writing in this blog has been difficult as the keyboard keeps going down,

Yesterday we went inblazing sunshine a five hour river boat ride, thenoff ti the Opera got there linitially

by bus Nd thenunderground, once there we changed our voucher for tickets and found  the BAR where we ordered smoked salmonand cheese with red wine and whitenwine formthe ontermission,

The Opera was wonderful singing. but the settings were very very modern.  I remember seeing Richard the third portrayed as Chicago G angsters....But this was not quite so extreme and on the whole worked.   At the intermission we met a chRming woman born in Berlin but nhaving worked for 8 years in Brussels...

Them we went tomtwo jazz bars, settling downto Quasimoto where there was a great trumpet .

the 4 piece were from Tokyo Prague and Spain... we thengot back to the hotel and in the jazz bar foundna womanplaying up a storm...somwe were in bed byn2

I aam writing this saturday mirning, after an enormous breKfat which usually means that we do not need lunch.  We are now planni f to visit museums as it is Raining.  Patti is a devotee of CNN so we are hearing an awful lot about D Trump, makes you frightened, especially after visitng the recent museums to recent bigots Nd the terrible results of letting people im to power who RANT.

on the canal

our sustenance

we are travelling east into the Tiersgarten with the second oldest zoo in Eorope on the right ...the zoo was on west Berlin and the tiergarden wa in the east

y

iur first full day Berlin

Patti and 8 did a workout today.   We left the Sheridan shotel  at about 0900 arriiving back here about 2000

we walked withthe tour guide named Jess, a Jewish /Student of history now at Hum bolt U working on a grad degree in history.  No doubt from his history background he covered in his first talk about nine centuries of history starting with the early beginnings whenGermany was just a disparate group through the many "duchy" states to the joining together . I think in 1813, against the Danes. when for this group under the Prussians they  dealt well together. so they might as well be together to the craziness after WWI and the Versailles agreement some of the nastiness of that agreement and the slippery way in which Hitler came to power to the cold war ,to the reunification, to the present......wow

we ended the day along  a piece of the wall  and the hall of Terror and an expose of the SS

We ended our day in the swimming pool and eating at an Italian restaurant 

frenchkneesfall201!6

We r at LHR Patti was thoroughly searched and unfortunately had an important cream in a 125 ml tube

so she had to reconstrucgt her packing and then find a smaller container ,empty it and then take it down to security so she could squeeze the contents into athe smaller conyainer

fortunately we have some time before connecting with the Berlin flight 

mediterraneo hotel north of Dar

Our very last night in africa until??

We left tangarire park at about 8 ...drive slowly i to Arusha. had a funny BBQ lunch ...wonderful BBQ pit, it was a huge circular affair, with masses of hot coals and very long iron rods /squear s of lamb, beef, chicken, sausage etc 

this was served with a series of hot sauces and a potato anf some slaw. Our flight was called early somwe had a cheery farewell nto our drivers and the rest od the group who were on their way to 

Rwanda da via Nairobi.  Another two were leaving for London so there were eight going to the Big Apes.

We Arrived half an hour early, having been kept in the plane for 45 unairconditioned minutes on rhe ground at Zanzibar air port. We finally flew the twenty minutes to Dar es Salaam  We had ordered a driver but as he was expecting us after six he was not  there and we were HOUNDED by the other taxi drivers, more or less lying to us about our driver etc.   eventually David from the hotel came, But It  took 95 terrifying minutes to drive through ama😰zing traffic.  ten lanes where two was the reality.  It was i ncredible how polite the drivers were inthe  melee.  We saw more people than ever equally crowding the streets, selling everything....from red warning triangles to dvds.

We are now at breakfast having walked the beach beyond the limits of the hotel and inabout ten mi utes one of the Masai from the hotel caught up to us   and encouraged us to return.  he walked us back to our beach and gave us a thumbs up as he climbed back onto hotel grounds.

 

a good day. Tarangiire.Park

crenOur last  day with the he group.  We had a wonderful game drive unto this park called Tarangire pzrk famous for its large population of elephants and Baobob  trees.  And certainlt it was as advertised... masses of both.  We have two trucks in our griup a nd onee was surrounded bty passing elephants for a long time...

there are also giraffes..it os a peaceful lace to be,,

We had a  wonderful song send ogff fron the staff

cren 

tufted herons in a tree at sunsey

boab tree

baby rubbing against tree

wow. all posted

We are in a location on thw rim for fast(ish) internet,,managed to sit in the bar q...without drinking and send off the. blogs.

hope the photos come through also 

The meals are lavish in this Sopa hotel.  we arrived here late i. the PM for four course meal,,,soup. thenchoice of starters...salad    cold.  or hot mushrooms on toast.  thenfour choices for main meal,,,great vegetarian choices,,,always fish, I had chichen with masala sauce.   A lot of the food is Indian and there are a lot of Indian famlies travelling..this evening the first woman in an Abaya.  running around on the lawn with her little boy and the a photo done with hier husbands arm around her  but her face was covered.

There are restrictions for hot water...here from 0500 to 0800. and in th evening. 1700  to  2000

Electricity goes off at 2300 but there are battery lights for emergencies. Alos there is a whistle at the door to blow if you need help.  Heavy patrols all night because of the mear by animals.  Lots of lions. 

Every night there is some kind of entertainment and tonight it was 8 male Masai blowing through an  hollow antler and the rest of them singing and doing there straight up ans down jumping.

odds and ends of photos

wananasinging ,,Jambo jambo B