Travelogue Tanzania 2009
Programme Day 12 – Zanzibar

After breakfast we are expected by our guide for a Stone Town tour. Originally this was not proposed by our travel agency, we would have spent our entire time on Zanzibar at the beach. We really would have missed something! Good that we asked our agency to include some time in Stone Town.

Our guide was excellent and led us for four or even five hours through the tiny streets and explained and showed us a lot of things. If we had tried to visit Stone Town on ourselves with a guide book we would have seen much less and would not have understood many things we would have seen.

Sansibar - Stone Town - A man "mows" individual blades of grass with a machete while two others are watching.
Lawn care with a machete (the blade is almost invisible) – maybe more art than aiming for results.
Zanzibar - Stone Town - Door of the house of Zanzibar’s most famous slave trader
Door of the house of Zanzibar’s most famous slave trader. Zanzibar’s wealth was based on the trade with slaves, ivory and spices.

Here are some more impressions:

Zanzibar - Stone Town - a kind of covered balcony, winter garden on a house
Zanzibar - Stone Town - In a narrow alley, a veiled little girl carries a bag on her head.
Zanzibar - Stone Town - a typical general store
Zanzibar - Stone Town - Pumpkins and fruits at a stall in the market
Zanzibar - Stone Town - Octopuses at a stand in the market
Zanzibar - Stone Town - cargo bike
Zanzibar - Stone Town - slyvery monument - statues of slaves in chaines in a pit
The slavery monument at the place of the original slave market. The slaves were not standing in pits but the chaines are original.
Zanzibar - Stone Town - Glance into a kind of cell where the slaves had to wait for their auction.
This is one of the rooms where the slaves had to wait for the auction. It is only about a meter high.
Zanzibar - Stone Town - Right in Stown Town there are so called "Plattenbauten", a present of the government of the German Democratic Republic.
“German Houses”. Such so called “Plattenbauten” were very common in the German Democratic Republic. These were built as a present of the government of the GDR.

At the end of the tour we visited the “House of Wonders”. It used to be administration but today it is a museum. The house has its name due to three miraculous things you could find there: tap water, electricity and even an elevator 😉

Zanzibar - Stone Town - House of Wonders: An administration building with three wonders - running water, electricity and an elevator.
The House of Wonders
Zanzibar - Stone Town - House of Wonders: Der Aufzug.
one of the wonders: an elevator
Zanzibar - Stone Town - view from the House of Wonders over a small park and the harbor
view from the House of Wonders over the harbor
Zanzibar - Stone Town - view from the House of Wonders over Stone Town
view over Stone Town in the other direction
Zanzibar - Stone Town - The Old Dispensary, a magnificent colonial building
The Old Dispensary

Right after our city tour, we are picked up and drive across or lengthwise across the island to the north to our last hotel, where we can relax for a few more days. We will spend three nights at the Langi Langi Beach.

We arrive in the afternoon and go into the ocean the first time. The water has almost the temperature of a bath tub.

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