Cape Town

Cape Town -South Africa

On getting there:   From Antigonish to Cape Town turned out to take 42 hours.  Because we had saved enough points to fly Business Class most of the trip was quite pleasant.  Although our overnight  flight to London via Air Canada was nice  the overnight from London to Johannesbury via South African Airlines was nicer; the seats were better, the food was much better and the wine experience showed how little Air Canada understands about service.  On Air Canada on New Year's Eve we did get French Champagne (but in a juice glass).  South African had proper flutes.  With dinner Air Canada served a decent Malbec, while South African let you taste their wines before choosing the meal accompaniment.

The only qlitch was in Johannesburg where the time alloted for changing planes was just adequate.  However our flight from London was a little late.  We had to clear customs, pick-up our luggage and transfer to a second terminal.  What we didn't know was that in South Africa the luggage of Business Class travellers is taken off separately.  We watched the carousal for about one-half hour before clueing in to look elsewhere.  By the time we started to the second terminal our gate was closing.  For an outrageous tip, however, a hustler took  our carry-ons and ran us through endless twists and turns.  When we finally reached our gate it had been closed for a some time, but I guess the sight of two sweat-dripping septagenarians was sufficient to arouse enough sympathy for the gate to be re-opened.

Cape Town:  Our first experience in the city itself was at a fantastic restaurant where we spent the evening listening to great live music while dining on prawns, langostina, and springbok.  On Tuesday morning (our first full day in Cape Town) we decided to walk to the Victoria and Alfred district  (no I did not mean Albert) where we could catch the Hop-on-hop-off bus.  The walk was about 1/2 hour, but part-way there a silver-haired lady in a fancy car stopped and said we looked like we could use a lift.  And this happened in a city of several million.  We then spent the rest of the day getting sun-burned sitting on the top of  several double-decker buses.

Wednesday morning we were picked up by  a tour guide who took us for a day of wine tasting in Stellenbosch and Franschoek.  Six of us were in the group, and as several people were golfers the guide decided to start us at Ernie Els' winery.  Here we toured his trophy room and then hit a few golf balls before settling down to serious wine tasting.  The landscape is very beautiful with spectacular mountains and beautiful valleys. However, everything is very dry in mid summer and we could see at least two forest fires.  For a time last night we couldn't see Table Mountain (normally visible from our hotel room window) because of heavy smoke.

Hard Rock:  In the evening we were invited to join another couple (cruisers on our ship that Betty met on line) at a Cape Town dinner theatre.  Our cab driver was unfamiliar with the address but eventually found the theatre in a warehouse district under a bridge.  Inside, however, the large area was hopping.  Waiters/singers were local university students, most of whom had good voices.  The meal was North African and took hours to come as the waiters were always busy on stage.  As the evening progressed the music got louder, more hard rock and even Rap.  We realized that the other patrons were on average 20 years younger than our kids.  We were not able to escape until around 11:30 at which time the music was at an ear-shattering pitch and all the patrons, except us of course, had climbed on top of their tables to dance.  And I thought the M-C was joking when he told the audience that the tables had all been steel reinforced.  Boy, was the taxi ride back to our hotel a few moments of peaceful bliss.

South Africa:  The little bit of South Africa that we have seen is quite beautiful.  Streets in the city are clean and the architecture is elegant.  The countryside is somewhat marred by the sprawling townships where tin shanties cover many, many acres.  The population is about 55 million and only 8% are white.  Another 3 million are referred to as Black Diamonds, these being Blacks who have achieved middle-class status.  Guess that leaves a lot of very poor people.

Last day before sailing:  Although we boarded our ship yesterday we don't actually sail until this evening.  We arranged a tour to the Cape of Good Hope.  We were to meet our guide at a hotel near the cruise terminal.  He had sent several message saying that if we were late he wouldn't wait.   Thus, four of us were ready well ahead of the 7:30 pick-up.  There were supposed to be six of us on the tour, but at 7:40 our guide called the other two and said "Forget it, we are leaving" and we left.  It was a great day and we were ahead of all the other vans, cars and buses.  We stopped at a penguin sanctuary, stopped to see baboons, had several wonderful vistas as we drove up several mountainsides.  We are exciting about sailing but slightly sad about leaving the Cape Town area.