Two more great days in Cape Town

LEON:  Yesterday was a tour of the City and Table Mountain.  Today was used as a slow rest day emphasizing planning and preparation.

On Table Mountain

It was a great Seattle style summer day.  Temperature in the mid 70’s (mid 25’s C.), slightly windy, and abundant Sunshine.  The latitude here is about 34 degrees South.  That’s about the same as Los Angeles is North; and the month is equivalent to end of March / beginning of April.  With the sun at that latitude, the solar heating is about the same as LA., EXCEPT, the ozone layer is thinner here.  So, the potential for FEELING warm, even on a very moderate day is greater than in our part of the hemisphere.  The city tour took us in a big circle around the downtown part of Cape Town.  As with most city tours, you get a lot more of the history of the city than is in most guidebooks.  The tour bus was the best kind, a double decker that is partly open.  And the policy of the tour is Hop On - Hop Off.  That makes it nice to get off and see the things you want to see, for as long as you want to do so. The city was founded in the 1600’s but has little architecture to show that.  What is really interesting is how the names of the streets and some of the structures reflect how far inland the shoreline used to be.  Evidently the Dutch put all of those technical skills at building dikes and reclaiming land to work here.  In doing so, they gained hundreds of hectares of land that a lot of the city is now built on.  Our real goal was to get to Table Mountain.  It is the iconic landmark of Cape Town, and is a more marvelous a sight than the pictures can portray.  At breakfast, our new friends Bob Seltzer and Peter (??) from the Boston, Mass area told us of climbing the trail up the mountain.  They were complaining about how difficult it had been for them, but of course they are also bagging a little since they did make it to the top.  Clearly implied was that climbing the mountain was the only truly honest way to get to the top.  The tram way was clearly in the same category as handicapped parking - not to be used by any healthy person.

When we arrived at the end of the road below the mountain top, we could clearly see the top, the lack of shade any where, and the faint mountain goat trail that initially went straight up the mountain.  Far up towards the top, there were switchbacks since the sloping mountain side had morphed into a cliff side.  At this point, I informed Barbara that the trail looked relatively easy and I was not sure why Bob and Pete had spoken of it as they did.  However, I reminded her that I was a great admirer of the type of engineering expertise required to surmount the technical challenges of a nearly vertical tramway.  As a an engineer myself, I felt I needed to investigate how those difficulties were resolved with the technology of the early 1920’s .  I asked her if she would mind humoring me and taking the tram up to the top instead of walking.  Barb is a gracious woman and managed to indulge my request without once accusing me of wimping out (nor did she thank me).

On Table Mtn with False Bay in background

The tram is an exciting ride up, and the car floor in a disconcerting way revolves once completely around during the short ride up.  And as expected the view was amazing.  On the top, one expects to see a great distance, but it is still amazing.  The paths are rugged, as is the terrain.  There are sheer drops.  Looking North, it is possible to finally understand the layout of the city that we had just driven through.  Looking South, one cannot see Cape Point due to the high terrain in between.  Looking East, it is possible to see Simon’s Town, and False Bay, but not possible to see Cape Agulhas, which is the most southern point of Africa.

After three hours of walking (btw, our new 'five finger' shoes are great hiking shoes) and enjoying the views (plus over 500 pix taken by Miss Shutterbug), we decided it was enough.  I agree now with everyone who told us that Table Mountain is a must-visit place if you’re in Cape Town.  One aside:  it’s okay to drink the water there, but I would not recommend the food!

Happy Feet

The trip back to the hotel, completing a clockwise tour of the metro area, gave us great views of the local beaches.  Several of them are beautiful, but very few are safe for swimming.

One of the troubles with traveling is adapting to the local time zone.  I am still tired at the wrong times of the day, and awake in the middle of the night.  Both of us have been staying up until well past midnight until we finally realize we need to rest.  But last night, Barb slept that sleep of innocence (or exhaustion) that we all wish for.  She was awake one moment, sound asleep the next, and even her head did not change position for the next 9 hours!  I only know this because I woke eight - ten times during the night.  When she comes down for breakfast, Grumpy is on his third cup of coffee trying to get the old body moving, but Barb looks like someone who just left the health spa.  The now highly caffeinated Grumpy is truly envious.

Today (Monday), we stayed around the hotel, went to the V&A mall, and Barb completed the planning of our remaining five useful days in Cape Town.  Leon spent the day dealing with the normal, and highly frustrating,  “technical difficulties” of our modern age.  Half of you have probably already guessed that it has something to do with computers.  What can be more frustrating than a computer that won’t do what you need it to do, and expect it to do, and thought you had paid for it to do?  Oh yeah, discovering that it was never programmed to do that?  Right.  Take half of your day to discover that it actually says on our new camera’s box that its video High Def mode will not function with Mac OS 10.  Then take another half to find the work-arounds, and then use the third half to figure out how to use the new software.  Suffice to say that what was simple and elegant on an earlier model of the same camera is now klutzy and difficult. But the resolution and clarity of that new video are truly great.  (But with my current vision, it really doesn’t make much difference.) 

However, let me tell you the story of the visit to the Apple store.  It is what South Africa and its people have been like for us.  Go to the Sony store.  Talk to the rep.  He quickly shows me the literature on this particular camera and why the video is not compatible (yet) with a Mac.  He’s sharp and pleasant.  I just don’t like the answer.  Go to the Apple store four doors down in the mall.  Try to talk to the software technician.  He’s booked until tomorrow at 2.  It’s now 1230.  He says that if I wait, he might be able to fit me in.  Go to a desk, open up the computer and start trying to get to a knowledge level where I at least have coherent questions.  A young salesman comes over.  Asks if he can help.  Tell him No for sales, I have a software issue.  He asks questions.  Gets involved.  Figures out that another FREE bit of software can help.  Shows me several new tricks of manipulating this computer as he does the other tasks.  His dad is from San Diego.  His grand dad was in the US Navy.  The point is that (so far) everyone has been just like him: enthusiastic, friendly, pleasant, and more than good enough at what they do.

BARB:  The Sony and Apple stores happened to be lost among the 483 other stores in the Victoria Wharf shopping center right across from our hotel.  Leon, not being as familiar with finding your way around a mall as I am, obviously required some feminine guidance.  Once we found the stores, I left him to continue his quest to understand, and make work, the interconnections of the computer and camera. With nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon, I thought that I would check out the mall, after-all, I was there.  

One could get lost in this mall, but not me.  I found the ‘grandmothers mecca’ - an area with probably 20 fantastic children’s clothing stores with the most adorable clothes I have ever seen.  I have to admit that I am a sucker for most-adorable-children’s-clothes-stores.  Needless to say, I now have Sophie’s first birthday gift (her birthday is just two days upon our return), and both her and Madeleine’s Christmas gifts.  While pondering the many many cute outfits wondering how many I should buy, I kept having this nagging voice in my head (that sounded remarkably like Leon) reminding me of a new ‘rule’ that he mentioned yesterday.  He told me, “You can buy anything you want, as long as you carry it”.  I am assuming that he didn’t really mean it.

Tomorrow is another city day.  We are headed off to a large outdoor African crafts market (Leon said that I could buy anything I want) and a few of the Museums.