Back to Nairobi

It was back to Nairobi on Friday to catch our Saturday evening flight back to London. It was all coming to an end. We checked into the Norfolk Hotel once again only to find our room upgraded to the Presidential Suite. What a great room! Saturday found us hanging out in Nairobi with a guide. We visited the Railway Museum, The Karen Blixen Museum and had an interesting lunch at a restaurant called Carnivore.

The trip in from the airport on Friday night was long (about 2 hrs.) due to heavy traffic. What was interesting about the journey was that the road was like a shopping mall. Along the roadsides traders offered all sorts of goods right at your window as your car crawled along. Our driver bought a hat and one person was even selling pillows. What a great way to shop! No, I didn't buy anything!

A bit about Harry: Somehow we charmed the check in clerk at the hotel for upgrade. We weren't happy about our room when we stayed there before. We pretended to know who Harry Thuku was and were honored to stay in a room named for him!. Harry was born in 1895 in Kenya into the Kikuyu ethnic group, one of the groups that lost the largest amount of land to white settlers during the British takeover of Kenya. In 1921 Thuku founded the East African Association, the first multi-ethnic political organization in East Africa. This led to Thuku's arrest in 1922 and sentencing to ten years' imprisonment. He remained politically active in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Karen Blixen Museum is located in Karen a suburb of Nairobi named for the Danish author of Out of Africa. She lived here between 1914 and 1931. It is set in a lovely garden and you can see her beloved Ngong Hills from the back garden. Proudly displayed are articles worn by Meryl Streep and Robert Redford (trousers!) in the film Out of Africa.

The Karen Blixen house
The Ngong Hills

Carnivore (in Langata) was a much sought after tourist restaurant (for good reason!). It is a nyama choma(BBQ) restaurant. It is the national dish of Kenya. Vegetarians need not apply. We sampled ostrich, crocodile and the normal run of the meats like pork, lamb, beef and chicken. We walked into a room with a huge grill and were given a table where the server set down a lazy susan filled with various sauces and two plates. Servers walked around the room and carved the various meats right onto to your plate.

The Grill
Jo with a server
Jeff and the guide

The Museum is housed in an old railway building. The relics of by gone railroad days are in the yard. There was a seat that was attached to the front of the engine that Teddy Roosevelt shot animals from (don't know why I didn't take a picture of that). We shared our experience with a group of really cute young schoolchildren. Also we saw the train used in the movie Out of Africa.

Entrance to the Museum
Kenya Railways sign
Trains

Group of school children