South Africa – Day 3 – Cape Town City Town
Saturday, 16-Aug-2014
Tags: Travel
Gordon Manning and Karen Rothman arrived in Cape Town on Friday night and they were with us on the Saturday tour.
First, a sunrise shot of Table Mountain.
We met Lesley Cox of Amber Tours at 8:30 am to head out for a full day tour of the city. Lesley is from London originally, came to Johannesburg for business, worked there for a number of years, and then moved to Cape Town and started up her tour business, specializing in culture, history, and wine tours.
Here is a map of the city center. Our hotel, the Three Boutique, is near the Gardens Centre in Oranjezicht.
Our first stop was a fairly new local's market in Woodstock, called Biscuit Mill, of course a former mill. There was an center area with stalls, a food section, and stores featuring crafts and clothes. We bought a loaf of bread and chocolate to fuel us though the day.
We then moved on to the Castle of Good Hope, a pentagonal fort built by the VOC, the Dutch trading company, in the 1600's, at that time at the waterfront, but now inland with reclaimed land and the waterfront to the north.
We parked at the Castle, with the rest of the city on foot.
We walked to City Hall, where Nelson Mandela gave his famous speech upon being released from prison in 1990. This shot was from the Castle.
We then walked by Parliament into the Company Gardens, so named because the VOC came to Cape Town to establish a half-way point to India, where ships could load up on fresh water and vegetables and fruits. There is now a project to re-create the garden, as shown in the photo below. There is also a fenced-in pear tree (mostly barren now) that is believed to be one of the original trees planted by the VOC.
The next stop was St. George Cathedral, the Anglican Church where Desmond Tutu was Bishop.
The next stop was Greenmarket Square, where we shopped for some African crafts.
Back in the car, we drove through Bo-Kaap, the historically (Malay descended from slaves brought from South East Asia) Muslim neighborhood, with it's brightly colored houses.
We did not visit the District Six Museum, which tells the story of the forced eviction of black and colored peoples during Apartheid. However, Naseem, our driver from the day before, as a child was evicted with his family, and he actually pointed out an area in a field where his house once stood. The area was demolished when the people were evicted, and much of it is fallow as a reminder. Fortunately for Naseem, his family was not moved too far, as his father had a job in Cape Town.
Opting for Signal Hill rather than Table Mountain, we drove to the top for a 360 degree view pretty much of the city, the waterfront, and Robben Island. We watched some tandem paragliding and were amused by the guinea fowls running around.
Our last stop of the day was Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Too many flowers to post them all here. We got to see many early spring flowers in bloom, including the national flower, The king protea. Also saw an owl, and got to walk the canopy bridge. The last shot is Lesley.
After a much needed break back at the hotel, we finished the evening with a wonderful dinner at Beluga, near the waterfront, Karen having ostrich, Gordon and Larry different fish, and Eileen mushroom Gnocchi (traded around of course).
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Larry and Eileen Samberg
