She Hears Only Whispers of Some Quiet Conversation

(Sorry, I've decided to use a different line from Toto's "Africa" song lyrics to title each post, until I run out.  My bad.)

After the previous day's travel, we slept in till 8:30 am.  After breakfast at the hotel (inclusive), we took a cab down to the Castle of Good Hope.  It's not really a castle, but actually a fort.  It's not that grand a fort, but still good to walk around inside the whole thing.  And, unlike entrance fees in Europe, everything in Cape Town is reasonably price.

The problems were two-fold -- we were still a bit groggy, and the clouds were hanging over Table Mountain, Devil's Peak, and Lion's Head, so the natural beauty that is Cape Town was, at that point, lost on us.  The best thing about the castle was that we could essentially walk all the way around the walls.  There were also some half-way interesting exhibits.  Honestly, however, at this point we were wondering what the fuss about Cape Town was all about.

After leaving the castle, we took a bit of the "Footsteps to Freedom" walk, with the Groote Kerk as our first stop.  It is the oldest Dutch Reformed church (established in 1704) still in existence.  It's certainly not a Catholic cathedral in Europe.  With the exception of the altar, it is very stark.  We also passed by the site of the old Slave Tree, and then went to the Slave Lodge, which had excellent exhibits on both the history of slavery and on the life of O.R. Tambo, one of the great black leaders in South African history, and a close friend/confidant of Nelson Mandela.

After leaving the slave lodge, we watched a political march go by.  We're pretty sure the protestors are aligned with the S.A. Communist Party, mostly because their banners had hammers and sickles on it (usually a dead giveaway).  They sang and danced with a lot more rhythm than the typical U.S. political rally, particularly at the Republican National Convention.  They were demanding more government jobs, which is always a great way to grow the economy!  It was fun to listen to the rally.  As we walked away, we could still hear it from blocks away.

Passing by the legislature, we then walked through the beautiful Company's Gardens, which is like a mini-Central Park.  Beautiful flora and fauna, we saw lots of people relaxing in the park.  Oddly enough, we only saw two dogs the entire day.  Every dog has its day, but Thursday wasn't it.

We grabbed a cab over to the V & A Waterfront, which is a great area to get a meal or hang out.  Yes, it is touristy, but the restaurants are very reasonably priced, particularly since they are outdoor dining on the waterfront.  It's also a working waterfront, so boats/ships are coming in and out all the time.  I had a delicious lunch of ostrich, while Carol was a lot less adventurous, getting the Tandoori Chicken.

I had a couple of packing fails, including forgetting to actually pack shorts.  It was getting warmer, and being slightly tired, the heat was getting to me.  We stopped in a Woolworth's in the little mall, but the salesman scoffed at me when I asked for shorts.  We did think it unusual that most of the day we saw people walking around in coats, sweaters, long pants, like it was cold or something.  He snottily noted that not only did they not sell shorts at this point in the season, but no other store did either.

Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel for our afternoon excursion, which proved to be a really great start to the trip.  The walk was along the ocean, which made for some beautiful views.