A Weekend in Windhoek - Restaurants….Yum.

The Series: This is one of several posts… if you're landing here first, you may consider going to the Intro Page to start at the beginning. The order is relatively inconsequential, but it helps with the story line a little.

We decided that Paul had mastered driving enough for the day that he warranted a medal and became a fellow; we hired a cab so that Paul could mentor him - I was watching to see how we got downtown so that the next day we would be able to do it ourselves. That was successful, but the way…

Gathemann for Dinner: We end up having a lovely meal at Gathemann Restaurant our first night. Our peaceful beginnings at the Olive had ended with the front desk manager calling this restaurant to see if a table was available. We were lucky to find one. Perhaps the only downer was that the table was inside, and not out, because the deck looked amazing and overlooked Independence Avenue, the main street in town. Gathemann is located on the second floor of a building, in what looks to have been a residence once upon a time. 

The restaurant is set up in such a way that it has various rooms to navigate. It keeps the volume down, and the intimacy up. We only had two or three other couples in the room where we were seated, and the tables were far apart enough that it felt like one was really in a private setting. We had carpaccio and a phyllo-wrapped goat cheese to start. Paul had the venison schnitzel and I had a prawn dish of some sort.  Gathemann was quaint, quiet, and had great food and service. We plan on it being a staple on our trips to Windhoek.

Peter the Cab Driver: People are incredibly nice in Windhoek. The cab driver - Peter, took us downtown, stopped for Paul to get some money from the ATM, and then didn't take payment. He said he'd be back to pick us up after dinner - sometime around 9:30? Sure.

We were doing our best to just taste desert on full stomachs when I noticed that Peter had come upstairs to the restaurant and was sitting with an off shift waitress just waiting until we were finished. We paid up, our chariot took us home, and we paid a total of $20 including large tip for the ground trip. So great to see that customer service and hospitality still exists.

Peter's actually quite useful. He provided us with taxi services a few times, even coming out to Goche Ganans to pick us up and drop us off after a dinner at Stellenbosch. (reviewed below). I'll see if I can find his card to share on here. We'll be using him again.

Other restaurants that we tried include the following:

The Gourmet for Lunch: Quaint garden setting off a main street downtown. If you'r moseying around the shopping district, then this is a nice find. It's casual, and it's not what I would consider as gourmet, so just don't get your hopes up (I only say this because a couple from Denver had to reinforce it multiple times to the wait staff at the Olive, and I got to hear it, so I'll warn you now, and spare other waiters around the Windhoek area). The patio is full of umbrella covered tables, and protected by large trees that overhang either side. It was strange walking in, as all the tables turned and stared at us. (Mostly German tourists, we think, but it was just sort of odd). I had oysters (surprise) and a prawn salad, which was fine. Paul had a wienerschnitzel that he thought was quite good. Overall, I'd go back here if we were in the area, but I wouldn't make a special trip.

Stellenbosch for Dinner: This place is set up in Klein Windhoek. It's in a new building that has both a delicatessen and a full dining room. There is a small bar that overlooks the kitchen, and the restaurant itself is beautifully designed. The owners are the Stellenbosch Vinters from South Africa. The food was fine. It wasn't out of this world, but it was good. Paul had a filet that was "fine" but not knock your socks off. I had a Prawn salad that was quite good. The best thing that I think we ate was the jalepeno poppers, which is a little bit of a bummer, since it's sort of bar food.

Am Weinberg for Dinner: Don't miss this place. It's delicious. Make reservations, and try to sit on the upstairs patio. This restaurant is nestled into a hillside in a residential neighborhood in Klein Windhoek. It's got a great, and very large set up, as it takes up the top floor of a home, and then two other patios/gardens along the hill. We were the first to arrive at around 5:30 PM and were asked whether we had a reservation (since we had just asked whether they were open, one would think "no"would be a given). Regardless, down we went to the lower patio where a table awaited us. We split the oryx carpaccio and each had one of the cold cucumber yoghurt and dill soups. That was probably the most amazing dish I had on the whole trip. The oryx was awfully tasty too. Paul had a fillet with peppercorn sauce, and it's one of the best that he's ever had. I had a vegetarian pasta and it was the best pasta I think I've ever had. It was made with fresh noodles, and the flavor was amazing. Go here… maybe even twice. That is all.

The Olive for Dinner: When we came back from Goche Ganans, we decided to just have dinner at the Olive. Our friends had been the night before, and they really enjoyed it. I had oysters, because I could, a prawn and avocado salad, and then I enjoyed about 1/3 of my gnocchi.  (I'm sure the oyster thing is boring to all of you, but it's hard to find good seafood in Angola at any reasonable price). Paul enjoyed another fillet; Am Weinburg was still a cut above, but this was better than Stellenbosch. The wine was delicious, but I couldn't finish a bottle on my own, so the front desk received a little treat for after hours. The service was great, and the food was very nice as well.

The Olive for Breakfast: We had breakfast included in our stay, and we couldn't get past the yum table display. It had little potato pancakes with smoked salmon and creme fraiche on top, fruit, scones, cheese, proscuitto, fresh turkey breast deli meat, fruit spreads, little yoghurt and muesli cups, biscotti, etc. etc. etc. There were other things to order, but we were full by the time we got past the first part of the meal, so next time we'll have to pace ourselves.

Wecke and Voigt Kaffe Bar for Breakfast: This is a quick sandwich shop in what looks to be the Sur La Table of Windhoek. The food was delicious. I had muesli and yoghurt (by this time, I was through with large meals), and Paul and the French toast with creme fraiche, honey, and bacon. My cappuccino came with a cute little heart on top, and the very germanic woman serving me, who had been severe at the beginning, giggled with delight when I reacted pleasantly surprised by the extra touch. When we walked outside, we noticed these amazing sandwiches that were huge, and looked delicious. They were $3.50. Wow. Negative sticker shock for me.

Stellenbosch for Lunch: We had planned on going to Lunch at Joe's Beerhouse on Monday, but it was closed. NOTE: Joe's Beerhouse is only open for lunch on weekends. Well, that leaves us something for next time. Because it was open for lunch on Monday, and out of the way of traffic, we returned to Stellenbosch for the second meal of the day. I had the chicken sandwich, which had too much cheese, and Paul had the burger, which he said was good. I don't think this is a bad place to eat, it's just that it's more average than great. The other thing about this place was that it was tough to get wine by the glass. It calls itself a wine bar, but it doesn't serve much by single serving. So that's a funny thing to deal with.

Back to the Intro Page

A Weekend in Windhoek - The Olive: Serenity on a Friday Night

The Series: This is one of several posts tied to our trip to Windhoek… if you're landing here first, you may consider going to the Intro Page to start at the beginning. The order is relatively inconsequential, but it helps with the story line a little.

Once we landed in the city proper, we found our hotel, The Olive Exclusive, and got settled. This place was nestled in an olive grove in an area that looked just like Paradise Valley. Each room is designed distinctly and they are beautiful. There is a main dining area that has indoor and patio seating, and the restaurant is wonderful in its own right.


(Don't you love it when it's just two of you on vacation, and the pictures turn out to be loners more than couples shots? Awesome.)

We stayed in two different rooms while on the trip, sandwiching the Olive with a resort just outside of Windhoek.

More to come on that.

Our first room was very beachy and soothing. The architecture was barn-like with open ceiling space. It reminded me of the shop at my mom's house that we always contemplate turning into something more residential.



My, did we ever get some great ideas…. The open rafters, the little right-sized kitchen for one or two, and the openness of the floor plan all made me think "Choo! Chooooo! Pulling into renovation station!"

We spent the first day doing very little but arriving, enjoying our room and eating, eating, eating! That was the theme of the trip. Food and do nothing.

Folks, don't get us wrong. We're not deprived in Luanda. There ARE some very nice restaurants in our host city. But they are often expensive, and driving around Luanda with all its traffic limits our interest in eating out. So when we got to charming, lovely, no garbage on the street, no traffic in the road Windhoek, we were thrilled. Thrilled to walk around, thrilled to shop, thrilled to have multiple choices in restaurants at our fingertips without having to drive far, thrilled to see the most expensive, and delicious item on the menu was equivalent to $15 USD. Thrilled to have OYSTERS! … and boy did I ever. Almost every meal I was launching those things into my tummy.

Prior to leaving our beautiful hotel/guest house to look around town, we sat out on the deck and enjoyed some of those delectable mollusks (numbers 1-12 of probably the 60 that I had that weekend) and a salad with a nice glass of sauvignon blanc from South Africa.

We were lucky enough to catch the tail end of the Jacaranda's blooms during our trip. Which complimented our arrival well, and reinforced the whole sister city to Scottsdale argument that I was creating in my mind.

It was just nearing sundown, and that soothing calmness and quietness that comes with that time of day was inviting us to just relax.


It was the first time that we have had a vacation on our own this year, and one of the first times that I was genuinely in chill mode, and so was Paul.

We've had a heavy workload at the tail end of 2013, and this mini getaway was just what we needed. At that moment, washing oysters down with sips of crisp wine, admiring an eerily familiar view, and hearing nothing but silence was the best thing I could imagine for a Friday night.

After our snack, we figured it was time to actually have dinner - I can't underscore enough that this food thing was a major focus for us on this trip. Paul actually would discuss his next meal while eating his current one. Every time.  (his father would be proud). We actually started having discussions about self-initiated reverse peristalsis in order to make more room for more food.

That's not funny - especially given what happened later in the trip.

Next up…. Restaurant Reviews - YUM…..

Head back to the Intro Page

A Weekend in Windhoek - The Driver, The Navigator, and The Historian...Why is Fidel Castro's name on that street?

The Series: This is one of several posts in a series on our Weekend in Windhoek… if you're landing here first, you may consider going to the Intro Page to start at the beginning. The order is relatively inconsequential, but it helps with the story line a little.

Once we arrived in Windhoek, the world was quite civilized. We rented our car and Paul immediately became adept to driving on the other side of the road. He's magical when it comes to vehicle operation. I'm telling you; this man was able to adjust to right side drive so quickly that as we left the airport he was confidently demonstrating his skills by rubbing the passenger side wheels along a curb for a little bit. Delicately brushing them along making an almost musical sound. Such skill. And he's humble too. "Oops" he says, as if he had done this by mistake. What a pro.

I think I already made mention of the Arizona topography, but if you didn't feel satiated with pictures of desert landscape yet, here's one more beauty.

I wanted to practice driving too, but did so in my imagination, and instead, I helped Paul navigate by saying on every turn "take a sharp, tight left," "take a wiiiiiiide right!" and the ever popular "no traffic this way or that way" we survived with only a couple near misses.


Paul was able to get the hang of things pretty quickly, and I took on my role as navigator with verve. We make a good team in that capacity. I have a pretty good sense of direction, but it helps when street names are something like Nelson Mandela Blvd, Robert Mugabe Ave, Fidel Castro Street. Yes. Fidel Castro Street. My guess is that Fidel helped Namibia gain its independence? Perhaps? Well the story is below… it's quite interesting and adds to my vault of "History I would have never known if I didn't come to Angola."

Here is the full story from Africa Online… but the excerpt below will give you the short version. I'll kick it off with the micro version. Castro was helping the MPLA in Angola and pushed South African-backed UNITA back to the Namibian border, weakening the South African troops so significantly that they had to come to the table to discuss Namibian Independence.

With the South African army in Angola beaten and Cuban-Angolan troops advancing towards South African-occupied Namibia, the power balance in the region had been turned upside-down over night. Suddenly, apartheid South Africa was no longer invincible. Its control over the Southern African region seemed to be more fragile than believed.  In that spirit, South Africa finally agreed to negotiate. "The enemy had to set aside its usual arrogance and sit down at the negotiating table. The talks culminated in the Peace Accords for Southern Africa, signed by South Africa, Angola and Cuba at the UN headquarters in December 1988," President Castro said. The Washington government "had no choice but to accept our presence" in the negotiations, the Cuban leader recalled.  The 1988 peace had great implications for the history of Southern Africa. While Cuba agreed to pull out of Angola, South Africa was forced to stop its campaigns against the MPLA government, which slowly led the the weakening of the UNITA rebels. Even more important, a plan to implement Namibia's independence was agreed upon by the Pretoria government. The power balance was changed in disfavour of the apartheid regime on a lasting basis.  Okay - let's play this game with Robert Mugabe… Here's an interesting article from 2004 in the Independent. In short, after independence in Zimbabwe, Mugabe did a land grab and transitioned lands from white farmers to black citizens. Sam Nujoma, who has been Namibia's only President called him in for his expertise… Funny what you learn from a street sign.

Some of you might have already been fortunate enough to see my gallery of Paul's profile while he drives. I'm not sure why I find this to be such an interesting topic, but the Windhoek picture is opposite; really stretching myself in this art form.

Next up? A little bit of heaven at The Olive - Serenity on a Friday Night!

Pop back to the Intro Page

A Weekend in Windhoek - Getting There (or anywhere out of Luanda Airport for that matter!)

The Series: This the first of several posts… you can navigate back to the Intro Page to go to another post. I also linked the next one at the bottom here.

Leaving Luanda
It takes about two and half hours in the air to get to Windhoek from Luanda…. Funny enough, it takes three or more hours of trudging through what is the Luanda airport before one actually gets to take off. Until you experience the Quatro de Fevereiro yourself, you have not lived. Any airport hassles you've considered treacherous are completely normal here in Luanda. The good part about this is that when I go to other countries, I'm always pleasantly surprised that they even are so kind as to TELL you your flight is delayed. What a considerate thing to do. And they are reasonably glad to let you out of the country without much question, which makes customs a bit of a breeze. Lowered expectations are sometimes a good thing!

You Poor Soul… You thought there was an organized structure to all this!!! 
One way to kill time while in line (which one is for most of the time one is in the airport) is by watching people who haven't left Luanda before standing in the estrangeiros (expat) customs line to depart. I feel for them. It's a story of unknowns. Generally they start by sizing up the line (the third one they've been in since arriving at the airport and moving the slowest). Then they start measuring the speed with which that line is moving. Then they look at their ticket's boarding time, then their watch, and they quickly do the math. In their minds, and in any other airport, they're done for; the plane would be rolling off the tarmac. Queuing theory is a bit of a mean game, and it doesn't account for Luanda.

These poor people start to look around, start to befriend strangers "what flight are you on?" "can you believe this?" "why is the line for Angolans going faster?" They start to bond a little in their collective concern all the while thinking "Was three hours of pre-departure time not enough? How could that be? The ticket line didn't open until an hour ago, and now they want me on the plane with this line up in between me and the gates? This is so broken!" Yes. It is. Sort of.

The line continues to move at a glacial pace, and with all the air conditioning of a steam room being available, someone gets a little too antsy. It might be because this is the most queuing that this person has done in years. It might be that because there hasn't been any rhyme or reason to the system thus far, that they have little confidence that anything will work in a process-driven manner, and it might just be that they can't fathom why exiting a country requires that everyone have a lengthy engagement with customs.

And so it goes something like this: with a sweaty brow and ever-dampening shirt, bags awkwardly in hand, papers in tow, to complete strangers the poor guy offers up "I'm on the flight to Joburg, and it's boarding; can I go in front of you?" Much to their chagrin, the answer is generally no…. not because people are inconsiderate, but because "we're on the Joburg flight too; it's not leaving without the 15 of us that are in line."  And sure enough, when you're certain your flight has doors closed and the plane is rolling out to the runway, someone says "all people to Johannesburg, please come to the front of the line." And you zip through and hop on your plane. Organized chaos. It works; it's just not pretty.

What About Us?
In our case, we got through customs in time to get to our gate and sit around for another hour and a half without anyone explaining why our flight was delayed. We realized that six families were traveling together and were letting their kids (all under 5, and on average 2 per family) get every ounce of energy out BEFORE the flight took off. Birth control for Paul and me.

Our biggest fear was that TAAG, the national airline that we took (once and not again), would cancel the flight, which they are wont to do. But no; we all boarded in a reasonable way after the delay, and off we went to Windhoek.

Landing in Namibia
When we arrived we got to customs and both of us pulled a "do we need a visa for this place?" Oops. Probably should have looked into that. I'm not sure why we didn't other than we hadn't heard any horror stories about it, so we must have just let it slip our minds. Good news is you don't need a visa. But what in the world were we thinking?!

When everyone rushed customs line still filling out their papers, the customs officer yelled out "Please! Those of you who have NOT filled out your customs form in entirety, please step out of line to let those who have pass. It is not fair to get in line before you are ready." Wow. Order! Click your heels KC - you aren't in Luanda anymore!

Next up - The Driver, The Navigator, and The Historian - Why is Fidel Castro's Name on That Street Sign?

Back to the Intro Page

A Weekend in Windhoek - A Series!

Paul and I spent the long weekend holiday in Windhoek, Namibia a few weeks ago.

I'm going to break this up a bit, since I started writing and realized I was putting myself to sleep with the length of the post (bad sign).

To prevent any of you from dozing off on your keyboard and the subsequent indents in your cheeks (cute), I'm going to throw a few chapters together to get through this. I'll hyperlink as I develop the topics.

Windhoek Weekend Series Topics
A Weekend in Windhoek - Getting There (or anywhere out of Luanda Airport for that matter!)
The Driver and the Navigator and The Historian - Why is that street named after Castro?
The Olive: Serenity on a Friday Night
Restaurants Reviewed
Goche Ganans - Ever seen a zebra jump in front of your car? We have.
Hanging with the Luanda Crowd
Shopping
Getting Home - Customs, oh how I love you.

Short on Time or interest? Try the summary of these posts - A Weekend in Windhoek - The Short Version. Just a warning, the pictures are sort of lame, and the post was done while we are on the road, so it's fine, but it's not well-put together.

A Weekend in Windhoek - The Short Version

This weekend we decided to get out of town and head south to Windhoek, Namibia. The flight is only a few hours (the time spent in the airport trying to get OUT of Dodge takes longer!), and the place is a very well-put-together city that has a nice quaintness to it.

The topography is so very similar to Scottsdale, it's uncanny. I felt like I was driving by the McDowell Mountains as we left the airport, and then we landed at our hotel for the first night, and I truly could have been plopped back in Paradise Valley. Food, wine, and all.

People here are friendly, and the German history provides a nice European influence to everything. The street names range from Nelson Mandela Avenue, to Robert Mugabe Ave, to Fidel Castro Street, and then Thorenstrasse, John Ludwig Strasse, etc. ... only in post colonial Africa!

Over Saturday and Sunday, we went to Goche Ganans, a lodge about 40 kms south of town, and spent some time watching some animals our on the range...it's fun to see giraffe climbing up what would be the east side of Camelback Mountain from the breakfast table, while baboons and warthogs run around below.

Goche Ganans was a beautiful accommodation but with really bad food. I got a little food bug, so we won't be going back... But it was a fun experience, and if they could tighten up their food menu, then we could recommend this place to others. The best part of our weekend there was when were driving down the dirt road back to GG after a lovely dinner in town, watching the sun go down painting a desert sunset and remarking "my, this IS just like Arizona... " until a couple of oryx jump out in front of your car and you scare off a smattering of zebra along the drive too. Nope. We're in frigging AFRICA!

Speaking of driving on an unfamiliar side of the road... Paul had a few near misses the first day, but as a team we were able to navigate fine and got used to looking in opposite directions pretty well... Except for the curb that Paul loved a little too much on the left side of the car, we ended up okay.

We also did some shopping..we picked up a beautiful set of polished Kudu horns and some other goodies for the home. I am still tracking down the ostrich eggs that I would like best.... I came close this time, but not quite. Some eggs are very intricately carved, and they are lovely, but getting them home this time would be a bit of a bother, so we are holding off until the next voyage.

I also picked up some very reasonably priced casual jewelry, such as some bone and horn earrings, necklaces, bracelets, etc. Everything was a bargain in the world of KC, so it made decision making quite easy; just get both. :-)

Paul and I decided that this is a good weekend retreat, and that we could spend one weekend out of every 6 or so weeks out here. It gives us a little more sense of structure and casual comfort.

There were a few lessons learned along the way... This is probably a three day weekend place, not five.. We need to remain diligent about security, a couple from Germany was parked beside us by the main church in town, and their window was smashed in and her purse had been stolen (we had all our luggage hidden in the trunk)... Meals are leisurely here, so plan to take your time. Taxis are also inexpensive, so just take one if you are planning a night out (we did, and it was great). The town is small and getting around is easy... Just remember what side of the road you are on.

Pictures and a little video are attached (once we get home and I can load more) and food and hotel info is below.

KC

Details on Food and Hotels:

Perhaps it is because we are slightly limited in our restaurant choices in Luanda, but we have really enjoyed dining here. Our favorite restaurants have been the Gathemann (Paul is in love with the venison schnitzel), Am Weinberg (probably the best soup and pasta I've ever had, and Paul loved the filet), the Olive, which is a part of our hotel and ranked highly for its restaurant too...Gourmet - good for a casual lunch (and oysters! ohhhh how lovely!), and Stellenbosch, (more for atmosphere than food quality, and plenty of yum wine).

As far as accommodations go, there are a couple different hotel alternatives here that are great too. We are staying at the Olive Exclusive, which is just wonderful, and then there is also an Olive guesthouse right next door, which is a little more casual, but due to a wrong turn direction, we ended up there, and it checked out too. We also have friends at the Hilton, and it's just fine as well - we spent some time in the pool there, and that was a nice way to while away the afternoon.

The Olive Exclusive: Our rooms (we stayed in two different suites, on on Friday night and one on Monday night - both awesome) were designed with excellence. The first had a little dipping pool to cool off in, and this one has more of a plunge pool, which is super private. The rooms are set up for elegant comfort. Crisp bed linnens, a laptop in each room to connect, a big living room area, lovely bath set up, etc.... This second room has a fountain and koi pond outside its door, the design is amazing, and, in case you just want co hide in, the minibar is well stocked with all sorts of goodies (and priced like a normal place, not some exorbitant $6 diet coke.) Pictures are attached. I think if you are coming to Namibia, and you planned some time in Windhoek, then this would be the place to stay, but the other recommendations are nothing to sneeze at either- they looked great