Day 2 and 3
Well, I had WiFi problems so couldn’t post our next adventures so here are my latest thoughts and recollections. On Saturday, we went to Table Mountain. Table Mountain is considered one of the 7 natural wonders of the world and I would have to agree. The mountain looms over Cape Town and we could se it from almost everywhere we went in the city. When we arrived to the cable car that would take us to the top (one can hike to the top but not this one) we queued up and all 50+ of us got on one car. The floor of the cable car rotated so everyone would be able to see a 360 panorama on the ascent. when we arrived at the top, Betsy (my travel buddy) and I started to walk the trail. The vistas were breathtaking from one side you could see the Atlantic Ocean and the mountains such as the 12 Apostles that speckled the coast. As you walked around, the perspective changed but the beauty never diminished. After Reading the Patrick O’Brien “Master and Commander” novels I have been interested in the Cape of Good Hope. I always thought it was the Southern most tip of Africa and was where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans met but it is the most Southwesterly point of Africa and juts into the Atlantic Ocean. As we continued along the path the views of the ocean morphed into views of the city. Cape Town was started as a re-provisioning port for Dutch traders from the Dutch East Indies Company and the evolved into a town and then city and rule went from Dutch to British to the Union of South Africa. Again the views were breathtaking. We did see some animals on the plateau, dassies - which look a little like groundhogs and birds including hummingbirds. We even saw some sort of bird of prey clutching their victim in its claws only to drop it and the race down to catch it again.
After lunch we went to the District 6 Museum. District 6 was a mixed race neighborhood in Cape Town that was reclassified as a white area in the 1970’s. Over 60,000 of its residents were forcibly moved from their homes in the 1970’s(!) by the apartheid regime and this museum was a remembrance of the trauma of that undertaking. It told the stories of the “colored” families through artifacts, recollections, and artwork. After that sobering visit I had a short walk back to the hotel through the center of town past the old Dutch “castle”, the city hall (site of a famous Nelson Mandela speech) and even a visit to a supermarket.
That evening we went to dinner at Africa Cafe which was just around the corner from the hotel. Here we were able to sample a variety of dishes from throughout the continent. Everything was very flavorful and I enjoyed every dish that I tried. I ended the evening at a biergarten with a few of my companions enjoying the fellowship that travel like this creates among people.
The next morning we slept in a bit and then were off to Stellenbosch and the Spier winery. This excursion cemented in my mind the European-ness of Cape Town. The town was full of buildings that would seem at home in the Mediterranean with white walls and trendy shops and cafes. The walls were not the only hing that was whit as the majority of the people that we saw were white, as well. In the Cape area I would say that we saw a disproportionate number of whites as compared to the racial makeup of the country. While the laws of apartheid have been stricken down, it does seem to me that a defect apartheid still exists. Service jobs are filled by blacks or “colored”-those of mixed race or Malaysian ancestry and the consumers are all white. Our guide said that most of the whites are tourists, but I’m not so sure.
After the winery, we had the afternoon to ourselves. Betsy and I went to the Diamond Museum to learn a bit about one of South Africa’s most famous exports and then to the Cape Town City Museum to learn a bit about the early Dutch years. After dinner there was game of “snake oil” with a few companions as well as lobby wine (basically a few bottles of wine in the lobby while playing the game) and then off to bed for the early morning trip to Johannesburg. Cape Town seemed very European. I am looking forward to a bit more of Africa in Johannesburg.
As always, thanks for reading!!
Well, I had WiFi problems so couldn’t post our next adventures so here are my latest thoughts and recollections. On Saturday, we went to Table Mountain. Table Mountain is considered one of the 7 natural wonders of the world and I would have to agree. The mountain looms over Cape Town and we could se it from almost everywhere we went in the city. When we arrived to the cable car that would take us to the top (one can hike to the top but not this one) we queued up and all 50+ of us got on one car. The floor of the cable car rotated so everyone would be able to see a 360 panorama on the ascent. when we arrived at the top, Betsy (my travel buddy) and I started to walk the trail. The vistas were breathtaking from one side you could see the Atlantic Ocean and the mountains such as the 12 Apostles that speckled the coast. As you walked around, the perspective changed but the beauty never diminished. After Reading the Patrick O’Brien “Master and Commander” novels I have been interested in the Cape of Good Hope. I always thought it was the Southern most tip of Africa and was where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans met but it is the most Southwesterly point of Africa and juts into the Atlantic Ocean. As we continued along the path the views of the ocean morphed into views of the city. Cape Town was started as a re-provisioning port for Dutch traders from the Dutch East Indies Company and the evolved into a town and then city and rule went from Dutch to British to the Union of South Africa. Again the views were breathtaking. We did see some animals on the plateau, dassies - which look a little like groundhogs and birds including hummingbirds. We even saw some sort of bird of prey clutching their victim in its claws only to drop it and the race down to catch it again.
After lunch we went to the District 6 Museum. District 6 was a mixed race neighborhood in Cape Town that was reclassified as a white area in the 1970’s. Over 60,000 of its residents were forcibly moved from their homes in the 1970’s(!) by the apartheid regime and this museum was a remembrance of the trauma of that undertaking. It told the stories of the “colored” families through artifacts, recollections, and artwork. After that sobering visit I had a short walk back to the hotel through the center of town past the old Dutch “castle”, the city hall (site of a famous Nelson Mandela speech) and even a visit to a supermarket.
That evening we went to dinner at Africa Cafe which was just around the corner from the hotel. Here we were able to sample a variety of dishes from throughout the continent. Everything was very flavorful and I enjoyed every dish that I tried. I ended the evening at a biergarten with a few of my companions enjoying the fellowship that travel like this creates among people.
The next morning we slept in a bit and then were off to Stellenbosch and the Spier winery. This excursion cemented in my mind the European-ness of Cape Town. The town was full of buildings that would seem at home in the Mediterranean with white walls and trendy shops and cafes. The walls were not the only hing that was whit as the majority of the people that we saw were white, as well. In the Cape area I would say that we saw a disproportionate number of whites as compared to the racial makeup of the country. While the laws of apartheid have been stricken down, it does seem to me that a defect apartheid still exists. Service jobs are filled by blacks or “colored”-those of mixed race or Malaysian ancestry and the consumers are all white. Our guide said that most of the whites are tourists, but I’m not so sure.
After the winery, we had the afternoon to ourselves. Betsy and I went to the Diamond Museum to learn a bit about one of South Africa’s most famous exports and then to the Cape Town City Museum to learn a bit about the early Dutch years. After dinner there was game of “snake oil” with a few companions as well as lobby wine (basically a few bottles of wine in the lobby while playing the game) and then off to bed for the early morning trip to Johannesburg. Cape Town seemed very European. I am looking forward to a bit more of Africa in Johannesburg.
As always, thanks for reading!!