Saturday, April 12 – Windhoek

Our tour officially ended today. We all gathered for breakfast before heading off on our separate ways. A few continued on with G Adventures for a tour to other parts of Namibia and South Africa. It was a fun group; I’m happy (grateful!) we all meshed so well!

I chose to stay an extra night in Windhoek. I could have stayed at this same hotel, but I checked the reviews, and they weren’t great. I’ll be moving to my new accommodation later today. But first, I’ve booked a half day city tour for this morning.

Travel Note: Taking group city tours usually isn’t my thing, but extenuating circumstances sadly dictated it in this case. Typically I just like to explore city centers on foot, determining my itinerary as I go. Well, I mentioned this to Shaddie a couple days ago, and he advised against it. Unfortunately, Windhoek has a high crime rate. Nothing violent, but theft is common against tourists. Ugh! After arriving at the hotel here I asked the reception staff about crime in Windhoek. They pretty much confirmed what Shaddie told me. I was advised that I could walk around the city safely, as long as I took nothing of value with me! Really? It feels like I’m back in Johannesburg again! So….I decided a group tour would the best (and safest) way to see the city.

Windhoek is the capital and largest city of Namibia, with a population of around 500,000. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around 5,500 feet above sea level. This high elevation resulted in much cooler temperatures than I experienced in the other south African countries I’ve visited on this trip. (highs here in the 70s, lows in the 50s)

The tour started with an 8:45am pickup at my hotel. I was the first onboard the minibus; there would eventually be 6 of us. A nice small group.

Our first stop was Christ Church, or Christuskirche. (ca. 1910)

This monument is dedicated to the victims of the Herero & Nama Genocide (1904-08).

The Independence Memorial Museum. It was built in 2014 as a gift to Namibia by North Korea. (Interesting!)

The statue outside the Museum is Sam Nujoma, the first president of Namibia, serving from 1990 to 2005.

We didn’t tour the museum, but did make a rest stop at this restaurant on the 4th floor of the Museum.

There are some nice city views from the balconies of the restaurant…

A view of The Parliament Building.

Windhoek High School Stadium

The Parliament Building, also known as the Tintenpalast (German for Ink Palace – an allusion to the extensive use of ink by the workers in the building). It opened in 1913. I like the vintage Land Rover parked in front!

A view of Christ Church from the Parliament Gardens.

Windhoek Railway Station (ca. 1912).

Our next stop was to the Oshetu Community Market in the suburb of Katutura. The suburb was created in 1961 to house Windhoek’s black population following their forced removal from an area slated for redevelopment. There was much resistance to the move; the resulting unrest escalated into a confrontation with police, which culminated in 11 deaths and numerous injuries.

Being prepared here is kapana (seasoned, thinly sliced strips of grilled meat).

A row of kapana vendors.

Our guide bought some kapana for us to sample. It was pretty good! (we were told that spices typically include salt plus a mixture of paprika, coriander, cumin and garlic)

Our final stop was Penduka Village. Penduka provides vulnerable women from marginalized Namibian communities with an opportunity to earn a sustainable income through their creation of unique craft items.

Yikes! (located in the Penduka parking lot)

This being the weekend, we unfortunately were not able to observe the women at work.

Batik tapestry is one of the products created here.

The Village is located on the Goreangab Dam in Katutura.

There’s a dining facility on site, and…

…these cute little bungalows. (880 NAD/night, incl breakfast; $44)

This was a fun tour! I’m actually happy I booked it; I wouldn’t have seen all of this just walking around on my own. (The cost of the tour was $34)

Sidenote: I was wearing my Wisconsin baseball cap again today. And there happened to be a couple from Indiana on the tour who recognized the Motion W. Very nice!

I was the last to be dropped off on the tour. I just needed to stop at my original hotel to pick up my bags and then transfer to my new place. The tour guide offered to give me a ride. Thanks! He originally was going to charge me 100 NAD, but I negotiated him down to 20 NAD ($1). It was only a 10 minute drive, and earlier this morning I had asked the hotel staff how much the taxi fare would be to my new hotel. Hence my negotiating power!

(I normally would have just walked to my new hotel, but there’s that pesky crime thing to deal with here…)

The Weinberg Windhoek

Lounge area

Dining space

Rooftop Bar

The Terrace

2,817 NAD/night, including breakfast ($159/night)

I love this place! I arrived at 1pm, and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the terrace. (The middle balcony is my room)

The complex where the hotel is located includes a few dining options. I went with a Sunset Breeze (vanilla vodka, Caribbean rum, passion fruit puree, sour mix, lemonade), and stuffed bell peppers. It was very good! (although, my first choice was pan-seared sea bass, which was sold out) Cost of the meal: 265 NAD ($14).

Travel Note: I don’t think I mentioned that throughout this south African trip (Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia), English was the language used. That’s convenient!

Sunday, April 13 – transit from Windhoek to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

My flight on Ethiopian Airlines departs Windhoek at 2:30 this afternoon. I’ve been told that the airport is a small one; arriving two hours early will be plenty. My morning will therefore be leisurely!

I had a breakfast of eggs Benedict (with salmon) on the terrace. Tasty!

Check out was at 10am. At that time I had the hotel book me an 11:30am ride to the airport (half hour trip, leaving me a cushion against the 2 hour pre-departure arrival). I was quoted 500 NAD ($25) for the ride.

Sidenote: After arriving at my first Windhoek hotel a couple days ago, I heard about a Namibian ride share app called Yango. I ended up downloading it, to possibly use as a cheap(er) airport transport option. I ultimately decided against using it today though, mainly because of the Windhoek crime situation (will the driver be legit? Try to scam me? Or worse…).

I did some reading on the terrace as I waited for my ride to show up. Well, by 11:30 the driver had not yet arrived. I checked with hotel reception. They called the car service and was told the driver was waiting in the adjacent parking garage. Another member of the hotel staff checked the garage. Nothing. Seriously? Another call to the car service. This time we were told the driver was on the way. Ten minutes out. By now I was pretty annoyed and told them to forget it, I didn’t believe anything we were being told by the driver. Against my better judgement I used Yango to book a ride. The driver arrived 5 minutes later and got me to the airport with no issues. The ride cost 220 NAD, and I paid with cash because I coincidentally had 240 NAD left over that I was going to exchange at the airport.

(on the way to the airport I saw two giraffes eating leaves from trees alongside the road!)

Hosea Kutako International Airport, Windhoek. And yes, it is very small.

So, I’ve now made four return trips to London during this winter break (from Paris, Tunis, Valencia and Windhoek), and the only time I was asked to confirm that I have the recently introduced UK visa is when I departed Valencia. Just saying…

I was wearing a Wisconsin t-shirt today, and while waiting for my flight in the departure area, I was approached by a man from Berlin, Wisconsin who was in southern Africa on a hunting trip. I’m kind of amazed by how many times my connection to Wisco has been recognized this winter (and the obscure locations in which it occurred!)!

Boarding the flight (an A350).

The flight to Addis Ababa took 5 hours and was 90% full.

Travel Note: This Ethiopian Airlines itinerary was one of the two that I had to book through the travel agent in Harrow. As you may recall, that was due to the fact that I couldn’t get the airline’s website to accept payment from my credit card. The cost of the one way trip to London was £440 ($550).

Monday, April 14 – transit from Addis Ababa to London

Addis Ababa airport is huge! I arrived around 9:30pm, and it was very busy. Fortunately I had a 3 hour layover, because the international transfer checkpoint was packed!

My flight was scheduled to depart at 12:20am, but was delayed by two hours. And it was a confusing two hours (plus), because there were no notifications regarding the delay. On top of that there was also a gate change that was made with no announcement. Not impressed!

The flight to London was on another A350, took 8 hours, and was also 90% full. I was able to sleep a little, so that helped.

I arrived at Gatwick, so took the train to Farringdon and then the Met line to Harrow on the Hill. The Gatwick Express would have been quicker, but also more expensive (not going to go there!). I departed my hotel in Windhoek around 11:45am yesterday, and arrived at Byron House at 11am (Windhoek time). Did I mention that Africa is a massive continent?!?

I concluded my day by making a grocery run and going to bed early!

This two-week trip was quite the adventure! The long journey was well worth it!