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