Day 1 and Day 2, Cape Town, South Africa

Day 1: 

Our ship has just rounded The Cape of Good Hope... the "bottom" of Africa.

The End! We've arrived in Cape Town. Table Mountain in background.

Our ship arrived at 1pm. The entrance to the harbor in the city of Cape Town is one of the iconic harbors in the world. The views are incredibly breathtaking. We sat on our balcony enjoying the mesmerizing view of the mountains and cityscape as the ship made its way into the dock. 

Coming into Cape Town after 29 days of cruising.

Upon arrival, we took the shuttle to the waterfront, caught the Hop On-Hop Off city tour bus (double decker like in London) and went up to Table Mountain. Along the way, we listened to commentary about this historical city (through earphones they provided) while sitting on the top of the bus with a fantastic view. The weather was great. We hopped off at Table Mt. and took the gondola to the top. Almost right away it got fogged in! I took a few pictures and we departed after waiting in a long line to go back down. Bummer. We would have liked to walk some of the paths up there. The whole of Table Mountain is one of 20 National Parks in South Africa. We hopped back on the bus and got another hour’s worth of sightseeing in the city as well as several of the beautiful beaches as we made our way back to the waterfront. We decided to walk back to the ship to get a bit of exercise.  

Architecture in Cape Town

Up, up and up to the top of Table Mountain.

Some of the beauty we saw before the fog surrounded us.

Cityscape from Hop-on-Hop-off bus top.

Day 2: After 30 days of cruising 7,392 nautical miles in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, we will now spend a week in an apt with the Atlantic Ocean down the mountain from us! Since we’ve read and heard so many good things about this part of the world, we decided to stay for awhile after our cruise. We are landlubbers once again! Ha. Ha.

At 10:00a.m., Alison, our landlady, picked us up at the dock. As I explained in the Christmas blog, she took us around in her car before we rented one and we had a nice lunch with her before coming up to our “home away from home” until Dec. 29th. Our cute apartment is located outside of the downtown area, across from Table Mountain. We actually have a wonderful view of 3 mountains from our balcony and living room. Bob has to negotiate the car up a very steep narrow (most of the side roads in Cape Town are quite narrow) road to our rental. If another car comes the other way, one of us has to give way. That’s how narrow it is!

Our Nissan rental parked on our narrow little street.

We unpacked and settled in and decided to go to the local Woolworths grocery store for some breakfast goodies and a few items for the fridge. Plus, we wanted to get some South African wine. Not far from here, there are over 300 wineries! South Africa is famous for its wines due to its climate of cool wet winters and hot dry summers. The refreshing sea breezes, rich soils and fertile mountain slopes are all a winning combination for fine wine. 

In the evening we had salami, cheese, olives and strawberries with our lovely glass of white wine while enjoying our own private view of Table Mountain from our living room. 

Our apartment living room and view out the patio.

Our dining/kitchen area.

View from our patio.

Table Mountain puts on a show for us everyday! This is fun to watch.

Afternoon show put on by Mother Nature as seen from our apt patio.

Sunset show on Table Mt. from our patio of our apartment.