We hiked through the forest, then went on a boardwalk through the mangrove. After our tour of the forest, we went to a spice plantation and were shown around and had to guess what spices we were looking at based on smell and what they looked like. After the tour, we were given three different types of tea: lemongrass, masala, and ginger. All were made fresh from spices picked that day, and all were delicious!
After our spice tour, we headed to Stone Town for our tour of the city. We had lunch at the Serena hotel and had a beautiful view of the ocean and outlying islands, and the dhow ships sailing their passengers who hoped to catch some delicious fish.
After lunch, we headed out for our tour of the town, which used to have one of the largest slave markets in East Africa.
After a long day of touring, we headed back to the hotel for dinner, and the bed! It sure is nice to have a room in the villa to myself so I don't have to listen to Mom snore!
The next morning was a free day to enjoy the beach, and was my day to go diving. We had breakfast, and then I went to an adjacent hotel (where the dive shop was located) and got prepared for my dives. We had two dives, and they were very nice. I saw tons of fish, eels, and an octopus! After my dives, I headed back to the hotel and we spent the afternoon on the beach (having it almost all to ourselves!). It was a glorious day of doing nothing, which was much needed after our safari and all that traveling. We had massages and then dinner by the pool.
The following day, we had until 3pm to enjoy the beach and our resort, until we had to say a sad goodbye to Zanzibar. We were taken to the airport, checked in for our flight to Nairobi, went through customs, and then waited for our flight to arrive. Two hours before we were scheduled to depart, we were called to go to the gate, so we went through security and sat in a small room with an uncomfortable amount of people. Our flight ended up being delayed by about twenty minutes, but we eventually got boarded, crammed tight like sardines in the back of the plane in a tiny seat crammed against the window, and then were off for Amsterdam! So long Africa, can't wait until we meet again!
We arrived in Amsterdam safe and sound about fifteen minutes late (arriving just before 6am). This was the first time at Schiphol that we have been met at the plane by immigration people checking our passports, and the result was a bottleneck to get out of the little chute that connects the airport to the airplane. We eventually got through there, through actual immigration, picked up our bags which were all ready on the belt, cleared customs, hopped in a cab, and got back to my apartment at about 7am. We got our bags upstairs and took a little nap (or at least Mom did) until a little past 9am. We got ready for a day of Amsterdam sightseeing, and were off! We went to the Anne Frank House, then to the Pancake Bakery (one of my favorite places to eat in Amsterdam) for lunch. We walked around the Jordaan, with its gorgeous canals and canal houses all covered in flowers for the summer. We window shopped down the Haarlemerstraat, on the way back to my apartment. Mom took another nap as I got caught up on my blog. This afternoon we plan on taking a canal cruise and then having some bitteballen while people watching on the Dam, followed by an early dinner. We did not sleep much on the plane and will be taking it easy this evening in order to hopefully catch up on our sleep!
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Location:Zanzibar, Tanzania
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