Cape Town, South Africa

Hi All,

In our last post we mentioned that we were going to visit an elephant park in Port Elizabeth.  Well that didn’t happen.  When we arrived in Port Elizabeth, the Captain decided that it was too windy to dock the ship.  So we sailed on to Cape Town and arrived a half day early on Thursday, Apr 2.

Cape Town is known for Table Mountain that sits behind the city.  Here is a view of our arrival.  The mountain is often covered by clouds which the locals call the table cloth, you can see that in this picture.

We docked around noon and we spent our first afternoon at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.  This is an amazing development that is situated in South Africa’s oldest working harbor.  It consists of a huge three level mall with over 450 stores.  It also has dining, entertainment, and residential and commercial real estate.  It is not an exaggeration to say we have never seen anything quite like it.  The waterfront was very active as lots of people were in town for the Easter holiday.

Table Mountain as viewed from the waterfront.

In the waterfront area is Nobel Square which honors South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize recipients.  Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, FW de Klerk, and Nelson Mandela (left to right in the picture).

Also in the square is this piece of art called Non Violence.  Don’t think the NRA would approve.

The waterfront is the departure point for boats that go to Robben Island where Mandela was imprisoned.  We were planning on going there but all the tickets were sold for our time in Cape Town.  As it turned out, tours were canceled for two days because of rough seas.

Just had to include this picture of the Cappachino we had at one of the many cafes along the wharf.  These are a work of art.

We saw these folks in a canoe race around the waterfront.

So we enjoyed our first afternoon in Cape Town shopping, eating, and walking around the waterfront.  In the evening the ship brought onboard a very talented local group of four men who sang a collection of African music, and, much to our surprise, opera.  They were amazing and everyone seemed stunned by their performance.

Our second day in Cape Town started with a tour of the city.  This is the city hall in the middle of this picture.  Not the best picture but I have included it because from the balcony of this building, Nelson Mandela gave his first address after being released from prison in 1992.

The downtown area is quite modern.

This area is called Bo-Kaap.  Many inhabitants are descendants of people from Indonesia, Sri Lanke, India, and Malaysia who were captured and enslaved by the Dutch-East Indian Trading Company in the 17th and 18th century.  The area is noted for its colorful houses.

The area has a large Muslim population, these men were at this mosque for morning prayers.

Next we walked through a beautiful garden area that contained some of Cape Town’s government buildings.  This is the parliament building.

Table Mountain is visible from much of the city, here from the garden.

At one end of the garden is the South African Natural History Museum. 

We spent a hour in the museum which wasn’t nearly enough time to see all the exhibits.  One room honored Nelson Mandela. His presence is everywhere in SA.

These stone carvings are 2000 to 3000 years old.

I think every type on animal that lives or ever lived in Africa is displayed in the museum.

Our next stop on the tour was to be a cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain.  You can see the lower cable car station in left of this picture.  It is a long and very steep trip to the top.  Helen doesn’t like cable cars and was not looking forward to this ride.  It was her lucky day as the cable car was closed because of high winds, our guide said this happens often.

So we next went to another high vantage point over the city called Signal Hill. The views were fantastic.  

This picture shows the stadium built for the 2010 FIFA Cup.  Also shown is Robben Island were Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. 

This is the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.  Our ship is in the right of the picture.

The city center

Over 4 million people live in Cape Town.  You can see the density in these pictures.  Love the colorful houses in Bo-Kaap.

Cape Town remains a segregated city.  The segregation now is due to economic reasons not racial.  The black population simply can not afford to live in city.  They live outside the city in what are called the Townships, just as they did during apartheid.  We did not have time to visit the townships but would liked to have done so.

On our way back to the ship we drove along the beautiful beach areas.  Some fabulous, very expensive real estate is located along these beaches.

The beach front promenade which goes for many miles, lots of people walkng, biking and running.

So that is a look at our Friday city tour.  In the evening the ship once again brought local talent onboard.  This time the show was a singing, dancing, and drum group performing traditional Africa music.  They were fantastic and very high energy.

Our last morning in Cape Town we returned to the waterfront mall for some souvenir shopping, the African handicrafts are quite beautiful and we picked up a few things for our home and the RV.  At 4pm on Saturday we set sail for our over 4000 mile, seven day trip across the South Atlantic to Montevideo, Uruguay.  As I write this it is Easter Sunday afternoon.  The internet is down on the ship, so not sure when this will get posted.  We probably won’t post much as we cross the Atlantic.  But I have been meaning to post some pictures of the ship and probably will do that (If I can fit it into my busy schedule of napping, eating, and drinking) :).  We are now in the last month of the cruise and have been on the ship for almost three months.  Bye for now.

One final picture, our last look at Cape Town as we sailed away, our ship’s prop wake in the picture.  You can see the Silverseas Silver Whisper cruise ship that was docked behind us.  We loved our time in Cape Town.  This is a beautiful city, we would like to return some day.

GO UW, BEAT DUKE!!

Jer and Helen