A mere 31 hours door to door via Bangkok and with the assistance of Ethiopian Airlines saw us safely arrived in Ethiopia, very weary, but very pleased to finally get there. For Bob, another small milestone, his 100th country visited.
We are staying at the fairly pleasant Hotel Jupiter
Addis is a thriving city. Some 5 million people officially, but our guide suggested it is more like 10 million with about 150,000 flocking in from the countryside every year. It has a thriving garment industry, with labour costs about 50 percent of those in China. Chinese investment in the country is huge, as it is with most poorer African countries. Influence buying on a grand scale. The Chinese recently built the cities first light rail system.
Our visit stop on our city tour was Trinity Cathedral. The country is about half Coptic christian and half Moslem
Mass had just finished and the lovely choir ladies were still lingering outside
The inside was beautifully decorated
and held the crypt of Haile Selassie
Also outside was a small wedding party
A religious festival was in progress nearby
We then visited the famed National Museum
Home of Lucy, 3.2 million years old, the so called missing link to the ultimate evolution of homo sapiens
and there she is
They also had this rather lovely painting of the legendary meeting of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Legend has it that on her return the Queen gave birth to King Solomon's son and all the Emporers of Ethiopia are descendants of her son - yes including Haile.
Plus an amazing collection of fossils, including the oldest hominid fossils
We ate lunch adjacent at the Lucy Restaurant
Ethiopian style, meat and vegetable dishes laid out on injera bread made from the local staple grain tej. All with the fingers of course
And washed down with a local beer
Next we tried to visit Mt Entoto and St Mays Church, but there had been a religious gathering there and the road was blocked with thousands of locals
Most of the ladies wore a head scarf. They were not Muslim, Coptic Christians also believe women's heads should be covered
Next stop was the Ethnological museum in the old palace of Haile Selassie, now a university as well
There were many and varied exhibits, nomadic tribal camps
textiles
traditional clothing
and tomb markers just to cite a few
You could also visit the old royal quarters. Haile's bedroom for example
Plus they had a great extensive collection of somewhat naive religious paintings from the 16 th and 17 th centuries
this one showing somewhat gorily the martyrdom of St George
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