South Africa Day 4

Today we got to see a little more of the beauty of South Africa. The clouds finally parted around 2 this afternoon. But that's getting ahead of myself...

This morning, we all went together to the District Six Museum. District Six was once a poorer neighborhood in Cape Town with a diverse group of residents (black, muslim, jewish, and other "coloured" people). It was considered a "cosmopolitan heart" of Cape Town. In 1966, the apartheid government declared it a "white-only" area and began forceably removing the residents to the "Cape Flats," a suburb out of town. For the next 15 years, this removal continued, and the area was razed. In the years since, it has not been very successfully rebuilt due to the increased attention to the objections of the removed residents. The museum itself was a very personal museum where previous residents had contributed to the telling of the story (and the continued telling of the story). We all agreed that it was striking how methodical and systematic the persecution of people was here over a long period. The museum was very moving, and also detailed the lives that former residents have gone on to lead and their contributions to ending apartheid and helping build new policies.

After the museum, it was pouring down rain. We got pretty wet looking for a taxi. After a quick change of clothes at the hotel, Tim and I went to the waterfront for a little shopping (we found some great souvenirs) and some lunch at a little pub. After that, I headed back for the conference sessions, and Tim wandered around the waterfront some more.

By later in the afternoon, the weather had improved dramatically. The rain stopped and the temperature rose; the clouds dissipated and the mountain came into full view for the first time during our trip. Tim and Alan took the opportunity to hike to and over Signal Hill. It is the shortest of the summits and the only one whose trails were within walking distance from the hotel. It was a nice hike and afforded very nice views of Cape Town, the “other” mountains, and the nascent soccer stadium. It showered on them briefly on the way down the hill, but the sun returned quickly. This resulted in a very bright full rainbow stretching from the mountain to the center of town. We would be coming home with a pot of gold but we didn’t think we could get it through customs...

For dinner after the conference, we went back over to the waterfront to a place called Den Anker, a Belgian restaurant, as it turns out. Tim had beer braised rabbit, and I had Kingklip (a deep sea white fish) in a puff pastry. Yum.

South Africa Day 4

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South Africa Day 3

It was a gray, foggy, rainy day in Cape Town today. My conference started this morning. It was supposed to be "opened" with a speech by Desmond Tutu, but he apparently got called away at the last minute to a more important obligation. He did tape a message to open the conference, though. We also had a keynote talk by a guy named Clem Sunter, which was really great. I think his book is probably interesting...

Tim and Alan came to see Archbishop Tutu, but left to try to catch the ferry to Robben Island. Unfortunately, the seas were too rough for the ferry. So they tried to take a taxi to go hiking on Table Mountain, but when they got there, it was so foggy in the parking lot at the base of the hike that they couldn't see anything. So they tried to go hiking at Signal Point. Same problem. So they took the cab to the beach and wandered around a little bit. Then they came back to the city to have lunch at a coffee shop called Milk, Bread, Honey. Then they called it an afternoon.

After the conference, we went to dinner with Miryung and Alan and Miryung's student, Alex. The restaurant was a place called "Mama Africa." It was really great. The service was a little slow (ok, a lot slow), but the food was great (we had crocodile satay and samosas as appetizers; Tim had a Game Potjie (basically a stew with Kudu and Springbok), and I had Bobotie (rice, beef, and egg topping). During dinner, the restaurant also had an African conga band that was really very good.

South Africa Day 3

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South Africa Day 2

Today we did a walking tour of the main highlights of the central portion of Cape Town. We started with a delicious breakfast at our hotel, and then headed out the the Castle of Good Hope, a castle built in Cape Town in the 1600s. It's the oldest surviving colonial building in town (maybe even in South Africa). We got a guided tour of that, which included tours of the parade grounds, arsenal, garrison, dungeon, torture room, and pool. It was a very good tour and quite informative about the early history. From the castle, we walked past the District Six museum (we didn't take the time for it today but plan to come back later in the week) and over to the Company's Gardens. This is (today) basically a park in the center of town. In the "early days" (which is how the locals seem to refer to the Dutch colonial days), it was basically a farm run by the Dutch East India Company to grow herbs and vegetables. Inside the gardens, we visited the South Africa Museum, which is largely a natural history museum. However, it does have a great display on rock art, which was quite neat. We also saw an enormous blue whale skeleton. We then walked through the park to St. George's Cathedral, then stopped for a late lunch in a lovely pedestrian mall just near the cathedral. After lunch, we headed to the Slave Lodge, which turned out to be a must see... a really terrific museum. The museum is (not surprisingly) about the history of slavery in South Africa, most specifically in Cape Town. The exhibits were really informative, easy to walk through, and told very interesting stories. The museum also had a really nice exhibit on the life of Nelson Mandela. We spent a couple of hours here. We then walked through the city, through Greenmarket Square, but the market was closing down for the day. We ended with a walk back to our hotel.

This evening, Tim and I went to dinner back at the waterfront. Tim picked out a great restaurant (Belthazar), and, like the choice last night, it did not disappoint. It was recently rated the best steak house in South Africa. I had steak (seemed like a reasonable choice), and Tim had the game kabob, which included wildebeast, springbok, impala, and kudu. The dinner was fabulous. The restaurant is also known for its selections of wines by the glass... its claimed to have the largest wine list in the world. Luckily, they also employed an excellent sommelier who made sure we didn't stray. It was a great dinner.

South Africa Day 2

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South Africa Day 1

After a marathon two days of traveling, we arrived in Cape Town this morning. The trip was not bad. We flew American Airlines from AUS->DFW->LHR, where we had a 10 hour layover. We got a room in the Yotel in the Heathrow airport to relax and grab showers. The Yotel was not bad except that the "free" Internet could not be made to work the entire time we were there, even with help. From LHR, we flew to CPT on British Airways, which had a good 2-3 inches more space per seat (it makes a difference, it turns out), and individual on-demand movie collections that would rival many peoples' home movie collections. One other comment about the trip... the Heathrow airport is one of the most pleasant and efficient we've encountered. Just going through security, there are actually enough personnel on hand: one person helping you load your tray(s), two people working the walk-through scanner (one male and one female at each scanner in case a more detailed check is required), one person running the scanner, and two people to help you gather and collect your things. And on top of that, they had the most obvious scanner innovation... A two level conveyer belt for the trays... the conveyer on top takes your trays through the scanner; the conveyer on bottom brings the empties back.

Anyway, once in Cape Town, we checked into our hotel, grabbed some showers, and then caught up with Alan to head out for some lunch and a (lengthy) stroll. We had lunch on the waterfront (about a mile from our hotel; where we remembered to turn on the GPS) at a local brewery. The boys had some beer; I had some coke. And Tim and I had some tasty pub food. I think the restaurant was good, but one should never judge the quality of food on an empty stomach that was last filled by airplane food. We walked around the waterfront, along Beach Street, past the new football (soccer) stadium, and down to Mouille Point, where the light house stands. It was beginning to get cold, windy, and really foggy by the time we reached the point. We then walked back up along Somerset Street through what is called the De Waterkant neighborhood. We then turned and walked through the Bo-Kaap neighborhood, which is home to artisans and cute multicolored row houses. We then walked back up through the main part of town to our hotel, where we checked in with Maya before she went to school and took some quick power naps. We'll head back out to dinner sometime soon, I think. Here are some photos from our walk.











And here is the EveryTrail mapped version:

South Africa Day 1

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Goin' on a bear hunt...

Tim was helping Maya take a bath the other night. They were singing the "Bear Hunt" song in the bath tub. When Maya got out of the bath tub, she decided she was the bear. So they got her bear self dried, and put on her bear pajamas. Then Tim suggested the brush her "bear teeth." Maya got started with the toothbrush, but after about a minute, she stopped abruptly and said, "Uh. I need help! I have claws!" (As in... bears can't hold toothbrushes because their claws get in the way.)