08.15 We have awoken after the first night here at La Voisine Motel in Ruhengeri, Rwanda. It went well to sleep under mosquitoes nets. It was no problem to get out from them either. Today we will have a full day here in town. After a look at the map we realized that the part of the town where most tourists keep to is unseen by us so far. It will probably be a long walk there and if we are lucky, we might find a lunch place that also has internet.

09.02 We have returned to the ground floor and yesterday's dinner table. There is a hope that it will also be this morning's breakfast table.

09.41 There sure was breakfast for us. We were served a lovely blend of fresh fruit, tea, bread and omelette. A good start of the day! We still have not seen any other guests here. Here are the owner Louis, the two young girls serving and attending at the reception, a chef and a few more. There are plenty to take care of the two of us. There is no major problems at the hotel but it is hidden in a residential area and is not mentioned on the internet or in any guide books. There are no signs pointing here. No wonder that there are so few guests here.

10.32 Most things are now structured and under control. One bad thing though is the fact that we once again lack water. Luckily we had time for a shower before it disappeared. We hope that it will return again just like last night.

Breakfast fruits at La Voisine Motel.

Peter is attacking today´s breakfast.

The street outside our hotel is not in the best condition.

11.04 We left the room and the motel/hotel behind us. We wonder by the way why it's called "motel" when the street outside is in such condition that it is barely possible to move forward with a motor vehicle? Now we are walking towards the city centre along a wall that has pieces of glass cemented at the top, all in order to prevent people from climbing in. Or is it to prevent people from climbing out?

11.17 We reached the main street, Avenue du 5 Juillet, and turned right past the bus station. Pretty soon we were joined by a young man in an orange t-shirt. It was the tourism student Peter who wanted to practice his English with us today because there is no school on Saturdays. It was nice to converse with him but at the same time, we missed much of what we had intended to look at and photograph along the way.

11.45 We have continued to wander through Ruhengeri and along the main street. We have in all cases seen a little more of Ruhengeri, among other things, a beautiful green area that was on a site where it formerly was a marketplace. Peter wondered if we possibly had some dictionaries with us that he could get and not unexpectedly, was the answer to the question no. He said goodbye to us at the university. We walked further and will now eat lunch at Hotel Muhabura (http://www.muhaburahotel.com) which, according to what we read have a good restaurant.

12.26 It is nice in the sun but it takes time to get our ordered lunches. Christer has ordered goat today. We have while waiting, been out on the internet. We have been updated on the latest news and given signs of life from us on Facebook. The money that the ATM machine refused to give Christer is registered as a completed withdrawal on his bank site, not good. We hope it will be corrected later.

12.35 A man and his goats has walked along the road outside the hotel/restaurant. We thought at first that it was Christer's goat which was on the way but it was not so. He will have to wait a while longer for his lunch.

13.26 The good lunch was worth the wait and it was ended with coffee. Once again we were served the coffee in a thermos. This was intense green and hard to open. We were forced to ask for help to get it open. Our waiter, however, had the right twist and touch.

We two and a tall man are walking through Ruhengeri this sunny Saturday.

A small garden in the town centre.

The student Peter is practicing his English with Christer.

A long walk towards the waiting lunch.

We met a typical safari vehicle.

13.39 We are not the only tourists in town. On the way to the centre we met a bunch of Asians with large cameras and they photographed in all directions. The local population looked sceptical and wondered why you want to take photos of a ditch, an advertising sign and strolling people.

14.01 It is warm today and we have returned home after a long walk back. The girl in the reception was surprised by our return and showed up with half-hitched trousers. Now, we are in all cases back inside the room. There is still no water in the shower and sink. It had actually been really nice having a shower now. On the way home we saw a car with newlyweds. It is tradition for us on our trips to see people on the road from their wedding.

15.08 Right now we have neither water or electricity. It could have been better. We take it easy and keep calm until further notice.

16.44 Yet no water or electricity. It is a bit of a shame. You feel more energetic and fresher after a shower.

17.12 Now we'll leave this water and energy lacking existence for a while. Time to start to leave the room. We hope the situation has improved until we return after dinner.

Hotel Muhabura. Here is our lunch place today.

Peter just received juice and internet connection.

You can build toys out of nothing.

Christer´s goat lunch has finally arrived.

The town we stay in is called both Ruhengeri and Musanze.

17.16 At the entrance of our street are some heavily armed soldiers. We have passed them a number of times and wondered why they stand right there. We have now realized that they are guarding some form of facility for electricity. They don't seem to have succeeded so well. Someone has stolen all the electricity from our hotel.

17.27 We are back at the restaurant La Paillotte. Here we'll eat an early dinner. We dare not wait any longer because we do not have any knowledge about the opening hours of the restaurants in this small town. In addition, it is pleasant to walk home before it is too dark outside. A man passed by outside and wished us good morning, a little late for that, perhaps? Now our beer, two big Primus, arrived. Enough with the details for now!

18.24 During the meal a lady walked by with a small sewing machine on her head. This restaurant sure offers some different views. Now we have finished dinner and are about to pay for what we consumed.

18.45 We are at home in the hotel again. In addition, we got electricity and water. Life is good. Now it will be a quiet evening here at home.

20.54 There was just a knocking on our door. It was our host Louis and he wondered if we would not watch the football match? We will for sure watch it. Now we will go down to watch the quarter final of the Euro 2016 between Italy and Germany.

Back to the hotel.

A siesta without water in room 13.

21.44 We sit in the same place as during yesterday's match. It is still a draw in the match between Italy and Germany. This is after the first half.

22.25 I just thought how difficult it must be to score. That is when Germany takes the lead 1-0 through Mesut Özil. I don't know if I want to have any extra time. The chairs are hard and it's starting to get cold where we sit.

22.38 Italy has just scored on a penalty. Goal scorer is Leonardo Bonucci.

22.55 No more goals have been made. Ahead is the extra time, and it may also be decisive in the penalty shootout.

23.51 After five penalty rounds the teams had only made two goals each. It took until the ninth round until Germany finally won when Jonas Hector made the decisive penalty.

23.57 We have quickly returned to the room after almost three hours of football entertainment. It is time to crawl inside the mosquito nets. Goodnight!

La Paillotte has a menu with some spelling mistakes.

A motorcycle taxi is waiting outside our restaurant.

Peter is wondering when the food will come.

Christer is drinking Primus beer from a Mützig beer glass.

Sunday 3rd of July

08.17 Our last morning in Ruhengeri is here. In the coming hours, we shall leave from here. I hope that everything works as it should and that we are expected at the next place and the next hotel.

09.40 We have eaten our breakfasts and once again most of our belongings has been packed down. All that remains is one last look so that nothing is forgotten.

10.29 We had no problems checking out. Our plans to get a photo of the hotel owner and the front desk girl was not to be. Our friend Louis, who up till now always been in the vicinity suddenly was out of sight. A quiet walk along familiar streets brought us to the bus station. We were greeted by some helpful gentlemen who wondered where we wanted to go. We were shown to Kigali Coach's small office where the tickets were purchased and our names were registered. Now we are outside the office and wait for our bus. It is not here yet.

10.48 The young man in the Arsenal shirt who first helped us claimed that the bus we were heading for was the wrong bus. Pretty quickly he changed his mind. It was certainly our bus. We went in and sat at the back on the really comfortable seats. Now we are just waiting to get going. OK, that was a short wait! We are moving already.

10.56 We slowly roll out of Ruhengeri. We go along the same road that we walked along yesterday. Our journey goes towards the southwest and will take us to Gisenyi by Lake Kivu and on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

11.20 Outside the bus there is a police motorbike. We have however stopped for passengers getting on and off.

At the bus station in Ruhengeri.

View from the bus window.

We are traveling with Kigali Coach from Ruhengeri to Gisenyi.

11.41 After we had passed Kabali the road began to head downhill. Outside it is green and hilly.

11.48 Our vehicle has made a short stop at the bus station in Kanama. Here various people move around outside the bus windows. A tall blind man is wandering around in the hope of getting some money. A boy is pushing a man in a wheelchair and hope for the same thing. At the same time a small army of cheese sellers have tried to convince us in the bus that it's time to buy cheese right now.

12.03 After passing a few tea plantations we have now reached Gisenyi. Now we must find out where in the city the bus intend to stop.

12.17 A change of vehicle has been made here at the bus station in Gisenyi. We have switched from bus to taxi. Often it is the taxi drivers who are chasing us, but here we had to wait by an empty taxi and then try to get the driver's attention. We are now near the border to Congo.

12.28 The taxi trip was convenient, cheap and went relatively quick. We are now sitting in the lobby to Musanto Hotel (http://www.hotelmusanto.com). My name was recognised at the check-in. They mentioned that my name was familiar and wondered if I already been here? We thought the worst, had anyone else checked in under my name, will there be a hotel change again? Not so, my namesake was here a few weeks ago, another man who is also named Peter Johansson. Now we are just waiting for our room to be cleaned.

12.39 A young, well dressed girl is wandering around here at the reception. She has borrowed the front desk guy's phone, called someone and is complaining that she is bored and she is feeling alone. We wonder where she comes from and how she ended up here.

13.08 Now everything is cleaned up and we've moved to room 111 on the second floor. Now we will unpack and move in. We stay not so far from the big Lake Kivu. Lake Kivu belongs to the Great lakes region of Africa. The lake is located on the border between Congo (Dem.Rep) and Rwanda. The lake is also one of three known exploding lakes due to its large quantities of methane.

13.30 Two "today's lunch" has just been ordered in the hotel restaurant. Now two Turbo King beers landed on our table. I just got asked if I was intending to use my glass.

14.21 Beer is good, but we actually came here to eat. No lunch in sight yet. What is it that takes such a time? They can't blame the fact that there are many guests here. We are quite alone.

Musanto Hotel in Gisenyi.

The hotel restaurant, a place where we spent more time than we had planned.

Turbo King, a new type of beer.

Peter has made some notes in his journal. We are enjoying a nice afternoon in the garden.

15.36 It took some time to get the food but it was well worth the wait. First, we had a great soup and then came the main course. Now, we're back in the room and are thinking about what we will be doing next.

15.53 The birds are singing beautifully in the trees above us. We have sat down by one of the tables in the garden. We shall read in some of the books we have brought with us on the trip. It is a pleasant relaxation to disappear off to other places in the literary world.

17.40 The reading session is over. Before the darkness comes, we have returned home. In our rooms it is just now a lack of electricity. In the absence of light from the lamps I used the through the window incoming last light.

18.27 The power is back but our energy level is dropping.

20.13 It has now become time for dinner. We have not had time to explore the area and a restaurant so we have returned to the hotel restaurant again. We have ordered our dishes and hope for faster service this time. Here in the dining room a few younger boys play around. They run, scream and try to wolf whistle. No dinner for us yet.

20.43 Now things are looking brighter. After a long wait we were just told that the food soon will be here. The waiter looks embarrassed. It is hardly his fault that the chef is slow. We had not imagined it would take so long. Tonight's football match will start before we get our food.

21.13 I wonder how long soon is in this country. We have not seen any sign of the food though it soon would be ready half-hour ago. Now France took the lead with 1-0 in the Euro 2016 match against Iceland. It is yet another quarter-final being played. I wonder when we get to our meals.

New guests are arriving to Musanto Hotel.

A power cut is not good when a travel journal needs to be written.

21.23 Two goals for France (2-0) and two meals for us. One of the staff has, with the help of a jug and a wash basin helped one of the guests to wash the hands before the meal. We also saw this practise in Malawi, 2012.

21.52 The football entertainment is being covered on the TV in our room. The Icelandic team collapsed at the end of the first half. France now leads with 4-0.

22.15 Iceland have just reduced to 4-1. Sigthórsson was the goal scorer.

22.57 Bye Iceland! The Icelanders are excluded from EURO 2016 after a valiant effort. France has moved on to the semi-finals against Germany after a victory which stopped at 5-2.

Monday 4th of July

08.08 We are awake and wriggled us out of our mosquito nets. It is an impressive job if the mosquitoes make it inside. Christer has during the night seemed to hear a muezzin, a Muslim call for prayer at about four o'clock, and soldiers who marched at around six o'clock.

08.37 We have ordered breakfast. Our waiter was a bit quiet. We hope that he understood our order. We also hope that it will be served soon.

09.14 It seems to be more action in the kitchen in the morning than in the evening. We didn't have to wait too long. After finishing the breakfast, we are now planning how we manage the day, a full day here in Gisenyi.

10.05 We are heading out on a morning walk. We left the key to the room at the reception desk and I confused the lady there by asking if it was possible to pay our room with a VISA-card. She thought of course that we were about to check out and wanted to pay already today. The confusion had hit me as well. I had forgotten the camera in the room. I had to ask for the key again and arrange everything. Christer was waiting for me outside the hotel. The local artist Kibbe appeared during the wait and offered to sell some paintings. There was no deal. Now we are finally ready to wander off to see more of the home town.

10.12 A short distance away along the road is the New Tam Tam Beach. It is a beach restaurant and has the same owners as our hotel. It is easy to believe that it is the hotel that started the beach restaurant as an extra activity but as we understood it, it is the contrary.

Who is on TV?

The door is open. A new day is waiting for us.

We are staying near Lake Kivu.

River water meets lake water. Sebeya River meets Lake Kivu.

Avenue de l´Independance, Gisenyi.

We are coming closer to Congo.

10.16 We have crossed the bridge over the river Sebeya and looked at the phenomenon when the brown river water is mixed with the clear non-coloured lake water. A bit out in the lake we see the platforms extracting methane from the lake.

10.25 We have left Avenue de l´Independance, where we have not met so many, and crossed down to the Avenue de la Révolution. We are now in a park area and look out over Lake Kivu and there is a pleasant breeze. During the walk here, we have seen some people and some closed shops. Kivu Coffee Shop that we had found with the help of Google Maps does not seem to exist at all. The planned coffee break may be later.

10.33 After standing for too long in the same place we began to attract the city's younger population. Some of the girls stood a bit away and looked at us as if we were some exotic animals. They seem to wait for something, maybe they hope to get some money. There are few beggars in this city, but right along this street, many kids who want some money are around. The main reason for this is the fact that a number of the most expensive hotels are located here along the lake.

10.47 After more wandering and searching, we turned around a bit from the border to the Congo and began to walk back. We have now walked up a flight of stairs, sat down by a wooden table under a parasol. We have ordered little good to chew on and a lot to sip on. We are at the beautifully situated Calafia Café and have ordered passion fruit juice with snacks (banana bread, and chapati bread).

11.26 We are, as previously mentioned, close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Gisenyi is more or less joined with the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There will be no visit there. We have no visa and Congo does not belong to the world's most stable countries today. We have completed our pleasant coffee break here at Calafia and have started to wander home along the lake.

11.39 After a walk along the neat Avenue de la Cooperation, we´ve seen the city's public beach, and even met a bunch of young school children who absolutely wanted to greet us.

We finally found Calafia, a very nice café.

Juice and bread on a hill.

Christer at Calafia Café.

By Lake Kivu.

Avenue de la Cooperation, Gisenyi.

Here you can visit the public beach in Gisenyi.

A sign showing the way to our Gisenyi home.

12.05. We've come closer to our hotel. We have just sat down at the previously mentioned bar/restaurant, New Tam Tam Beach. We'll eat lunch. There will be skewers and to this we´ll drink beer. Once again it will be Turbo King.

13.14 It was a delicious lunch at the New Tam Tam Beach. The menu was exactly the same as they have at our hotel. We just returned to Musanto Hotel and have sat down in the garden by one of the round tables. On the way home we passed a fish market. Now Christer got our room key from one in the cleaning staff. We have also been told that the internet access (Wi-Fi) is down. it is, therefore, nothing wrong with our phones that can't connect.

14.06 Miscellaneous birds are singing in the trees around us. We read further in our books and quench our thirsts with Inyange Orange Juice Drink that we bought in the lunch restaurant. We have discussed two options regarding the afternoon. Shall we walk along the lake or shall we make a further visit in the city? We'll see.

16.28 After reading, we retreated to room 111. Plans for the remaining time in the country has been added up. Already tomorrow we'll leave this nation behind us. We have only one evening left in pleasant Rwanda.

17.00 We would like to see more of the area around the hotel and have headed out on a minor afternoon hike. It is beautiful here near Lake Kivu and we have decided to walk along the main road away from the city to hopefully find some good views of both the lake and the city to photograph. The great volcano of Nyiragongo in the Congo which, according to the information, is to be visible from Gisenyi continue to be invisible for us. The volcano buried parts of the neighbouring city of Goma in lava after an eruption in 2002 and 400 000 people were forced to flee. Approximately 40% of all the volcano outbreak in Africa is happening right here.

The bar at New Tam Tam Beach.

New Tam Tam Beach, Gisenyi.

Boats on Lake Kivu.

Women with good balance.

We are approaching our home again.

One of the birds which entertain us with beautiful singing voices.

17.11 We have passed a small hydroelectric power plant and continued a bit after that. The road divided. One road, which went on along the lake, was guarded by a soldier and one road went steeply uphill away from the lake. It felt like a good place to turn back and we have now started to walk home again.

17.15 We stayed to photograph the sun as it slowly descends down towards the beautiful lake.

17.23 After walking back, we are now again at the New Tam Tam Beach. Here we will enjoy a Mützig beer each. We sit by a plastic table along the water's edge. Behind me the sun is on the way down in Lake Kivu. On the way here, we met people who intently listened to a sports report in their mobile phones. On the TV here is a football match from the Rwandan soccer league. It is perhaps the match which were aired on the radio.

18.28 The twilight ended and the beer ran out. It was really beautiful to sit there and see the whole sunset. On the way home we found a restaurant. It will get a visit from us within an hour. Right now, we are back at the hotel and it is stuffy in the room.

19.45 The light from the candle flutters and spreads its pale light over our table at the restaurant Thai Jazz. The waves on the lake are rolling in beside us. However, it is so dark that the water is only heard, it is not visible. On the way out from the hotel we heard a muezzin, probably from the mosque inside the centre.

19.58 With the help of the flashlight on Christer's mobile telephone, the menu has been read. We have ordered our dinners and sit and enjoy a nice evening. We have found one more beer variety Rwanda. This is one is called Gatanu.

Beautiful views along the lake.

Drinking a tasty beer and watching the sunset is just perfect.

Some locals taking an afternoon swim in Lake Kivu.

The sun is going down at Lake Kivu.

21.03 We ate good food and felt good. The restaurant has a special atmosphere with the darkness and the invisible waves out in the dark. We talked about various meals from the past, from previous trips around the world. When we were done the power went out. It was even darker than the darkness already prevailed. We paid and walked the short distance home. Africa's evenings and nights are really dark. It's obvious at times like these. It is fortunate that we have flashlights on the mobiles. Here at the hotel they have arranged with the electricity and the light with the help from an aggregate. We met an insect of the larger model outside of our room. It collided with my forehead and plunged himself in the floor. It is strange built to say the least.

21.22 More of the same kind of insect throws themselves wildly against our room window. They beat themselves half senseless and almost seems to become intoxicated by the light they flocked to in the evening darkness. Nature contains many strange creatures.

22.05 Via our own portable radio and news we know that on this day forty years ago, the hostages at Entebbe airport in Uganda was liberated (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2786000/2786967.stm).

22.59 Speaking of Uganda, we´ll go there tomorrow. First we'll sleep one more night here in Rwanda.

AFTERWORDS: The insects we saw are probably of the species "Red driver ant".

A nice dinner in the dark at Thai Jazz.

We found yet another type of beer here in Rwanda.

Big insects with a strange behaviour.