Robert's Travels

The second day of the tour started at a slightly more reasonable hour; we were up at 6:00 and were down for breakfast shortly after 7:00. The breakfast buffet was just as well-appointed as it had been the day before, and we had a leisurely and enjoyable breakfast. We were on the bus with time to spare; it departed at 8:00. The first destination of the way was Table Mountain. The plan was to take the gondola to the top of the mountain; unfortunately when we arrived at the gondola station it was too windy for the gondola to run. Instead of Table Mountain we took a short detour onto Signal Hill, where we were treated to great views of Robben Island, the Lion’s Head and Table Mountain. Signal Hill earned its name in the previous centuries, where it communicated with ships in the Cape Town harbour. I had expected Robben Island to appear similar to Alcatraz, however it was both farther out from the city and much flatter, so it was difficult to discern any structures on the island from the mainland. The views of Lion’s Head and Table Mountain were both quite impressive. We spent about 15 minutes looking around and taking photos before re-boarding the bus and continuing on.

The morning itinerary had us visiting a number of sites in downtown Cape Town, and after departing Signal Hill the bus took us to the Bo-Kaap neighbourhood. Meaning ‘Above the Cape’ in Afrikaans, Bo-Kaap is the oldest remaining neighbourhood in Cape Town - some of the buildings here were first erected in the 1760’s. The name comes from its location - it is higher than other parts of the city as it is built at the foot of Signal Hill. This neighbourhood is very multicultural - during the 1700s and 1800s a number of slaves and former slaves imported to South Africa settled here. Many of the slaves were Muslim, and to this day there are several mosques that are interspersed among the houses and shops. The buildings here are painted a variety of bright colours, and the roads are paved with cobblestones. As we walked through the neighbourhood Belinda talked to us about the history of the neighbourhood, pointing out a few buildings of interest along the way. We walked for several blocks - the bus was unable to drive through the narrow streets.

When we met up with the bus we re-boarded and drove to the next stop - the Castle of Good Hope. The drive took us past a number of notable structures, including the Foreshore Freeway Bridge, the Cape Town International Convention Centre, the statue of Jan van Riebeeck, and the Adderly Street fountain. Belinda provided us with information about each site as we passed it, helping give us some context to the history of the city. We didn’t get off at the Castle of Good Hope - we just stopped for a look. Afterwards we proceeded on, passing by the Grand Parade and the Cape Town City Hall, before disembarking from the bus at the Iziko Slave Lodge.

We departed on foot from the Iziko Slave Lodge, which was only steps away from St. George’s Cathedral - the former parish of Desmond Tutu, and the site of many anti-apartheid marches. The slave lodge was where slaves living in Cape Town would originally have gone to sleep at night - it has since been converted into a museum describing the experiences of the early slaves living in the Cape. We proceeded southwest from the cathedral along Government Avenue, passing the National Library of South Africa and the Parliament of South Africa. The walk continued past these government buildings and took us into The Company’s Garden. This public park was established around one of the first gardens that early European settlers established while settling in Cape Town. The settlers grew fresh produce in the gardens in order to resupply the ships that stopped at Cape Town while sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. This legacy lives on today - a section of the Garden is still used to grow vegetables. The park was not just a garden for growing food, however - there were also a number of gorgeous trees and plants present. One of the most notable trees was a saffron pear tree, believed to have been planted by Jan van Riebeeck over 360 years ago. If it truly was planed by van Riebeeck that would make it the first tree cultivated in South Africa. The tree had gotten so old that it no longer able to hold itself up; to maintain its form gardeners have constructed metal supports around the three main trunks of the tree. The garden also had a statue commemorating Cecil John Rhodes. He is a man whose name shows up a lot in South Africa - his legacy runs deep through southern Africa. He is known as many things, including the man who envisioned a railway that would run from Cape Town to Cairo, and whose legacy led to the naming of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The gardens also held a memorial to the South African troops that fought in the Battle of Delville Wood in the First World War. We spent about 45 minutes exploring the Company’s Garden before getting back into the bus and continuing to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront.

We arrived at the waterfront around 11:30. The larger group took a short tour of the Cape Town Diamond Museum - while there was some interesting information about the history of diamond mining in South Africa the museum existed mostly as a sales tactic to encourage people to purchase diamonds. After seeing the exhibits we left the museum. After the diamond museum we broke away from the tour group and spent the afternoon on our own. We had a quick lunch at a Steers burger restaurant in the mall, then backtracked to the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. We had first seen the building hosting the museum when we had explored the V&A waterfront a couple of days prior, and it stood out as the building was a set of re-purposed grain silos. We entered the museum just after 12:30, and proceeded to spend the next 3 hours touring through the 4 floors of exhibits. The art was very impressive to see - as the name suggested the art collections were mostly contemporary with a number of unique materials and subjects being presented. There was a small collection of LGBTQ+ art, which was really nice to see.

I found the building to be as engaging as some of the artwork, however, and spent a fair bit of time marvelling at how the museum had taken the structure and fit itself in. The renovation of the grain silos had required a large amount of concrete be removed, and it was possible to see these scars everywhere inside. With each of the original silos being cylindrical there were a number of interesting angles that the concrete cutting yielded - it was really its own piece of artwork. We toured all of the museum galleries and left shortly before 16:00. We caught a shuttle back to the hotel, where I proceeded to have a quick nap.

The last part of our day was spent participating in a home-hosted dinner. This was an optional part of the tour, and only 8 of us decided to participate. We were shuttled from the hotel to a family home about 20 minutes from the hotel, and proceeded to spend the next two hours eating and visiting with a family that lives in Cape Town. They cooked us a ’typical’ South African meal; it consisted of a blue cheese and beef tongue salad, roasted beef and chicken with mixed vegetables and spaghetti, and bread cake with ice cream for dessert. The food was all delicious, and it was very interesting to have a conversation with people who have lived in Cape Town all their lives. It felt like they were able to provide some insight about what life in South Africa is like. After dinner we took a shuttle back to the hotel and were in bed by about 22:30.