Namibia was a colonial possession of Germany for many years and Swakopmund was their coastal city. It's Bavarian character is unmistakable. It is unfortunately, not a deep water port as is Walvis Bay, which was built up under British occupation. What does make Swakopmund special is that it pops up on a section of coastline which is for all intents and purposes desert. It is, as the tour director stated " as if someone put down a very large piece of Astroturf on a section of the desert coast. It is much greener and nicer than Walvis Bay which is the principle port of Namibia and is almost wholly industrial.

Our friend Carol with Donna. Carol gave me a wonderful compliment on the web site. Isn't she wonderful. I love her !!!!

The road from Walvis Bay to Swakopmund runs adjacent to the coast.

The streets were litter free and well maintained.

The shuttle bus provided by Radisson let us off at this beautiful hotel in the middle of town.

There were many well stocked beautiful shops in town. Our last chance to buy beige clothing.

The German heritage is pretty obvious.

Donna gives weaving a try. When she pointed out that she would need a manicure much more often, a quick calculation of costs vs bennefits made it clear it was not in my economic interest to have her take up weaving as a hobby.

I tried to buy this T shirt for Donna but was not successful. When I shot this picture I was lucky to get away with just a long cold stare from the shirts owner. However, when she met Donna, she understood why I wanted Donna to have it. Just kidding Donna !!!

The streets were clean and traffic free.

Loren was determined to find out how to use the pay-phone here so he could call his daughter, Erica, who is getting married in about a month. When he has a goal he is so single minded it's entertaining.

We had a wonderful lunch at the Hansa Hotel.

It was a lovely venue with many German dishes offered. We opted for grilled fish and salads for a change.

Just outside the dining room window was a lovely garden area.

The town looked like a mini-Bavarian village.

On the ride back to the ship we passed what can only described as a beach community.

The houses in the beach community were new and quite nice.

When we got back to the dock with our newly purchased phone cards, Donna and Loren tried in vain to get one of the dockside phones to work. Here is where my electrical engineering experience really paid off. I pointed out that if they were to look down they could see that the wires from the phones were not connected to anything.

Ed Rollins, one of this segment's guest lecturers gives a little talk on politics. Among other things , he ran Ronald Regain's campaigns for president. He was wonderful.