Robert's Travels

We were exhausted from our previous day of travel, so we didn’t wake up until 10:40. We quickly showered, got dressed and packed up, and went down to the hotel lobby to check out at 11:40. We had booked our first night separate from the tour group, so even though it was in the same hotel we had to change rooms. We were planning on leaving our bags with the hotel until we were able to check in later in the day, however our room was ready for us so we dropped our bags in our new room then went back down to the lobby. We got into the hotel shuttle, which went between the hotel and the V&A Waterfront, shortly before noon. We were the only passengers in the shuttle, and got to the waterfront just before the rain began. We wandered a bit aimlessly for the first 30 minutes or so, looking out at the ocean, wandered through a mall and then started looking at our options for lunch. We hadn’t eaten for almost 18 hours at this point, and we were getting hungry. We ended up settling on pizza, ate quickly then continued on.

We walked over to the Two Oceans Aquarium, which was a 10 minute walk away from where we had been dropped off. We spent the next 2.5 hours exploring the aquarium. There were a number of different exhibits showing a variety of fish and crustaceans, several types of which we had never seen before. There were a few different underwater enclosures that were home to a number of different sea creatures, and we were able to watch a feeding in one of the exhibits. These environments were large enough that the aquarium would allow visitors to scuba dive with the animals - nobody was diving when we visited however. We also watched a penguin feeding, where the handler hand-fed the penguins small fish. It seemed to be so that each penguin ate its fair share of fish - the handler was keeping tally of which penguin had eaten while feeding. Overall this was a pretty cool experience. We spent a fair bit of time walking through their predator exhibit, which held a handful of sharks that swam laps around the large enclosure. Their tank was shaped like a large donut - it wasn’t possible to see around the entire tank as it was quite large. It was quite impressive to see.

Shortly after 15:30 we left the aquarium, and spent the next hour walking around the waterfront. There were a number of very architecturally interesting buildings - one of the most impressive was the home of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art. This museum was built into a series of modified concrete grain silos. We were too late to tour the museum, but it was fantastic to see from the outside. There were also a number of interesting pieces of public art scattered throughout the waterfront that were very interesting. We caught the 16:30 shuttle back to the hotel.

We decided to start the trip with a nice meal, so I spent a few minutes when were back at the hotel looking for somewhere to eat. We settled on the Chefs Warehouse & Canteen, which was a short, 6 minute walk from our hotel. We arrived at the restaurant at 17:30, and we were a bit nervous about getting a table since they did not take reservations. Luckily we were seated without issue, and we ordered the only meal on the menu - their 8-plate, 3 course tapas tasting menu. I had a nice glass of South African white wine and we waited for the first course to arrive. The first course had 3 seafood plates; a tuna tartar, a yellowfin with tomato dish, and deep-fried squid, and all three dishes were delicious. The second course had 2 vegetarian plates; a cauliflower risotto and tempura vegetables. Both of these dishes were also great. The final course had 3 meat dishes; fish balls with a curry sauce, pork neck with mushrooms and aromatic rice, and a beef steak with an artichoke puree. We finished the meal with a lemon posset; it had a strawberry sauce that was poured over top the posset and it was a great way to finish the meal. Everything was fantastic, and I would strongly recommend others visit the restaurant if they are visiting Cape Town. The meal took about 90 minutes; and we left the restaurant shortly after 19:00.

We walked back to the hotel and relaxed. I spent some time working on this blog while Todd browsed the Internet. We were in bed shortly after 21:00 as we had an early 6:00 wakeup scheduled for the next day.