dolphins of course...

the strangest event

I could not tell you about our Massai evening as I needed to think what happened to me that day....and I was a little puzzled that I did not at all like it and found it quite ..... touristic and too simplistic for a culture like the Massai culture...

I still do not know what really bothered me but I think it is this "Tiroler Lederhosen abend" feeling I had when watching the Massai....

so here you get a glimpse of our Massai evening....

the positive thing I nevertheless take with me is that the Massai can jump really high ....







and that women are not allowed to sing nor to dance....so maybe this is another reason why I could not warm myself to this culture.....

the most unusual Alex pic

no this is no fake....and yes this is really me in a pool bar......
and yes sometimes you need to broaden your horizon and do things which you normally are not doing....
so this is also something Zanzibar does to you...you find things nice and beautiful which- with other options you would not even consider to do...




and yes it was very nice .....

unusual Alex pics

so just to tell you more about our Zanzibar trip....

this is Alex pissed of by human sharks..."please just let me alone and do not sell anything to me for just one minute!" (you are in paradise but very often you have no chance to really enjoy it!)



and this is Alex enjoying fresh fruit cocktail at the magical beach on the East Coast of Zanzibar (and NO there is no alcohol and NO amarula in this glass....)

no Mercury´s

as there is Ramadan at the moment we could not go to one of the "institutions" of Stone Town....the Mercury´s (a restaurant and bar full of Freddy Mercury memories and things) unfortunately is closed during Ramadan......

so we could not pay our tribute to the islands most famous son....Faroukh Busara....
born in Stone Town in Kenyatta Road...



Zanzibar Gallery on Kenyatta Street is one of the former homes of Freddie Mercury.


Freddie Mercury was born Farok Bulsara on the 5th September 1946, in Stone Town on the Island of Zanzibar, East Africa, to parents Bomi and Jer. His Zoroastrian Parsee parents had emigrated from India to Zanzibar, but were originally of Persian descent. At the age of 9, Freddie was sent to St. Peter's English boarding school just outside Bombay, India, until he was 17.

the most important sight in Stone Town

therefore for me the most important and impressive sight is a small signpost reminding you that peace in all forms and all kinds is the most important gift you get get....

may peace prevail on earth in the four main languages....English, Arabic, Swahili and Japanese...



simple but very effective in touching you deeply and unexpected....

former slave market

but this is Stone Town a well....
formerly the biggest slave market in East Africa......until Livingstone had a petition signed and agreed in London to forbid slavery....
so it went underground for a century....

and you still can visit the former slave market and see in which horrible conditions the slaves were kept....

beach view

doesnt this look like a capital town to you?
this is Stone Town , the capital of Zanzibar ...
not to bad is it....

the perfect breakfast place in Stone Town

is the Tembo House Hotel directly on the beach.....
this is what you need after waking up.....isnt that called a view??????







yes there is a menu but mind you.....there is no choice it is either egg sandwich or cheese sandwich......
but the view still makes it an ideal place for breakfast....

beach in Stone Town

and no I do not only drink Amarula....
sometimes I do ride elephants as well....

my new friend

since I arrived in Tanzania I have got a new friend who is helping me a lot to relax and see things the local way- the Hakuna Matata way.....
you definitely become more patient with this new friend....




and this is the perfect way how and when to drink it.....as a sundowner at the Africa House Hotel while watching the magical sunset.....




ps and it is far less strong than a baileys so you do not need to worry about me.....but yes I do have a constant amarula touch in me since my arrival....

root top hopping

so how we spent our time after sunset...we did rooftop hopping as some restaurants and bars have now copied the Emerson and Green Top tower restaurant...
(by the way....you do not need to go for dinner in the Emerson and Green .... they have seen better times....go have a drink there and enjoy dinner at the Swahili house...a thousand times better....)
so try Emerson and Green which is now called the 235 Hurumzi hotel but everyone still calls it Emerson and Green (be aware you need to take up steep steps to get to the rooftop)
then the Silk Road restaurant... a little less high but nicely decorated and good food and the highlight of course the rooftop of the Swahili house....

so we definitely had a nice evening and I had some amarulas too many.....

the Swahili rooftop

and this is the way to hang out in Stonetown if it is not sunset time...