A Bit of Culture & History

The many hikes must have finally taken its toll on the family. Uncharacteristically there was still silence at 0830. The children had to be woken up for breakfast so we could start our day. We had run out of provisions and so had to eat at the waterfront. We simply couldn't go past the breakfast special at Maresol where you can get 2 eggs, 2 rashers of bacon and toast for only 295 rand! That's AUD 2.95! Bargain!

The Portuguese inspired waterfront restaurant

Iced coffee. Forgot to ask for ice latte. 

I was the only one who didn't order the special...

Very happy whenever he gets to eat bacon

Today was dedicated to the yellow HOHO downtown city route. It was time to learn a little bit about art, culture and history. The commentary on the bus loop was informative, giving us a run down on historically important buildings as well as going through important events and people. Our first stop was the Zeitz Mocaa. Who would have thought that the Albanys would walk into a Contemporary art museum!?! It was more enjoyable than expected! The art wasn't so crazy that it was ridiculous. Some pieces were actually very good. We walked through ALL the galleries!

Merry Christmas from Moet

What one does when waiting for an art gallery to open...

The building was a repurposed silo. It also houses a luxury hotel at the top

The architecturally stunning interior

The stairwells connecting the different levels

The tunnels below

The rest of the afternoon was a bit of whir. We tried to tick off as many sites as we could. We started at the District 6 museum. This gave the children a little more insight into apartheid and its social effects with the forced relocation or a whole district. We moved on to the Castle of Good Hope but by now the heat averse Albanys were struggling. Once in the grounds of the oldest colonial complex in the city, the first thing we did was to sit and eat. And we ate for a long time...

Touring the rest of the grounds sapped the rest of our energy and we looked for the fastest way home. Luckily for us, the canal cruise which was included in our pass would take us to a point very close to our apartment. The children were relieved to be able to get back to the apartment. We opted for something quick for dinner and the choice was woodfire pizza at the V&A food market. After 5 days of camping in one place, we had a lot of packing to do! Everything was out of the bags!

District 6 museum at the old church 

Castle of Good Hope

In the shade waiting for our food

Arguing about where to go first

Lets start there!

Wall sun clock

Yup that matches the time

The dungeon...

Canal cruise ride home!

Table Mountain

It was time to visit Cape Town's iconic landmark, Table Mountain. Conveniently, the red route of the HOHO bus took us the base station of the cable car. Pleas of hiking the 2.5 hour trail up the mountain were soundly ignored. The cable car had an ingenious rotating platform so that the guests took turns enjoying the vista and having the opportunity to take their snaps. In less than 5 minutes, we had reached the top.

Complaints of hunger had us seeking food. Fortunately there was a cafe which served a variety of offerings. Pizza was perhaps not the healthiest option...neither was wasabi chips! We had to defend our food from the native birds akin to protecting our chips from seagulls when at the fish markets at home...the waitstaff kindly flicked tea towels at approaching birds whilst we wolfed down the rest of our food.

There was a selection of hikes to do at the top varying from 15-45 minutes. Somehow we managed to end up on the 45 minute trail even though we thought we were on a shorter one. On our trek we saw many people do the silliest things like standing ridiculously close to the edge...

Prime seats at the front of the bus

Going up Table Mountain

The view looking back down towards the city

Cafe and shop at the top

Views looking south

Views back towards the city

Time for a selfie!

No Disney magic photos here...

Budding photographers!

Some of the photos by the children

Guess who took these ones...

They look almost the same

Free burgers at the Hard Rock Cafe!

On the way back to the waterfront, we stopped at Camps Bay, Cape Town's equivalent of Bondi Beach. The plan to swim was swiftly abandoned upon testing of the water temperature. We soon found out that the temperatures were always a cool 8-12 degrees celcius due to the currents! When Lara deemed it too cold, it must have felt cold. She reported that it hurt to be in the water for too long...Lunch was taken care of at the nearby Hard Rock Cafe where our city pass gave us free burgers! For a free burger, it was rather tasty! The view wasn't too bad either...

The view towards Camps Bay from our table

Hmmm....not sure this sign is encouraging!

Tried the water temperature. Too cold!

Our abandoned beach activity gave us some down time to...do laundry! With a limited wardrobe, we had to wash whilst we had the facilities to do so. We hunted for dinner at the V&A food market where there was a variety of street food stands. I guess it was an upmarket hawker centre. We opted to go for Asian with a selection Poke bowls, Taiwanese tea and a donut. Alright so the last wasn't so Asian but it was satisfying!

Royal Tea

Lychee tea with cream cheese foam!

The largest donut in the world...

Cape Point

That's our tour! 25% off with the city pass :)

We walked 16000 steps on what was supposed to be a relaxing bus day! It started off as a relaxing day with a great spot on an air-conditioned coach complete with wifi, USB charging ports and the slowest speaking tour guide in the world. Not one to usually partake in big bus tours, we relented as we received a 25% discount with our city pass! The tour was good value and enjoyable with crowds lower than other major tourist spots. The scenic drive to Cape Point started at 0930 and took just under 2 hours. We opted for a lazy lunch overlooking False Bay, so named due to the number of captains who thought they were turning north to head up the western coast of Africa only to have to make an embarrassing U-turn or wreck their ship. The food at a tourist attraction restaurant was again surprisingly good! What we should have done was walk first and eat later...

On the bus, let's go

Baboon and baby just outside the bus

The start of the lighthouse walk that only less than half the family completed...

Lunch overlooking False Bay

Fish of the day! Kingsklip in corn chowder

The tour included a trek to the Cape of Good Hope scenic view point with our tour guide. Tourist attraction walk times are usually based on the speed of an arthritic retiree stopping every 50m to rub some more tiger balm into their knees or take a toilet break. Not so at the Cape. An ambitious attempt to do the "10 minutes" to the lighthouse at the top of Cape Point was meant to be a light entree before the real 45 minute trek to the Cape of Good Hope. Only two out of five made it to the lighthouse and returned sweaty and puffing with seconds to spare before the main course was served. What we were thinking!?! We should have paid for the funicular to the top...

Fortunately the trek to the Cape of Good Hope was much less physical (with the exception of one section with an extremely rocky and steep uphill climb followed by an extremely steep downhill walk), but still full of enough rocks, cliffs and lizards to keep the kids amused. It was also spectacular! Malcolm thought that it would make a wonderful golf course with views down the cliff face to scenes that could be straight out of a David Attenborough doco - rocks teeming with birds diving into waters teeming with fish dining on the foam teeming with the ingredients of the biological fishfood smoothie created when the currents of two oceans meet. A pulled tee shot would definitely be a lost ball.

The start of the trek to the Cape of Good Hope

Stunningly beautiful beach. Pity about the multitude of steps needed to get down there...

Channeling our inner mountain goat to get to the top. It was hard work!!!

Made it! The top of Cape of Good Hope

The steep walk down to our red bus waiting in the car park

Amazing views from the bus

We drove through some of the old British Navy towns from yesteryear before stopping to see the penguins. We played hooky as the tour group meandered down to see the African penguins. A shady spot consuming ice-cream and iced coffees seemed more civilised. Besides we could see the penguins for free from the public beach! The family succumbed to slumber on the way back to Cape Town. We arrived back at the V&A waterfront just past 5pm.

Somehow we found ourselves in a situation where we needed to buy shoes, socks and underwear! Tiredness made for a cranky shopping expedition which was worse than any mountain trek! We got through it somehow and caved to McDonald's as it was the closest food outlet...

Ice cream and ice coffee. Bliss

Wild penguins on the beach!

Suddenly everything didn't seem so bad with food in the belly