Cape Town - It begins

OK, everyone told us we would be amazed by the city on the cape, I was worried there might be too much hype. But then again I was hoping that all the hype would be accurate, Wanda & I were looking forward to a great vacation.

Getting in and out of South African airports has been an amazing experience in itself. We arrived on an international flight and I expected long lines and small cards to fill out. I'm used to governments wanting details of everyone and everything. Not only were there no lines but no cards to fill out. The hardest thing we did at passport control was to stand in front of a machine for 3 seconds, take off our glasses and let it scan us . . . for yellow fever or other diseases. The passport control didn't take much longer and we were over to get our luggage and out of the airport! No last scan of our luggage, questions on whether we are declaring anything (there were directions pointing us to where we would declare something). That was in J0-burg for the international flight, the domestic flight was even easier. One hour before take off we arrived at the airport and everything we needed to do was finished in 15 minutes. I couldn't remember an easier flight! Flying is almost fun again.

We found our car rental agency (that would be 'car hire' here) and soon we were out in the parking lot looking for our vehicle. White Toyota Corolla and, of course, the steering wheel on the right side. Now just remember to do everything the opposite, I kept muttering to myself. Wanda was my co-pilot at times reminding me to stay left. In spite of a GPS on board we got lost in the down town (it wasn't the fault of either the GPS or myself, they had blocked off a main thoroughfare to work on the road and both of us got confused!)

Eventually we found our B&B, Tintagel Guesthouse. Right in the heart of the city. Beautiful old dwelling with a number of bedrooms of various sizes. We got a pretty nice one, the best of the lot said our young host Ute (sorta pronounced like 'ootah'). After a rest we went walking in the neighbourhood. There are quite a number of little restaurants around and we have found out quickly, they all serve good food. At The Greens I had a ham, brie, fig and baby spinach pizza (out of the California category) and Wanda had a bacon, brie and roasted tomato sandwich. We are not in Ethiopia anymore . . .

Monday

At Ute's advice we booked tickets on the Citysightseeing bus tour, taking the red line around Cape Town and the suburbs. It was the best thing we could have done for a tour of the city. This was a double decker red bus where most of the customers sat above in the open air. The sun was brilliant, the sky was blue and I didn't have to drive. Perfect. Cape Town has a harbor, docks, a modern history dating back to 1600's, an old fortress, natural geographic formations like Table Mountain, Devil's Peak, Signal Hill and the Twelve Apostles. We simply sat, put our earphones in and listened to the history. I loved it. One could disembark at any of the 17 stops any time and then later embark and carry on. We disembarked at the harbor area where they have changed the wharf and the warehouses into an amazing array of small shops and restaurants and a mall.

We ate at Subway (to save money) and then went down the hall for a 50's style milk shake. We also stopped in at the Cape of Good Hope Fortress and the Jewel of Africa shop. Earlier in the day we walked into the St. George Anglican church where Bishop Desmond Tutu was in charge in the 80's. It was the first church to welcome all people regardless of race or color.

The sun was beating down pretty hard in the afternoon when we made our way back. In spite of slathering ourselves with sun screen we could feel the sun on our skin. We drank water but maybe not enough and we were tired. So arriving back at our B&B was a welcome relief. A cool to warm shower was just what the doctor ordered.

We ate at another local restaurant, The Fat Cactus which, not surprisingly, was passing itself off as a Tex-Mex eatery. It was a hangout for 20 somethings. The food was good. The place was a bit noisy. Lots of smoking (South Africans like to smoke). Wanda and I remarked that we must be getting old because the noise, the darkened atmosphere and the smoking was annoying (not to mention the loud swearing coming from the next table by an older man trying to impress 3 younger men).

Back at our room in Tintagel we saw the Canadian squad defeat the Kenyan squad in the World Cricket match tournament. South Africans like their sports, trouble is it is all cricket, rugby and soccer, none of the good sports! But we had fun rooting for our side before we went to bed. Tomorrow, drive to the Cape of Good Hope.