More Odds and Ends - Cape Town, South Africa

Driving: Where do I start? 
-Traffic lights are called robots so if you are asking for directions they might say, "turn left at the 3rd robot".
- Slower drivers almost always (99.9% of them it seems like) know to stay to the slow lane (here that is the left lane) while the faster drivers are in the fast lane. So much better than in Minnesota where there is usually at least one person who feels it is their duty to drive 55 in the left lane and enforce the speed limit.
- There are not a lot of divided highways and a lot of roads are just two lanes, one in each direction. You will often come upon someone driving in the breakdown lane or shoulder if they are slow moving so you can pass them. If someone is trying to pass you it is a good idea to move onto the shoulder (if there is one) so they can get by you.
- There are a lot of traffic cameras everywhere so speeding will get you a ticket. If there isn't a traffic camera, and you will know because the speed limit signs all have the camera icon on them if there is one, then that seems to be permission to drive as fast as you want, which can be pretty crazy.
- There are very few sidewalks and people don't seem to use them anyway, there are tons of pedestrians in the streets, some pushing carts loaded with stuff. Pedestrians also cross anywhere, they don't care to cross at an intersection or crosswalk if it's even 10 feet out of their way, so you have to be very vigilant while driving.
- Don't be too fast to take off at a red light when it turns green, there is always a car or two trying to turn at the intersection and they will run the light.
- There are people trying to sell you stuff at many intersections, just ignore them.
- There are round-abouts and I am still not that enamored with them.

Bathrooms: as in most of Europe and other countries, they do a better job of conserving water here. There is a big flush and a little flush button on most toilets. Figure it out. Many of the bathrooms in restaurants, malls, gas stations, etc. do not have a hot water tap.

Paper products: I first noticed this when we were in Peru and have seen it also in Mexico, but paper products can be expensive and they are almost all one-ply. One-ply toilet tissue, napkins, flimsy paper towels. It's not as bad here, many restaurants have decent paper napkins but some of them give you a napkin that wouldn't keep your fingertips clean, let alone using through the whole meal.

As you're driving along in the countryside it is not uncommon to see whole families of baboons along the side of the road.

Speaking of the countryside, parts of it look almost like northern California or Wisconsin, rolling farmland, pine trees, shady roads, it was a little disconcerting to drive in.

Parking in ramps in the heart of downtown Cape Town is so much cheaper than ramps in Minneapolis! We paid about $8 to park for 5 hours in a ramp!

Liquor is cheap in restaurants and cafes, Don paid about $3.50 for a shot of Woodford Reserve at a very posh bar at the Taj Hotel. A glass of wine has usually been around $2.50 to $4.00 at most places we've had a meal. Don paid $8.00 for a bottle of very adequate gin at the liquor store and I have a wonderful bottle of port that was about $7.00.

We haven't seen romaine anywhere, not in the restaurants and not in the store. Rocket (arugula) is on most sandwiches and in most salads. Avocado (avo) is abundant in salads and is listed as a topping for pizza in most places. 

Catching up - part two. Cape Town, South Africa

I started writing this back before we went to Plettenberg Bay and now that I'm days behind on the block I edited it for brevity (really hard for me to do, ha!) and I'll squish about three days into one and then I'll write a new post about Plettenberg.

The first day of our Hop on Hop off city bus tour was very nice. We decided to buy the 2 day pass because it included all three routes (red, blue, and yellow) and a canal boat ride, and a tour of Bo-Kapp, with the added bonus of being able to take the canal tour and/or Bo-Kaap tour on the 3rd consecutive day of the 2-day pass. This is a good thing because everything takes longer than you think it will. All for 270 rand (about $27.00 each) which was a much more inexpensive deal than the bus tour we paid for in London!

We had wanted to start out with the red tour because that stops at the lower cable car junction for Table Mountain. The cable car rides were closed that day, however, due to high winds and adverse conditions. We decided on the blue tour then because it stopped at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and at Imizamo Yethu township where you could arrange for a guided tour. In hindsight, we should have driven to the botanical gardens on our own on a different day, we were there for almost 3 hours and barely had time to get in the tour of the township.

The botanical gardens are huge and lovely and I can't even imagine how beautiful it must be in the spring when all the flowers are blooming. There were still plenty of flowers for us to see and take pictures of, but the place is going to be glorious in another 2 - 3 weeks. 

 Statue of a cheetah attacking a springbok. Very relaxing.

 Flowers!

 The guineafowl very much wanted our lunch.

 Tree canopy walk! I had very much been looking forward to this.

Protea garden!

After we realized that we just weren't going to see even 1/5 of the place in a few hours we stopped for lunch in the garden. The restaurant is called Moyo and they have a lovely tradition where, before you eat, they come up with a pitcher full of water and a basin and they pour the water over your hands into the basin and another person hands you a large napkin to dry off with.

We walked back to where we catch the bus to find out we still had a 15 minute wait. Once we got on the bus we passed by the stop for the bird and monkey sanctuary (privately owned) because we really wanted to do the Imizamo Yethu township tour in Haut Bay and we needed enough time to catch the last bus on the tour.

Once we got to our stop the tour attendant would not let us off the bus until the Yethu guide showed up, it can be quite dangerous walking around by yourself in the townships, even during the day. However, our guide showed up and we went on our short (30 minute) tour, walking uphill and listening to our guide and asking questions. Many of the people knew him and greeted him and the children we saw hung onto his hands and legs, he is obviously a well like man there. 

This is the start of the tour just up from the main road through Haut Bay. There was a small informal market on the corner, those big yellow bags are full of potatoes.

 

A permanent "Mandela" house.

A view of some of the structures built from found materials.

Don took this picture as the truck drove by. The two young men had fresh caught fish hanging from their hands that they were selling.

We then hopped back on the bus and drove along the coast which was beautiful. 

Day 2 of the Hop on Hop off tour.

We looked at the Table Mountain website that morning and saw that the cable car was running so that was our plan for the day, go to Table Mountain (which we were pretty sure was going to take up a good part of the day) then get back on the Red Route bus and just ride it back into town. We had dressed in layers that morning because it can be much colder on top of Table Mountain, especially if it is windy, but it was a very warm (80!) winter day in Cape Town and it was perfect on top of the mountain.

 Even the view from the tour bus is breathtaking.

I wish we'd had access to a printer, we could have bought tickets on-line and not had to stand in this line, plus saved a few dollars. Once you buy tickets you stand in another line to get on the cable car. The total time for us was about 1 1/4 hours before we were on the car.

I had read that the car rotates as it goes up and down the mountain so you get a 360 view but I didn't see it rotating as I was looking at it with binoculars. But when we got on it (and everyone stands, and they pack you in!) the floor then starts to rotate while the outside of the car and the center operator stay in one place, just like with a rotating restaurant.

 See that dark rectangular spot on top of the mountain in the upper far left? That's the tunnel the car goes into.

View from inside the cable car.

 Not a very flattering view of me but I'm so happy I wore my sunhat, that it's hot enough to take off the jacket, and that I'm walking on top of Table Mountain! My ankle got a heck of a workout that day!

 Nothing but amazing views in any direction you faced. See the road down there on the side of the mountain? Almost any road in Cape Town is a scenic drive.

That's Robben Island off to the left.

We were on top of the mountain for about 2 - 3 hours and would have stayed longer except the ankle was swollen and painful. I had really wanted to hike to a certain point where the views were supposed to be really good but it was another 1.7 km up to the point and we had already hiked about 1.5 km (not that far but it was on rocky and uneven ground with lots of stops for pictures) and once I saw the gorge you had to cross to get there I knew I wouldn't make it, it was a steep hike down stone steps while holding onto a cable and then a steep hike up. Here's a picture: 

Done with Table Mountain we took the cable car back down and caught the Red Bus back into town but first it goes along the coast through these very posh seaside neighborhoods and we stopped at one to get lunch at an Indian Restaurant and look at the beach. 

Since it was too late to take the Bo-Kaap tour and/or a canal tour (included in the 2 day ticket and can be used on the 3rd consecutive day) we just took the short downtown tour on the Yellow route which goes past District 6 and then we decided to head for home for sundowners on the deck since it was one of the few days warm enough to do so. (Remember, it's always about 7 degrees cooler in Marina de Gama where we're staying).

Third day of touring: Since our tickets were no longer good for the bus, just the Bo-Kaap tour and the canal boat ride, but the two were of some distance apart, we had to figure out where to park. The canal boat ride goes from the V&A Waterfront to the CTICC (the convention center) close to downtown so we parked at the V&A Waterfront for the canal boat ride. It's a good thing it was included with our bus ticket and we didn't pay for it separately because I would have demanded my money back. It's R40 ($4.00) and not worth it. The ride is very short and it's pretty much a view of all the expensive condos on the canal where the rich and famous live. Did you know that Madonna owned a condo there? Do you care? I don't. However, if you want to get from the V&A Waterfront to downtown Cape Town, or vice versa, it works great as a water taxi.

We then retrieved our car from the expensive parking ramp and drove downtown so to a ramp close to the place where you can take the tour of Bo-Kaap at 3pm every day. It's a one hour tour that's really a 30 to 40 minute tour because you walk for about 10 to 15 minutes, uphill, to get to the Bo-Kaap area from the bus stop. Bo-Kaap is very pretty with all the bright colors of the houses. In the 1600's and 1700's they were all uniformly gray and housed slaves. See the difference now?

We then came to this interesting little tunnel that had some paintings inside:

There were more, these are just a few. This one, of a tailor, is my favorite. 

We were supposed to go through the tunnel and continue on with our tour but there was something in our way:

Looks like some kind of local celebration doesn't it? Well it's not, it's the latest Sacha Baron Cohen movie and we were told "no pictures! no pictures!" Too late, we had all on the tour group managed to take quite a few pictures. I noticed that there were two local security guards sitting in the tunnel but they didn't seem to have any interest in stopping us from taking pictures. The tour guide had a brief discussion with someone from the movie crew and we were told we couldn't go that way. Too bad, that street looked pretty interesting. We detoured and finished up the tour in front of the Atlas Spice shop (which was closed! Why don't they start the tour earlier, we would have loved going into the spice shop?) and then walked back to our starting point by the Red Route bus stop. 

I'll try to get a few folders up on the sidebar with more pictures. Since most of you who read this are also following along on Facebook I feel that you've already seen most ofthe pictures but I'll do what I can to post some you haven't seen. 

Trying to catch up - part one. Cape Town, South Africa

I know I haven't updated the blog in a while. We've been out and about (as it should be when you're visiting another country) and by the time we get "home" I'm too exhausted to do much of anything. The driving is still pretty harrowing, even though we drive every day. It's hard to undo a lifetime of driving on the right, but we're getting used to driving on the left, finally. Also, when you just don't know your way around and am not sure which streets to stay off of then it gets a little stressful also.

I never posted pictures of our scenic drive from Haut Bay to Noordhoek. It is the only time we paid to drive on a road but it's not really a toll road, it's for the conservation of the area. The drive was breathtaking and stopping at Chapman's Pass is a must do. However, the road is very narrow, there are many cyclists on the road (going uphill!) and there are no shoulders, it takes all of your concentration to keep from smacking into a biker or another car.

That road is super narrow. Super narrow. Stunning views the whole way. 

Speaking of stunning views, I had not known how beautiful it is just about anywhere you drive in Cape Town and along the coasts. Even your commute to work is full of stunning views, either along the coast, or with the mountains in front or behind you. You can hardly turn around without wanting to take yet another picture.

Since we were driving through Kalk Bay on the way home we stopped for dinner at the Harbour House. We had a great table next to a huge floor to ceiling window and the waves were crashing against the rocks and then there was a sea lion right below our window! Just taking a bit of a scratch on the rocks. You could see more sea lions in the water, at least three of them, diving for food and generally waiting around for a person to throw them something edible from the pier.

I'm trying to remember all that we've done since then. We drove to Groot Constantia on a rainy day to do some wine tasting and visit the museum and wine cellar there. Groot (Great) Constantia is the oldest working vineyard in the southern hemisphere, it was started in the 1600's. It is now owned by a trust and is a non-profit. We toured the Manor House museum, the Carriage House museum, and then had lunch. 

See the thing on the right of the bed with the lid up? That's a commode! Yep, a toilet with a really nice painted porcelain bowl. There is a lovely hanging cradle to the left and a large porcelain wash basin. I love seeing period rooms. This is not from the 1600's of course but from the early 1800's. Although, the building (the Manor House) was built in the 1600's.

From the windows of the restaurant we could see numerous baboons in the trees and fields of the vineyard (and there had been one on top of the Carriage House until it was chased away) so after lunch we talked to one of the men we saw who seemed to be a baboon controller. His job, along with the other men on his crew, was to keep the baboons away from the people and the garbage bins. They used paint ball guns! That's pretty cool. They can't kill the baboons, nor would they want to, however they do need to be kept away from the young vines or they eat them and kill them, and of course they need to be kept away from people so the baboons are shot with paint balls, but only from the waist on down, they can't aim for the head. The guy told us that just the other day a baboon managed to steal a huge block of cheese from the kitchen loading bay and made off with it into the fields.

Done with lunch and looking at the baboons we decided to go on the cellar tour. It was 50 rand ($5.00) which I thought was steep for a cellar tour but it comes with a wine tasting at the end so that was pretty good! We got lucky too, there was a huge tour group of Chinese people ahead of us so we were held back, along with another couple, and had an almost private tour. 

So much wine! We learned something very useful from the other couple, they had come in on the Hop on Hop off City Bus Tour and they really recommended the tour. 

After tasting all that wine (2 whites and 3 reds, none of which we bought) we decided it might be a good idea to walk around some more, so we visited the historic bath.

This thing is huge, bigger than it looks here.

Since it was still a cold and overcast day we drove home and cooked pork chops on the grill. I wanted to blog then but the cold and the wine just did me in.

Downtown Cape Town and another scenic drive.

We weren't quite sure what we wanted to do yesterday but we knew it should be outdoors since today was forecast to be cold and rainy (it is raining as I type this). We decided to go back to Cape Town city center and tour the Gardens. After making many crazed turns in the city center we saw a parking ramp and quickly entered it. Here's a view of City Hall from the top of the ramp.

  
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.

Odds and Ends - Cape Town, South Africa

Just a few things:

Coffee. People here drink tea more than they do coffee. I've not seen one Starbucks in Cape Town (McDonald's and KFC are everywhere) and only a few coffee shops and those were more bakeries than coffee cafes. There is a lot of Nescafe sold in the stores. We bought a 4-cup french press (only $3 USD!) and some coffee. What people do have in their homes here are electric kettles that give you hot water in seconds. We're going to buy one when we get back home, it will be much faster and more efficient than our stove top tea kettle. Even in the posh London hotel there wasn't any real coffee, there was a small electric kettle and instant coffee and teabags. I noticed that most of the coffee sold in the store said Imported in big letters and that a local coffee promised on the bag that it contained no chicory. Hmm.

Using the credit card. We have a new "chip and pin" card and it's been great, no problem and no putting in a pin number. Sometimes when a vendor takes our card they try swiping it first because most Americans don't have a chip card, which is totally the fault of the credit card companies. Your credit card is never taken from your sight! No matter where you pay, if you're not at the register than a handheld machine is brought to your table, car, etc. and the bill is processed right there. Credit card theft is a big issue here.

Gas. Gas is quite affordable here, almost US prices. Such a difference from the $8 to $10 a gallon we've usually paid in Europe! You never pump your own gas, a station attendant does that for you and washes your windshield and you tip him, just like in the old days.

Tipping. In restaurants it's between 12 and 15%. For "parking attendants" it's anywhere from 5 rand to 20 rand (50 cents to $2) for an informal (self-employed) guy to direct you to a parking spot and watch your car for you. They are in all the lots, if it isn't an automated pay car park, and they do a pretty good job most of the time. When you have such high unemployment you have to earn a living any way that you can.

Then there is the fact that we drive on the left while sitting on the right and shifting with the left hand. People drive like lunatics here! They will pass on either side of you and all motorcyclists here have a death wish.

Language. I haven't been able to pin down what a South African accent is here. There are 11 official languages and when I do hear English being spoken it's with all kinds of accents. 

Liquor. The drinking age is 18.  They have amazing wines here and we are close to several vineyards and the South Africans are quite proud of their wines and a server told us that she's tried wines from other countries and they don't compare to those here. South Africa has joined the craft beer trend only in the last year or two and when Don asked for a beer recommendation at the Lord Nelson Hotel for lunch yesterday the bartender wasn't able to do that, he said "I'm no longer in my 20's anymore, I drink wine." Well.

All the servers, vendors, register attendants, clerks, etc. will greet you, usually with "Good morning (afternoon), how are you?" It is polite and expected that you also greet them the same way and ask how they are doing. A very pleasant change from the usual indifference that you encounter in many U.S. stores and eating establishments where the staff is more likely to want to converse with each other than take care of a customer.

Grocery stores. All stores charge for grocery bags so bring your own. If you haven't brought your own bags they will stuff as much of your groceries as they can into one bag so as to save you 5 cents a bag. You don't bag your own groceries. In the produce aisle there is packaged and loose produce, just like at home, however if you select some loose produce you take it to an employee at a scale and they will weigh it, bag it, and put a price sticker on it, don't go to the cash register thinking that the checker will weigh it for you. As to lettuces, so far we've only been able to find iceberg lettuce and some very expensive (for South Africa) small bags of mixed lettuces. Most sandwiches and salads we've bought at cafes come with "rocket" as the greenery. Rocket (and sometimes eruca) is arugula.

Whales! - Hermanus, South Africa

Today we went to Hermanus to take a whale watching boat ride. We had went there yesterday but the boat was full (9 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm tours and we had got there at about 1pm ) so we had lunch at the Harbour Rock restaurant perched on a cliff just above, you guessed it, the harbor. My pear and blue cheese salad was quite good as was Don's sweet potato and butternut squash soup. My seafood curry, however, was not so great. First off, the prawns were whole and not shelled. Really? I wish restaurants would get over the fad of giving you unshelled seafood in messy dishes like curries, stews, and soups. The curry was chock full of fish, calamari, prawns and mussels. All of it dry and overcooked. I love prawns and yet I stopped trying to eat them after one, they were so dry it wasn't worth the effort. Also, the curry just wasn't that good, under spiced and dull. Don's yellowtail fillet was tasty although at least 1/4 was dark and not edible. The proprietor of the place noticed that I wasn't eating my curry and asked for my truthful opinion and I told her. Don said his was just fine. She gave us a free dessert (we had the Grand Marnier creme brulee, very tasty) and we thought that was nice of her. What a shock to get the bill and see that they had removed both of our entrees! She really needn't have done that, the free dessert was enough. Also, it didn't seem that they needed our repeat business, the place was full and many tables were reserved. We tipped the waiter big time. 

This morning we left for Hermanus again, planning to make at least one stop for pictures at the top of this mountain.

See that? That's a guy getting ready to para-sail off of a mountain. We pulled over into this scenic overlook and our timing couldn't have been better. Here was this crazy person getting ready to jump off of a really high place. It was amazing to watch. Don thought he was taking a video but it stopped filming. Here's another picture:

See the white sail about a smidgen to the right of center and almost centered vertically in the picture? He went for quite a long ways, over the highway. I wonder if someone was waiting for him down there. 

We bought a painted wooden bowl and an abalone necklace while up there, there were a few guys with their stuff laid out on the ground. Don didn't haggle as much as he usually does, he heard that wasn't done as much as it is in other countries (like Mexico). We felt we got good prices for what we bought and that's what matters.

Now, whales! 
The southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genusEubalaena. Like other right whales, the southern right whale is readily distinguished from others by the callosities on its head, a broad back without a dorsal fin, and a long arching mouth that begins above the eye. Its skin is very dark grey or black, occasionally with some white patches on the belly. The right whale's callosities appear white due to large colonies of cyamids (whale lice). 

(Gotta love Wikipedia, I didn't want to type all of that out!)

 Yes, this is blurry but that is my arm and hand. That whale was so close that it swam under the boat!

 Amazing picture of the two blow holes!

 See the rainbow colors in the mist from the blow hole? We saw that more than once.

Whales!

And one seal! I had become tired of the crush of people at the front of the boat and the whales had gone away for awhile so I decided to walk to the back of the boat and to the other side where there were fewer people. I'm standing back there and up comes this large seal! Just swimming back and forth, right there in front of me and I don't have a camera. I head back around of the boat towards Don and I'm yelling at him but of course he can't hear me, the wind is blowing the wrong way. Just when I start to get close to him I hear this loud honk and it's the seal! He followed me around the boat and I'm telling Don to take a damned picture already! By then the seal had had enough and this was what Don was able to get as the seal turned around under the water and left us.

I must say that Don did a stellar job of photography. The boat was either moving towards the whales or, if the motor was shut off, the boat was still rocking back and forth and of course the whales were always moving. Not the best conditions for taking pictures.

 A flower as big as my head.

 View from touristy area of Hermanus.

 The touristy area is very lovely.

 Calla lilies (or arum lily as they call them here) grow everywhere!