Tanzania Holiday 2: Arusha National Park - morning walk

On our first day, we arrived in Kilimanjaro and then spent a relaxing evening at Karama Lodge near Arusha.
So the next morning, refreshed, we were itching to start on the safari and met guide Prim promptly at 08:00. 

Our first destination was Arusha National Park, about 60km south of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the border with Kenya.  Also, it is about halfway between the Serengeti National Park (west) and Tanzania's Indian Ocean coast (east).

Source: Official Site of Tanzania National Parks

The drive from our lodge to the park's southern entrance took just over 30 minutes.  Arusha is known for Mt. Meru, the second highest mountain in Tanzania and fifth highest in all of Africa. Mt Meru and Little Meru are in the far west of the park.  The trails to these volcanic peaks start at Momela gate in the center of the park and head west.

Arusha is mostly montane forest areas, with a group of alkaline lakes in the northeast, and grasslands around the lakes and the crater in the southeast.  Wildlife is not as abundant here as in other Tanzania parks, and no lions live here.  Wooded areas have blue monkeys and black & white colobus monkeys.  Giraffe, water buffalo, and zebra roam through trees and plains.  The lakes are home to hippos and waterfowl.  Elephants are present, but rarely seen.

Source: tanzaniawildlifesafaris.com

We entered the park from the south, with views of the crater and some open space, and saw zebras first:

As we drove through a more forested area on the way north to Momela Gate, we stopped to photograph some baboons and their babies along the side of the road.  The lighting was challenging with the shadow of the trees vs the bright morning sun, but they were right there next to the car. (The sun would get even harsher later...)

At a stopping point, the babies climbed down from their mothers' backs, but never too far from mom's reach.

It was difficult to guess the number of baboons due to the woods.  But these four came right into the sun for us.

Our guide drove on to Momela Gate and we pulled into the parking area.  He immediately warned us about the blue monkeys.  They are now too used to people, and approach every car looking for food.  They climbed right up onto our Land Cruiser and we had to "shoo" them away, or they would have climbed down through the open roof!

Here, we waited while our guide registered with the park and found a ranger, who would be taking us on a walk.  The starting point/sign is the same place where Herr J started on his climb of Mt. Meru a few years ago:

Mt. Meru was clearly visible in the west -- we see the plains, the outlying forest, and Meru's volcanic peaks:

Our guide walked us through the fields and told us about / showed us the flora and fauna in Arusha.
She had a rifle with her, just in case an animal got aggressive and needed to be scared off.

Frau A had a weapon of her own... her Nikon with a big zoom lens!

Far across the field we could see a large family of baboons moving about in the grass:

We ascended a bit into the foothills and had a look back at the path we took across the plain.
The sun was very hot (we both got a little burned this day) so we definitely took a pole-pole pace.

We entered a more wooded area, a stopped for a photo with a large tree and its unusual root system:

Then we arrived at the small waterfall.  It felt nice to be in the shade, and splashed water on our faces.

(Note for photographers:  the above is bracketed/HDR with Photomatix, whereas below is single shot.)

We continued walking downstream with the water from the fall, circling back towards Momela Gate.

Note: above photo was bracketed and HDR/tonemapped using Photomatix

After we made it back to the parking lot, we took off in the other direction, looking for giraffes.
We definitely found them!  A group of almost 20 passed our position, and we took a lot of pics.

We tried to photograph each one as they walked by, or paused with an unobstructed view:

We were incredibly fortunate to see so many, and to have them pass by so closely.  We just stood there!

They were quite cautious -- we were under constant surveillance (even though they could squash us):

We were in place for probably 40 minutes.  More and more just kept coming and walking by, 50-100m away.

I panned a bit too quickly (vid quality is spotty) but here you can see 19 of them:

They finally passed our location and continued heading into the forest, to hide & feed in the trees:

This was a fantastic start to the trip -- to see so many giraffes, so closely.  And this was all before lunch, Day 1.

Post #3 will be our lunch, and canoeing on one of the alkaline lakes in the afternoon!

And finally... this was our honeymoon.  For the wedding, instead of registering for physical gifts (e.g., china, silverware, etc.), we registered different parts of this Tanzanian safari.  For this blog post, we wish to heartfully thank:
   -  Mellie W, for the game drive through Arusha.  We saw zebra, baboons, and monkeys.  THANK YOU!
   -  Edie C, for the guided walk in Arusha.  You made these giraffe photos possible.  THANK YOU!

We hope our friends and family enjoy the pictures and story as much as we did living it. 

Tanzania Holiday 1: Intro and Arrival in Arusha

It didn't take long for Frau A and I to decide what we wanted to do on our Honeymoon: a safari.  But when & where?

Due to her crazy job, we had time only at year-end (3 months post-wedding).  We wanted three weeks for the trip.

We considered a number of things to determine the specific destination(s).  Most importantly, where would we get the "best" viewing of animals?  Mid-December is the short rainy season in northern Africa, and that changes the ability to see wildlife (the grass is higher for animals to hide, and water more abundant so animals don't cluster around watering holes).  The Great Migration (Kenya and Tanzania) is not really active at this time of year either -- it is too close to the birthing period in late January / early February -- so wildebeest vs crocodiles was out.

Even without the Great Migration, safari operators and others we spoke to said that Tanzania would provide the best experience, so we chose that over tempting options in Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, and others.

There are lot of national parks, conservation areas, and game reserves in Tanzania alone (see map below). 

Source: Wikimedia Commons

We heard that the "northern circuit" would have the densest game viewing -- these are a series of parks near the border with Kenya.  The easiest flight from Munich went through Qatar to Kilimanjaro, a little east of the parks.

Qatar is obviously working to be a key transportation hub for destinations in Africa and Asia (we flew through there for our Maldives vacation too).  They have a TCBY (frozen yogurt) open late, so we love to kill the layover there! 

We wanted a bit of beach (relaxation) time too.  Zanzibar is the largest and most popular option, which is why we went the other direction and chose Mafia Island, further south along the coast.  There's a marine park there too!

Our final itinerary started us in the smaller parks of the northern circuit, moving east to west.  First up was
Arusha National Park, then Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and on to Serengeti National Park.  Finally, from the airstrip in the Serengeti, we would fly to Mafia Island (with a bunch of stops in between).

There was one especially unique aspect of this trip:  a "walking safari" in the Serengeti.  There are over 120 firms licensed in Tanzania to do game drives in the park.  Only 3 of them are licensed to walk customers in designated "wilderness areas".  We reserved three days of walks in Serengeti N.P., to be followed later by game drives.

Enough about the planning - on to the trip!  Upon our arrival at the Kilimanjaro airport, a driver picked us up and we drove to the Karama Lodge outside the town of Arusha.  The weather was quite hot, but not too humid.

Karama Lodge has 22 thatched cabins set on a hillside in the woods.  They use local materials as much as possible.

Since things grow so quickly there, they use wood boilers outside to heat water for showers (morning & night only).

After we stashed our packs in the cabin we walked around the grounds, "warming up" the cameras with flowers.

Just downhill from the central building/lodge is a pool.  We skipped this, but it looked tempting in the heat.

Note: above photo was bracketed and HDR/tonemapped using Photomatix

The next photo is the back side of the central building.  The windows are at a seating area near a small bar.

Note: above photo was bracketed and HDR/tonemapped using Photomatix

Here's the view from those windows (photo below).  You can't see it in the picture, but you would see Mt. Meru if you stuck your head out the window and looked sharply left.  Nearby Arusha National Park is tomorrow's destination.

Note: above photo was bracketed and HDR/tonemapped using Photomatix

There was a make-shift Christmas tree in the lobby, a nice reminder of the time of year.

We grabbed a seat near the open window and enjoyed the cooling evening air and nice view.

Of course we also had to investigate the local beer options.  The bar had four possibilities:

We opted for the Kilimanjaro and Serengeti, both lagers.  Both were great after a long trip (Serengeti a bit nicer).

From here we'll take you through each day on the trip -- expect a LOT of photos in the coming blog posts.
Stay tuned.

And finally... this was our honeymoon.  For the wedding, instead of registering for physical gifts (e.g., china, silverware, etc.), we registered different parts of this Tanzanian safari.  For this blog post, we wish to heartfully thank:
   -  Jaclyn F, for the car service to Munich airport.  It really got the trip off on the right foot.  THANK YOU!
   -  Aunt Annie and Uncle Jack, for the nights here in Karama Lodge.  The cabin on stilts was fun!  THANK YOU!
   -  Ronnie and Jan M, for the high-capacity camera memory card.  Wait 'til you see all the photos... THANK YOU!
   -  Ted and Teri K, for the high-capacity camera memory card.  Hope you enjoy the pics on the blog.  THANK YOU!
   -  Uncle Bill, for the high-capacity camera memory card.  We used almost every gigabyte!  THANK YOU! 

Schnitzelbahn's Summer in Photos

Wow, it's been a roller coaster of a summer here at Schnitzelbahn. I don't mean in the up and down sort of a way...it's all been up! But I do mean in the way that once you get on the ride, there is no getting off until you reach the end! And it zips by at high speed!

While we try to unpack and recover and go through all the photos, here's a quick recap of the last few months. We'll post in more detail about each soon, especially our exciting wedding week.

Of course the highlight of the summer was our wedding 2 weeks ago in Charleston, SC. The one downside to it being your own wedding is that it's impossible to take pictures. So, we just have to wait a few more weeks until we get the photographer's photos. Herr J is pretty patient, but the waiting is killing me! 

At the reception, with our awesome caterers from Cru Catering

But in addition to the wedding planning we've also been working hard, working out, and trying to fit in a bit of travel where we can. Since this year I needed all my vacation for the wedding and honeymoon, we've tried to make some fun trips around the area. 

In the weekends leading up to the wedding, we combined those goals with some hikes in southern Bavaria.

After an earlier abortive attempt to hike up Wendelstein due to rain, we were determined to go up the next time, no matter the weather. Despite the heavy fog, we did make it to the very top, and saw absolutely nothing. But it was a great day and we had good company (and hiked the final hour in pouring rain).

On the way back down from WendelsteinLuckily the weather was better for the next hikes, though they were pretty tough ones, both over 1,000m climb!

View from atop the Rotwand

Herr J coming down from Guffert 

We also had the chance to see a bit of Germany's other regions when we attended friends' weddings in Duisburg (the Ruhrgebiet) and Lennestadt (the Sauerland). 

Landschaftspark in DuisburgMorning hike in the Sauerland

And we ventured a bit further with a long weekend road trip through the Czech Republic to see the sites, tour a couple of breweries, and visit dog breeders.

Cesky Krumlov

Did I mention PUPPIES??!!!!

 

We acquired some more photography gear in anticipation of our honeymoon safari, and practiced on the zoo animals.  

And of course took some weekend morning walks to feed the ducks and enjoy all the cute babies. 

And the persistent, but maybe not as cute, geese.

For me, it was also a summer of sewing projects. I'm currently finishing up a big scarf I started knitting on my weekly commute. However, I did develop a much closer relationship with my sewing machine (and make numerous trips to the fabric store) while sewing trachten-inspired bags for our wedding favors. 

And finally finished the dirndl I started last year. Had I known I'd be getting married this year, I would have picked a lighter fabric more suitable for a wedding reception. But still, I'm looking forward to wearing it to Oktoberfest this week.  

This year was a special birthday, as I had the chance to celebrate it many times. My birthday was exactly a week before our wedding, so I was in the US for once. It was a fun week of lots of cakes, presents, and time with friends and family. After celebrating with family on the actual birthday, my girlfriends from Dallas surprised me with a tasty chocolate ice cream cake the next day. One of my best birthday(week)s ever!

mmm....ice cream cake!

And after a week of work in New York, here we are back to reality....well, not yet reality or normal life...back to Oktoberfest!

Löwenbräu at the Oktoberfest opening parade

Friday Photo Favorite: Sunset

This is where I'd like to be right now!

 

Followed by dinner here:

Expat Bloggers Meetup - Church of St. Ursula, Cologne

Last Summer, we met up with fellow English-speaking bloggers in Germany.  The meeting destination was Cologne, and we spent a weekend seeing some of what the city had to offer.

Of course in Cologne, churches are the thing to see.  it's the heart of Catholicism in Germany.
They do have "the Twelve Romanesque Churches of Cologne" (plus countless others), after all.

We have already posted cool photos from the famous Dom (cathedral), and the Great St. Martin Church.
Our last one was the Church of St. Ursula.  (Wide photo courtesy of Wikipedia): 

There is a unique top to the tower, with a mixture of yellowish wood and a crown-shaped base for the cross:

Inside has the "typical" large stained glass windows towering behind the altar...

...with the crucified Jesus hanging around...

...plus a few other icons scattered throughout the interior...

...and various statues and busts above and below.

So, at first, the Church of St. Ursula appears to be your normal Christian house of worship.  Except the bones.

LOTS of human bones.

A large reliquary, connected near the entrance of the church, contains thousands of bones.  They are are main "decoration".  Below, they cover almost the entire top of the wall above the altar in the reliquary:

Why?  The church was built on the site containing ruins of an old Roman cemetery.  It was here where the legend of St. Ursula claims that 11,000 martyred virgins were buried.  And we all know what to do with relics of thousands of martyred virgins:

In case you didn't notice in the photo above, these (below) are what lie on the shelves:

Here's a little more help to see the shelves, by zooming in:

The different sizes and shapes of the human bones are used to create designs and letters/words:

Here we have ribs, joints...

...major limbs...

...and others that require Gray's Anatoms to identify.

It's quite interesting, really, and the room is always very quiet and peaceful (but nowhere to sit).

All four walls have a large display/collage of bones, so the scale of the collection is quite, um, impressive.

It was a great last stop during the weekend in Cologne.  Definitely worth a visit on your next visit.

Expat Bloggers Meetup - Great St. Martin Church, Cologne

Last Autumn, Frau A and I attended our first English Bloggers Meet-up in Germany.  The group's 2011 meeting was held in Cologne, where we had a wonderful tour of the Dom (Cathedral).  After the Cathedral tour, we had some further activities and meals in the Altstadt (old city).

First, I noticed a funny sign outside the Cathedral selling a book "Hooray, we're still alive!" about post WWII years:

Then, we walked past the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) just outside the Cathedral...

...and down towards the Rhein river.  Some trees were already starting to turn brilliant colors:

We walked along the Rhein for maybe 5 minutes before arriving at the Great St. Martin Church:

Cologne is arguably the center of Roman Catholicism in Germany, and there are a lot of churches to see.  In fact, St. Martin is one of the twelve Romanesque churches in the city!

St. Martin's foundations go back to about the year 960, with the current buildings being erected as early as 1150. 

St. Martin's history also includes ties to a Benedictine Abbey, fires and reconstructions, and WWII and rebuilding.

It's obviously much smaller, less dramatic, and less "fancy" than the big Dom, but also almost no tourists!  The simplicity and quite made for a great contrast with the overrun Cathedral.

This lady stopped for a prayer and was right at the light's edge, from light to dark.  Beautiful.

After a while for photographs, looking around, and quite comtemplation, we left and headed out for a late lunch.  The hot topic of discussion at the bloggers' table:  photographic equipment of course!

One of the bloggers had a funky lens that had a 45-degree mirror at the end of the barrel... to see around corners.  (below: the lens is pointed right, but the mirror is facing my camera and captured me)

Lunch was at a Turkish place, and we loaded up on hummus, tzatziki, etc.  This is quite typical, since there are so many Turks and a strong Turkish influence in almost all major German cities. 

Frau A and I like the Moroccan-style lamps:

After a hotel pause (read:nap) we met for a late dinner at a Cologne establishment, serving Kölsch beer, naturally.  Here was a waiter filling up a tray from a true traditional wooden keg:

Kölsch is more like smooth Bavarian helles than the hoppy pilsners served in most of northern Germany.  Also, rather than a huge 1L stein, Köksch is served in small, thiner glasses.  That makes sure there isn't a lot in a huge mug that gets warm over time.

The waiters just mark your coaster to keep track of all the smaller glasses you order.  Like the waiter above, they carry around lots of fresh glasses in a special tray and just keep replacing empty glasses at every table.

We ordered the gulash soup (Hungarian in origin, of course, but adopted everywhere in Germany) and local wurst served in a pan, with bread and mustard.  The perfect dinner.

Before we left at the end of the weekend, there was one more church to see -- this one has the bones of 10,000 virgin martyrs!  Stay tuned...

Two Tours of the Cologne Cathedral

This post has a LOT of photos, so I'll try to keep the text to a minimum.  One of the events at the English bloggers' meet-up last year was a tour of the Cologne cathedral.  What was special about this was that the guide took us on service elevator to the upper level, and we walked around both inside and outside (to a unique lookout).  The next day, during free time, Frau A and I took the more public route of walking up the stairs to the root of the spires.

Check out Wikipedia for info on this famous cathedral - started in year 1248, is the largest gothic church in Northern Europe, is Germany's most visited landmark, with the largest free-swigning bell in the world: 

The day before the tour (when we went to Aachen), we grabbed a photo from the front in sunlight...
(note:  you can see the lookout we will visit on the first tour in this photo, with a small spire above it)

...and then at night:

This is the cathedral from the "back", near the bank of the Rhein river (the entrance is on the city side):

From this side, you can see the two huge spires that are it's calling card on the Cologne skyline:
(these are the destination for the second visit the following day)

As a gothic structure, there is a lot of detail of course: 

For the first tour, we met a guide at the side of the cathedral, and entered basically through a locked construction/restoration entrance.  We immediately took the maintenance elevator up to the next level.

As we exited, we started walking through the passage that outlines this upper level inside the cathedral.
You can see the passage to the left of Frau A, and the cathedral opens up below on the right:

This is the view of the cathedral inside, from this second level (basically looking right and down from Frau A, through the pillars and over the stone edge): 

I stuck my arm out and took a few blind photos to try and get a better view.  You can see organ pipes on the left and the main altar at the far front of the cathedral:

This is the same shot processed in HDR to try and show more detail:

There were neat twists and turns through the passage:

Coming around the end, we got a glimpse of the main organ pipes...

...and now we are looking at the other end of the cathedral inside, at the front entrance:

We passed some places where light coming through the huge stained-glass windows hit the wall.  Great views.

At one point, the passage took us a bit higher...

...and we had a tremendous view of one of the windows:

Then in another narrow section of the passage, there was a stained-glass window on the left, and the light hitting the wall on the right.  Just awesome.  Got one shot with Frau A, both in regular processing...

...and in HDR:

Here is a view just with the stone and light (regular)...

...(and HDR):

When we reached the far side of the upper level, we took a door to the path wandering along the outside of the cathedral.  We were literally walking under the flying buttresses, and over the roof of the trancept (I think):

This is looking back down the first part of the path.  In the background is a bridge over the Rhein river:

The path takes a turn to continue along the outside of the cathedral.  You can see members of our bloggers' group ahead of me:

Up ahead is the guide (a student, I think, with expertise in the cathedral's architecture and history).  He is standing before the door that will bring us to the next part of the tour, with maintenance ladders on the rooftop...

On the last few meters before reaching the door, we had a great view of the Rhein:

This is zoomed-out to the bridge seen in the prior photos - obviously for trains, and not cars:

Just at the door, the view straight ahead was to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station)...

...and a bit of the city as well:

This was the view when we got back inside the cathedral:

You can see the tops of the domes in the cathedral ceiling through the scaffolding, beneath our feet!

A set of metal stairs will lead us to the looking mentioned earlier:

Looking down, you can see more of the domes in the roof that tourists are staring up at in the cathedral right now!

At the top of the stairs was a "trap door" that opened into the lookout.  This is NOT one of the two huge spires (that comes in the next tour) but is the smaller one.  (See the first photo on this page to see the difference.)

From up here we had an unimpeded view of the Rhein river...

...and the Hauptbahnhof:

Looking up in the city direction, the twin spires loom.  Next day's visit will take us up into the bottom of these:

As usual, there is always restoration going on, with scaffolding obscuring parts of the building:

With a little zoom, we could see the ladder going to the very top of a spire!

Looking down, we could see the buttresses again and the path that we walked along outside the building:

It was cool and breezy up there, but Frau A agreed to post for a second:

On the next day, we took a different "tour".  This time, it was the unguided access to the stairs climbing up to the base of the spires.

Before getting in line, we spent some time at ground level inside the cathedral:

We could spend hours here taking photos.

We had to wait about 20-30 minutes in line, pay, and then start the slow (and tightly winding) stairs up almost 400 steps (the girls ahead of us counted).  We finally reach inside of the base of one of the spires.  Looking up:

Then up further to a walkway just outside the spires that was heavily covered with metal chain link fence:

This is not just to keep things from going down - the fence was above our heads as well.

The fence got in the way for photos, but despite the blurriness it's a nice view.

Looking down from here, you can see the place/platform/lookout we were on the day before: 

And of course the views of the Rhein here were great as well:

It was really a stunning trip with the bloggers' group, and a must-do for any tourist to Cologne.