Feb 9 Cape Town -- Day 1
For our first ever visit to Cape Town we got up early, zipped through breakfast, grabbed our gear, went face-to-face with customs/immigration, and hit the street in front of the cruise terminal.
We walked (briskly) over to the V&A Waterfront, about a 10-minute walk, including an ATM stop for South African Rands (ZAR). Fun Fact: the waterfront is named for Victoria and ALFRED (her son), not the Victoria and Albert (her husband) that every other V&A is named for. Thought you should know, particularly if you play trivia on cruise ships. We redeemed our voucher for the City Sightseeing Hop On Hop Off Bus tour, bought tickets for the Cableway to Table Mountain, and were on the second bus to leave the terminal.
After a slow ride through the downtown the HOHO bus delivered us to the base of the Cableway. We were ready to board our cable car at 9am.
Once atop the mountain, the view was magnificent, maybe a little hazy but the best view I've ever had on that mountain. Robben Island was out there in the bay.
Here were some people unhappy with the performance of the cableway, so they were rappelling down the mountain.
And, as we took the cable car down (having not brought our abseiling gear with us), we saw another person who was unhappy with the cableway and with the footpath to the top, and was going directly up the mountain. We are fortunate that with the strength of the dollar we didn't have to pursue these other methods.
Back on the HOHO bus we continued the big loop of the city by going past the Atlantic beaches and the posh beachfront communities just behind them.
We set our watches as the ball was dropped at the harbor.
We exited the HOHO bus in the middle of downtown and walked around. Here's the Bo-Kaap region known for the painted houses.
After wandering all over the downtown, eating a meal NOT prepared by Oceania (ours was prepared by royalty, Burger King, because sometimes you need food NOW and a clean restroom is always appreciated), taking photos of all sorts of things we returned to the ship. We were glad to see supplies coming aboard. They had last loaded in Belem, and things were getting desperate. Horizons Bar had run out of mini-pretzels and Happy Hour was looking pretty glum with only peanuts, potato chips, and cocktail mix.
Tomorrow we're up early again but letting Oceania take us to Robben Island. ...dave
For our first ever visit to Cape Town we got up early, zipped through breakfast, grabbed our gear, went face-to-face with customs/immigration, and hit the street in front of the cruise terminal.
We walked (briskly) over to the V&A Waterfront, about a 10-minute walk, including an ATM stop for South African Rands (ZAR). Fun Fact: the waterfront is named for Victoria and ALFRED (her son), not the Victoria and Albert (her husband) that every other V&A is named for. Thought you should know, particularly if you play trivia on cruise ships. We redeemed our voucher for the City Sightseeing Hop On Hop Off Bus tour, bought tickets for the Cableway to Table Mountain, and were on the second bus to leave the terminal.
After a slow ride through the downtown the HOHO bus delivered us to the base of the Cableway. We were ready to board our cable car at 9am.
Here were some people unhappy with the performance of the cableway, so they were rappelling down the mountain.
And, as we took the cable car down (having not brought our abseiling gear with us), we saw another person who was unhappy with the cableway and with the footpath to the top, and was going directly up the mountain. We are fortunate that with the strength of the dollar we didn't have to pursue these other methods.
Back on the HOHO bus we continued the big loop of the city by going past the Atlantic beaches and the posh beachfront communities just behind them.
We exited the HOHO bus in the middle of downtown and walked around. Here's the Bo-Kaap region known for the painted houses.
After wandering all over the downtown, eating a meal NOT prepared by Oceania (ours was prepared by royalty, Burger King, because sometimes you need food NOW and a clean restroom is always appreciated), taking photos of all sorts of things we returned to the ship. We were glad to see supplies coming aboard. They had last loaded in Belem, and things were getting desperate. Horizons Bar had run out of mini-pretzels and Happy Hour was looking pretty glum with only peanuts, potato chips, and cocktail mix.
Tomorrow we're up early again but letting Oceania take us to Robben Island. ...dave
1 comment:
Really rocking the dad-joke humor on this entry, Dave.
Looks really pretty - thanks for the update!
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