We are staying on the waterfront at the Victoria and Alfred hotel. The location and rooms are fantastic but you expect that from a 4 star hotel. Jon and I are getting used to living the high life. We will be brought back down to earth shortly when we bunk with 6 others in Barcelona.
None of us could agree on what to do on Thursday. In the end we got on one of those hop on, hop off buses that takes you to the sights of Cape Town. Jon and I left the others to go to Green Square markets (African craft markets). We felt completely safe and were not sure what the others were on about. We have since found out tourists are advised to not go there at the moment due to the xenophobic riots happening. Lots of foreign Africans have stalls at the markets. I finally succumbed and bought some African artefacts. I hope customs likes them - the wood really is nice. Now we just have to figure out how to get them back. They don’t fit in our backpacks.
Next drop off point – the Castle of Good Hope (oldest building in Cape Town). This is an old Dutch fort built between 1666 and 1679 on reclaimed land - what the Dutch do best. It was not hugely exciting but is an important part of Cape Town’s history so in that sense worth visiting. There was lots of VOC (Dutch East Indies Company) china on display – mum would be drooling.
Then on to Table Mountain (running late by this stage so were forced to catch taxi back to hotel). The views from the top are spectacular, mountains all around and views of Cape Town and the oceans beyond. It is about 1km high and you have to take a cable car up. Sometimes it is too windy so they don’t operate, other times too cloudy so you don’t see anything. The weather here is very unpredictable so we were lucky here wasn’t a cloud in sight. In the olden days the cable cars only fitted a couple of people in them and were weighted down with sandbags to reduce the swing. Queues could be up to ten hours long in summer. Thankfully things are different now: 30 odd people jammed in and hoisted up in a rotating capsule. Thank goodness it didn’t breakdown.
The vegetation up the top reminded us of Cradle Mountain. A lady tried to convince us that this oversized rat thing called a Dassie was somehow related to elephants. I’m not convinced. However, the brochure is in agreement with her stating it is the closest relative to the African elephant. Something to do with its feet.
Dinner on the waterfront. With all the seafood and famous steak restaurants around we chose Greek.
None of us could agree on what to do on Thursday. In the end we got on one of those hop on, hop off buses that takes you to the sights of Cape Town. Jon and I left the others to go to Green Square markets (African craft markets). We felt completely safe and were not sure what the others were on about. We have since found out tourists are advised to not go there at the moment due to the xenophobic riots happening. Lots of foreign Africans have stalls at the markets. I finally succumbed and bought some African artefacts. I hope customs likes them - the wood really is nice. Now we just have to figure out how to get them back. They don’t fit in our backpacks.
Next drop off point – the Castle of Good Hope (oldest building in Cape Town). This is an old Dutch fort built between 1666 and 1679 on reclaimed land - what the Dutch do best. It was not hugely exciting but is an important part of Cape Town’s history so in that sense worth visiting. There was lots of VOC (Dutch East Indies Company) china on display – mum would be drooling.
Then on to Table Mountain (running late by this stage so were forced to catch taxi back to hotel). The views from the top are spectacular, mountains all around and views of Cape Town and the oceans beyond. It is about 1km high and you have to take a cable car up. Sometimes it is too windy so they don’t operate, other times too cloudy so you don’t see anything. The weather here is very unpredictable so we were lucky here wasn’t a cloud in sight. In the olden days the cable cars only fitted a couple of people in them and were weighted down with sandbags to reduce the swing. Queues could be up to ten hours long in summer. Thankfully things are different now: 30 odd people jammed in and hoisted up in a rotating capsule. Thank goodness it didn’t breakdown.
The vegetation up the top reminded us of Cradle Mountain. A lady tried to convince us that this oversized rat thing called a Dassie was somehow related to elephants. I’m not convinced. However, the brochure is in agreement with her stating it is the closest relative to the African elephant. Something to do with its feet.
Dinner on the waterfront. With all the seafood and famous steak restaurants around we chose Greek.
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