The Company's Gardens were established in the 1600's and today there are many important buildings there (like the Parliament, the South African Library, the Slave Lodge Museum, the National Art Museum, etc.) but also a bird aviary, many floral gardens, the oldest pear tree in South Africa, a rose garden, etc. It's huge.
Just one small part of the Garden. Aderly Street becomes a pedestrian mall through the garden and it stretches over 5 or 6 city blocks.
I was determined that we were going to have lunch at the Nelson Hotel as we had tried to find it before while driving and failed to and I knew it was close to the Gardens. However, we also thought we might have lunch in the Garden Restaurant instead if it looked as if the food was good and because we knew there were bathrooms right next to it (looking at a directory of the Garden). So off we went, blithely looking at the floral and fauna.
Egyptian geese and their young.
That's not a rose bush, it's a rose tree!
I was starting to get anxious because I really needed to use the facilities. We had passed a bathroom when we had entered the floral part of the Gardens but I decided to wait until we got to the Garden restaurant. Big mistake, the restaurant was closed due to some construction work and so were the bathrooms. Now I was really in distress. I had only myself to blame, I had forgotten one of my three important rules taught to me by an older relative: learn to drink your coffee black, take naps whenever you can, and never pass up a chance to go to the bathroom. I was not interested in anything but getting to the Lord Nelson hotel for a bathroom break, to freshen up (it was much hotter than we thought it was going to be!) and to have lunch, in that order. The walk to the end of the Garden now seemed to stretch for miles.
Yeah, yeah, everything is beautiful but where is the end?
We finally made it to the end of the Garden and there was the Lord Nelson Hotel just across the street in all of it's pastel pink glory! We crossed at the light and walked up the long, curving driveway, (getting some curious glances from the staff, I bet no one ever walks up to the Lord Nelson!) and I was able to find a bathroom. I had wanted to eat at the Oasis inside the hotel but we were informed that it was closed at lunch time (that's not what the guide book says buddy!) and the Planet restaurant was closed to the public because of a private function. What? Aren't we even going to get to eat after walking all this way? I would have collapsed and had a tantrum right there except I was too hot and tired. Aha! The Planet cocktail lounge was open with terrace seating and we had a really lovely lunch overlooking the hotel garden.
Why am I so, so happy? It's because I've been to the restroom, we've been seated for lunch, and I have a vodka and tonic in front of me. Also, we are woefully under dressed for this very posh place and I don't care. In fact, hey were serving an afternoon tea with lots of little cakes and tarts set out when we left and I swear that a couple of matronly looking women positively glared at us. One of them looked just like Margaret Thatcher.
We stopped at the Planetarium on the way back through the Gardens but we didn't visit that part of the building, we went through a sort of natural history part. There was a "chemistry" set for making ochre that was over 100,000 years old and had the oldest known container made by man. We saw petroglyphs and skeletons and ceremonial clothing and headgear, etc. it was really informative. Unfortunately, we had to forego visiting any of the other museums in the Garden because my ankle had swollen to the size of a saucer and was causing me a lot of pain. The ankle and foot don't bother me so much any more and my mobility is great, no limping, but when it swells up then I'm done.
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