Usually before landing at any
airport you see a little something of the surrounding town but not in this
case, there wasn’t a building to be seen anywhere and in fact the Windhoek
City, surrounded by mountains on all sides, is about a half-hour drive away –
obviously the airport was built on the nearest flat piece of land.
We’re staying just the one night
at the Hilton Hotel, very nice but meant for business types not us. Our guide Carlos gave us the option to join
the whistle-stop drive-by tour of the city or have a couple of hours’
downtime. We chose the latter and after
a quick shower we wandered out to nearby shops to gather some water.
As it turned out we could see the
famous Christuskirche from the Hilton’s rooftop bar.
We met up with the other 7 in the
group and after Carlos running through the tour programme we were taken to
Castle Heinitzberg for dinner and wine tasting.
This is one of three castles built in the city by wealthy German
settlers during the late 1800s and is now a hotel and restaurant. The meal was delicious (vegetarian option for
me) and each course was accompanied by a delicious Stellenbosch wine. We had a good chat to those sitting nearest
to us, all of whom seem well travelled so plenty of stories to share.