Cape Town

We arrived in Cape Town on Nov. 2.  The weather was beautiful and sunny.  We flew on Skylink operated by South African Air.  We decided to get a taxi to take us to our accommodations.  We were pleasantly surprised at the cost - only $270R ($27.90).  Our driver was Sullie and he went very fast thru the streets.  Bernita was hiding her eyes.  We got our accommodation thru AirBnB and we were very pleased.  We had a two bedroom apartment in a great location, within walking distance from the V & A Waterfront.  We had a nice balcony with great views of the sea.  That first night we walked down to Main St. and had a buffet dinner at Giovanni's.  Dean bought me a dozen roses.  He is so romantic!

Nov. 3  We walked down to the waterfront and bought tickets for Robben Island.  Since our tour was at 1 PM we had time to kill and we hailed a taxi and went to Green Market Square.  This shopping area is an assortment of local crafts for really cheap prices.  I bought salad tongs and a picture. We went back to V & A and had lunch at Ocean Basket.  Dean had pickled calamari and seared tuna.  I had pickled calamari salad and mussels.  Very tasty.  Then we went on our tour of Robben Island.  There is a 30 minute boat ride then we had an interesting tour with a former prisoner at the island.  We saw the cell of Nelson Mandela, the different cell blocks, a chart of meal allocation for prisoners and the exercise grounds.  After the tour of the prison we took a 45 minute bus ride around the island.  It was all very interesting.  That night we had a nice glass of wine back at the harbor and dinner at Giovanni's again.

Nov. 4 - We took the big red bus tour of Capetown.  We stopped downtown to talk to the visitors center then we headed out to Table Mountain.  Table Mountain is one of the new seven wonders of nature and the most visited spot in South Africa.  The cost is 205R apiece (about $20).  We rode up the cable car and shared a lunch of Ostrich sub and cold fries.  Worst meal we have had in South Africa.  The cable car rotates 360 degrees so everyone has a good view going up and down.  We walked for about 45 minutes on the top and took pictures.  Great views!  We finished our bus tour at the waterfront, had a glass of wine, and had an early dinner at Ocean Basket again.  This time I had calamari steak and Dean had the kingclip.  Both were very good.

Nov. 5 - We hired our favorite taxi driver to run us around downtown trying to find a car to rent for the next 9 days.  Avis was full so we went to Hertz.  Thank goodness they had a car.  So we went down to Fish Hoek for our next stay in this area.

Thoughts on Cape Town: beautiful city, everyone very nice and helpful, V&A waterfront lots of fun and entertainment, but lots of traffic and very noisy!

Pictures:  Dean on the patio of our apartment, Green Market Square, entertainers at V&A Harbor, Robben Island Museum, former prisoner giving tour, Mandela's cell for 18 years, entrance to Robben Island, Table Mountain entrance, cable car and views, Dean on hike at Table Mt., signs at V&A (we are a long way form home!)