Cape Town, South Africa (week 2)

Our second week in Cape Town we started to feel a bit more like locals.  Ken joined the gym for a week and the coffee barista even asked if we wanted “the usual” – success!  

We took two trips to the world-famous Table Mountain: first the boys hiked up (wind delay on the gondola) and the second trip we rode the rotating gondola vertically up 2,500 ft.  It’s a very unique and prominent landmark overlooking the city that we highly recommend.  

Our apartment was located on a popular promenade that rents bicycles, so on two occasions we rented bikes and rode to Camps Bay (about 5k).  The boys ran back to Sea Point (uphill in the heat!).  

 Everett was missing kids so we visited an indoor trampoline park.  We thought, it will be great to have him meet some South African kids and maybe even make some friends that live in SA.  We head to the park and guess who is the first kid he meets?  Rainier, as in Mount Rainier.  He is from Seattle.  Can you believe it, the very first group of kids he met on the trip thus far… and his Dad even grew up few blocks away from us in Queen Anne…Crazy!  We figured we would never see them again though.  Three days later we lined up at the Robben Island tour (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned) and who was in front of us in line?  The same family!  Needless to say, the kids were all happy and it made for a more enjoyable day.  The actual tour included a ferry to/from the island, bus tour, and most importantly, a tour of Mandela’s cell by a former prisoner.  Getting a first-hand tour from an immediate eyewitness made us realize just how recently apartheid existed. 

At the end of the week Carryn took us to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, where we learned about the Cape Floral Kingdom and their unique Fynbos shrubland.  After we stopped for ice cream and wine at Groot Constantia winery.  That night, Ken and Carryn watched the South Africa vs England rugby world cup semi-finals – the city was on fire after a last-minute comeback.  Ken knew nothing about rugby but he’s now on the bandwagon.

Cape Town had endless, amazing food choices but we spent most our time at Mojo’s Market, Kauai and Bootleggers.  We did try a few local dishes – cape malay cuisine, salmon rose sushi, and Sparletta cream soda (its green!).

 

We loved you Cape Town, but it’s time to move on and venture up the coast!