Africa's Seven Stars Hotel

We were scheduled to fly Hamburg, Germany - Paris, France (CDG) - destination Republic of Djibouti, Africa with the intention to visit the recently opened Djibouti Palace Kempinski, built on a strip of manmade reclaimed coastline. The international press studded Seven Stars an Stripes Award Presentation was announced to be attended by His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Dileita Mohamed, Prime Minister of Djibouti, all honorable ministers of his staff, ambassadors and consuls just as Air France went on strike. Make a long story short; we ended up flying Lufthansa to Charles De Gaulle from Hamburg, to find this major international European airport in turmoil and by sheer luck we ended up on one of the few planes allowed to leave that day on a non-stop business class seven-hour overnight flight with Air France to the capital city of Djibouti.
The capital city of Djibouti is located in the Republic of Djibouti, a small country in eastern Africa bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Djibouti, the size of Massachusetts USA, features almost two hundred miles of fascinating coastline with scattered plateaus and highlands. We landed relaxed and refreshed in the early morning hours of a beautiful, sunny and already quite warm day although we still couldn't believe that we actually made it.

Thorsten Buehrmann - L'Espace Affaires
Djibouti - Ambouli International Airport, relatively small in comparison (AF serves JIB once a week), granted us quick access to the semi public arrival hall where a well-dressed uniformed driver held up a highly polished golden sign, welcoming us new arrivals of the Kempinski Palace. This well-appreciated gesture makes us always feel at home and cared for, all over the world. Our driver inquired after our passports and took over the formal entrance into the republic for us. Here we met with Albert Stienissen one of the directors of the new Kempinski Palace. We all followed Albert to the shiny silver Mercedes limo, parked at the main entrance. As we sat down, we received cold towels on a silver tray to freshen up and then we were on our merry way. For the fist time in Djibouti, we watched with great interest people and localities. Djiboutian attire seems to evince the hot climate; some men wore a loosely wrapped outfit that went down to about the knee, along with a cotton robe over the shoulder, much like a Roman toga.