A Walk in the Park



60' Coca Cola Man

LEON:  We are sitting in our room at the hotel.  There is African music coming from across the street.  The large ferris wheel is in the window.  And we are both relaxing from a great afternoon, but a frustrating morning.  First, the great afternoon.  We went for a walk into town.  There is a pedestrian path that follows the shoreline.  When we asked at the desk about walking or using a taxi, they recommended the walk.  We are glad that we did so.  The sun was out again and it was quite warm, unless you were by the shore and in the wind - which was the first part of the walk.  But it was still fun.  We walked by the bright red, SIXTY foot statue of a Lego man with a party horn in his mouth.  But once you are up close, you will discover that it is actually made from Coca Cola bottle crates, which seems quite ingenious.  As we approached the downtown, the path ceased.  But here in South Africa, the cars actually stop for pedestrians (just like in Winslow).  Once in town, we headed for the Green Market Square and the Museums.  Green Market is an open air market of African Crafts.  It is well worth the visit for there is a large variety of items of differing quality and value.  Here, is a place that makes it obvious that Cape Town is not a European City.  In many parts of the town, it is easy to forget that you are in Africa.  But even in those areas, there is a wide diversity of ethnic heritages and dress.  Almost everyone speaks English and seem excited to talk to Americans.  There are a variety of good stores selling higher end African works in the same area. 
After the market, it was off to the Parliament Bldg.,  the Company’s Garden, and the South Africa Museum.  The Company Garden is a very pleasant walking park similar to what can be found in other great cities.  At the very southern end, there is the SA Museum.  It is filled with artifacts from all periods of history and pre-history.  Dinosaur bones, whale skeletons, stuffed lions all serve to remind me of how small an animal a human is.  Many of the settings quickly remind you of how vicious the predators can be, from early dinosaurs to todays big cats.  The presentations of current African predators makes me want to stay in town and never ever go out into the wilds of Africa.  And I am currently reading a book that talks of how mean-tempered and vicious rhino and even zebra can be.  These stuffed predators are shown ripping apart their prey as the blood and guts drip around them.  I am reminded of the saying that, ”in Africa there are only two types of animals - predators and prey”.  Now questioning the wisdom of sleeping in a tent in darkest Africa,
I begin to wonder if I can sleep in the bus while on safari.
This "Jonkeria" is from the Karoo region of SA and roamed the planet 260 million years ago, 60 million years before the dinosaur.  It was an impressive Museum.

This morning was another technological “challenge”.  Don’t the modern words for something malfunctioning frustrate you just in themselves?  My Global Cell phone mysteriously stopped working.  There was no service at all.  It looked like the account had been turned off back in the States.  Hours of frustration later, I found that to be exactly what had happened.  “Your sim card was turned off, sir”.  (Just what is a sim card and why do I need it?).  The polite young lady pushed some magical buttons on her keyboard and my phone began to work .  That was after hours of trying to get thru to the support system first via the computer, and then later by phone.  Of course there are toll free numbers to use for that call, but I had misplaced them (another story in itself).  And the numbers to call only worked one time out the eight that I tried.  And the Support people don’t really work 24/7.  And the young lady when I finally got hold of her had the audacity to tell me that I should have used my (NON-functioning) phone to call.  After first spluttering into the phone, I bit my tongue and reminded her that the reason I was calling was that it did not work, or I wouldn’t be calling her. 
But the day ended well.  We picked up a little rental car in order to tour the Winelands and the Cape peninsula.  They drive on the British side of the street here.  I eased into traffic coming out of the rental car garage, shifted to second and immediately signaled my intention to turn right by turning on my Windshield Wipers at full speed.  In the driver’s seat, Dopey is wondering why the wipers are on, but can’t quite figure out how to turn them off because he is task-saturated trying to turn and not go on the right/wrong side of the road.  My biggest worry was that some pedestrian would assume I knew what I was doing and step confidently in front of the car.  When people are stressed, their vision narrows and their hearing turns off.  In this situation Barb knows not to be cool and calm.  She should be actively co-piloting.  But my “co-pilot” is laughing too hard to be of any help.   But, between her and the GPS, we get safely to the hotel, located on this hidden little street.  Technological challenges and all, it is still a great day here.

BARB:  Tomorrow’s weather is supposed to be lovely.  So, we are taking advantage of the sun and warmth to venture about an hour, or so, east of Cape Town to the Winelands (SA’s version of “The Wine Country”).  I was never a Boy Scout, but my mantra is also “be prepared”.  I am armed with a long list of great wineries that we got before we left (from Leon’s cousin Cate who lives in Johannesburg and who we will be visiting after the safari tour).  Cate is an African chef (even though she is from Louisiana) and knows her wine.  She also has friends who know great wine because I received emails from some of them with their top South African wines. 

Leon is probably feeling pretty confident that we won’t be carrying back any wine (remember the rule, “You can buy anything you want, as long as you carry it.”).  But I am pretty sure there are ways to work around that.  However, my real purpose tomorrow is to learn about the great South African wines.