Cape Town, South Africa

Thursday morning we awoke to the hum of a helicopter as we sailed the calm waters into Cape Town. The ship made a 360 so the chopper could shoot different views for Viking publicity. The scene was spectacular, with iconic Table Mountain behind the city, and Lion’s Head and Signal Hill also in view.

Cape Town an Table Mountain

Back in the days, a cannon on Signal Hill fired when a ship was coming in so all the farmers could bring their produce to the port to resupply the ships. There is still a signal at noon every day. Signal Hill also becomes a center of attention at sunset for young folks as they try to cram as many people as possible on its top when there’s a full moon. With the full moon and unusually clear skies the night we were there, and being Easter weekend, it was so packed that the Viking tour going up to the top for wine and cheese was cut short due to long lines for the cable car to the top. This led to more grumbling.

Signal Hill was not on our agenda. We took the included tour into town and walked around the lush green Company Garden where food was once grown to stock ships rounding the cape. Surrounding the garden were beautiful museums. We could have spent a week here alone.

Company Garden's Vegetable and Herb Gardens...
Began by Dutch East India Company 

Jewish Museum

 Tuynhuys, built in 1700 by Dutch East India Company for 
important visitors and where Deklerk announced 
the end of Apartheid

Parliament Building

On one side of the garden was the Victorian Parliament Building, still used even though Pretoria is now the capital. Instead of moving the building brick by brick when Pretoria became the capital city as some wanted, a compromise was reached and there are now governmental buildings used in Cape Town, Pretoria, and Johannesburg.

Our guide was excellent however our group walked slowly so after an hour we took off on our own, touring the rest of the garden then heading to Mount Nelson Hotel, where the white, rich and famous stay. Viking actually offered a visit to the hotel for its British high tea. 

Believing English were the superior race, Cecil Rhodes tried to bring all Africa under British rule. He made money in diamonds and gold and started Rhodes Scholarships with his fortune.

Mount Nelson Hotel

Cecil Rhodes

City Hall

At City Hall was the statue of Mandela waving on the front balcony. It depicted the scene in 1988 when he greeted the massive crowd that had come to see him after being released from 27 years in prison. Our guide said she was there and never would forget the day, or the day she fled into the local church to take refuge protesting Apartheid. Mandela is well loved by South Africans. 

Statue of Mandela along with
a City Worker

Interior of St George's

St. Geroge's Cathedral 

When released from prison he had said that he had left his anger in his prison cell so that he could truly be free. As a young activist in the 1960s, he had at first tried the pacifist approach like Gandhi but when nothing changed, he started to bomb government facilities, always at night, so that no one would get hurt. After six months in hiding, our CIA helped South Africa catch him because he had communist leanings.

Green Market Square  

Colorful Bo-Kaap District

Along the slopes of Signal hill close to the city center was the Bo-Kaap neighborhood, easy to identify with its cobblestone streets, a kaleidoscope of neon colored buildings, and seven mosques. Cape Town had been founded by the Dutch East India Company in the mid-1600s for a stop for ships on the way to Indonesia. The 10,000 people living in this Muslim community are descendants of the skilled workers brought over from East Africa, India, and Indonesia to work. When Britain seized Cape Town in 1795, the end of slavery and religious freedom led to the emergence of the distinct “Cape Malay” culture. Some say the colors of these homes once built for and leased to slaves are an expression of individualism and freedom when apartheid ended. We bought four large bags of their famous spices and added them to our backpack. (One exploded on the way home and covered our clothes with curry powder!)

Malay Spice Market

Can you see the Artists at Work?
Shop supporting Abused Women

Soon it was time to meet Lee Daniels, our son Drew's former student who had graduated from NPU in Chicago in May. We began walking to the V and A Waterfront (Victoria and Alfred…the Brits love to abbreviate) taking the shortest route. We ended up on a street surrounded by fences and freeways. Looking lost, directions were signaled by guardsmen and then offered by a woman who came running back after us when we had made a wrong turn…so many friendly helpful Africans.

Waterfront Condos and Table Mountain  

Meeting Lee...our Tour Guide and Former NPU Student

We found the V and A and were attempting to get wifi at the Aquarium to contact Lee when a sporty looking 20 something women approached us. It was Lee. She had recognized Mark by his peach-colored shirt. 

Lee is an amazing young woman…energetic, smart, and personable. We browsed a repurposed warehouse filled with artisan booths and sampled Biltong, South Africa’s jerky…Kudu and beef with different grades of spiciness. We walked through the beautiful/bustling waterfront filled with artisan shops, the statues of South Africa’s four Noble Prize winners, and musicians with the backdrop of Table Mountain against the clear blue skies. Gorgeous!

Nobel Prize Winners

Shops of Stellenbosch

Lee then drove us  through the hilly vineyards to Stellenbosch to see the botanical gardens, galleries, and Dutch architecture, with a stop for tea and yummy plum cake.

Afternoon Tea and Plum Cake

We walked over to her old high school, the top girl’s high school in South Africa. She was enthusiastically greeted by her old tennis coach, principal, and a classmate who had been a seventh grader when Lee was captain of the tennis team. She had just returned from four years in Chicago and everyone was happy to see her again.

Interior of Dutch Reform Church 

One of Many Inns, Former Homes of Dutch Settlers

We drove to a wealthier neighborhood outside the town, but a tall closed gate with a guard discouraged us from going further. It was dark and time for dinner anyway.

Traditional Good Friday Meal
on Thursday with the Daniels

We were greeted warmly at Lee’s home where she lives with her parents and only sister, an English and ancient history teacher at Stellenbosch University. Even though it was Thursday, her dad, Avner, had prepared a typical Good Friday meal for us with hot crossed buns on which we placed pickled fish…cold hake in a tasty sweet and sour sauce. This was followed by vegetables served in a gem squash, along with bobotie, a meat casserole lightly spiced with curry, cardamom, and cinnamon, yellow rice, and malva pudding with British style custard for dessert. Avner had worked IT, but now was home, cooking and gardening and taking care of the house. Her mom, Mariana, was a 5^th grade teacher, teaching proper English and math to 40 students/class, many immigrants from other African countries.

During apartheid, Mariana’s family had been moved seven times as the whites expanded their town holdings. We talked about politics, Cape Town’s history, and its future. All were hopeful yet concerned about corruption. Their previous president had finally been removed by his own party for corruption. Even though treated unjustly in the past, they were loving and forgiving. After three hours, it was time for us to leave. Lee gave us framed pictures of Cape Town that she and her partner sell at markets. We were grateful for the chance to spend time with this family. Lee was right…”South African hospitality is HUGE.”

Despite the late night, we were up at 6AM, excited for the best excursion we’ve had this trip for its beauty, variety, and fabulous guide. Our bus took the winding mountain road along the southern seashore passing expansive sandy beaches, with other areas rocky with kelp growing out of the water waiting to be cut and exported to be used in toothpaste, yogurt, ice cream, and many more products.

Kelp Farming outside of Cape Town

Twelve Apostles and Sandy Beach Towns

Ostrich Farm

Wild Ostrich by Cape Point

We passed ostriches along the road and on a farm, raising ostriches for eggs (One egg equals about 18 chicken eggs), feathers for dusters, and meat that our chef served that evening on the ship. It tasted like very lean beef. Beautiful homes covered the mountainsides. Many were owned by “swallows”, Europeans and Americans who live here part-time like our “snowbirds”. It was a different world than the South Africa we have been seeing.

Cape Point National Park

At Cape Point National Park we hiked the mile path up to the Lighthouse. Because it was a beautiful holiday weekend, it was packed with people. As we made our way up, we saw several baboons grabbing food out of unsuspecting hands, reaching into tourist bags for snacks. Our guide won’t hike in the area since they can be so aggressive. People keep their doors locked in neighboring towns since baboons open doors and cause big damage inside homes.

Baboons Ruled the Area

Cape Point Lighthouse Hike with Bus in Far Upper Right

The views from the lighthouse of the ocean were tremendous, first with relatively clear skies laced with clouds and then with the fog rolling in that by the hike’s end covered the hills.

Penguin Colony at Boulder Beach

After a lunch stop, we went to Boulder Beach where African Penguins were nesting, swimming, protecting their young, mating, and just strutting around being cute.   

They could walk more human-like, than the waddling bigger penguins. We watched a seagull try to enter the colony for a meal of baby chicks. When the gull came close, the penguins turned towards the gull, cocked their heads and hissed until the gull backed off. 

We took the inland road home through gorgeous treelined neighborhoods of the upscale suburbs to our last stop.













We could have spent days in Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, but appreciated our guide leading us to the most interesting parts of this beautiful place including the huge protea flower in its glory.

We could have Spent Days in Beautiful
Kirstenbosch Gardens

Picknicking at the Gardens

Nearing the city, we drove by the infamous District 6 where 60,000 blacks and coloreds had been kicked out of their houses with no notice to make it an all-white area. Residents were moved to Cape Flats township 15 miles away. The area was bulldozed except for places of worship, but due to international pressure was never rebuilt. The only thing there now is a technical college and some police housing.

Bulldozed Area of District 6

District 6 Police Housing

Ship's Evening Entertainment

Our time in beautiful Cape Town ended with a concert by a marimba band and the Western Classical Voices…a choir made up of talented young adults from disadvantaged neighborhoods. The educated youth that we met today are certainly South Africa's hope.