In the late 1800s, before the British decided to nip German expansion into Tanganyika in the bud, the Germans regarded Lamu as an ideal base from which to exploit the interior. Set up by the German East Africa Company, the old post office is now a third-rate museum exhibiting old photographs of Mombasa and scant memorabilia from that fleeting period when Lamu had the chance of being spelt with an umlaut.