Cape Town, Day 4: Back in the Game

The scenery is stunning on the other side of Table Mountain as well

Unlike the previous day, Wednesday was off to a good start, primarily because our daughter was feeling fine again. With no tummy troubles to concern us, we started out after breakfast by driving to the Castle of Good Hope, South Africa's oldest surviving colonial building (and still the headquarters of the Western Cape military command). Originally a clay-and-timber structure built in 1652, the current fortress was constructed between 1666 and 1679 to protect the interests of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Today, in addition to hosting military units, the castle serves as a backdrop to events including concerts, festivals and plays:

We arrived at the fortress at 0945 hours, along with a large student group. The castle is shaped as a pentagon:

It was a short wait for the key ceremony, which takes place at 1000 and 1200 on weekdays. At ten o'clock, a key is used to open the wicket gate within the main castle gate, after which a bell is rung, sentries take up positions and the key is returned to the governor's quarters (the ceremony is repeated in reverse at noon). Usually a cannon is fired as part of the ceremony, but the windy conditions on Wednesday precluded it from being done:

There are some interesting museums on the castle grounds, including the Castle Military Museum:

Another museum had exhibits on South African ceramics, as well as these early 18th-century terracotta lion statues that used to adorn the entrance to the Castle of Good Hope (replicas now greet visitors at the castle entrance). They reveal a definite South East Asian influence:

A 1778 stone beacon marking the boundary of the Dutch colony in Plettenberg Bay, Western Cape:

The background scenery is dominated by Table Mountain, of course:

A torture chamber:

The Dolphin Pool, named after the ornate dolphin fountain at its center:

The former Governor's Quarters now houses the William Fehr Collection of ceramics, furniture, oil paintings, and glass and metalware:

1820 Settlers camped on the Great Fish (Inxuba) River (1837), by Frederick Timpson I'Ons:

Table Bay in 1679 with the Dutch East Indiaman 'Africa' in the foreground (c. 1680), by Aernout Smit:

Dutch Ship in Table Bay (produced after 1650), by Jan I. Peeters. This painting is the earliest depiction of Table Bay and Table Mountain in the Fehr collection:

Posing outside the former Governor's Quarters and its 18th-century balcony with a pediment bas-relief created by German sculptor Anton Anreith:

Standing outside the Castle of Good Hope:

For lunch we went to...McDonald's. That wasn't the plan, actually. We were on our way to do some wine tasting, but wanted to stop for lunch first. My wife had chosen a Thai restaurant called Erawan that she found via her phone GPS, but when we pulled up to the door, we were told the electricity in the neighborhood was out and wouldn't come back on until mid-afternoon. So instead we ended up at a nearby Golden Arches.

Before moving to Addis Ababa አዲስ አበባ at the end of July, I never gave much thought to fast food. But except for several Pizza Hut outlets, Addis is bereft of the familiar icons like KFC and Starbucks (there is an "In-and-Out Burger", but it isn't the real deal - the same goes for the local "Home Depot" and "7-Eleven"!). I never thought I would miss them, but it's funny the things you learn about yourself while traveling:

Junk food cravings satisfied, it was time for some hipster offsetting by indulging in a spot of wine tasting at Groot Constantia, an historic estate where winemaking in South Africa began:

We had already visited the estate on Monday evening when we had dinner with friends at the Jonkershuis restaurant. On Wednesday afternoon we began our tour in the manor house, which now serves as a museum (no photography permitted, unfortunately). The exterior gable was created by the same Anton Anreith who work we saw in the morning at the Castle of Good Hope:

In the tasting room Shu-E and I sampled five kinds of wine produced by the winery. I opted for the five different kinds of chocolate to go along with the wine:

Trying to look like I know what I'm doing. Regular readers of this blog are well aware that I'm more of a craft beer snob drinker than a connoisseur of fine wines:

We were also given a tour of the Cloete Cellar, the estate's original wine cellar:

After the tasting and the tour, we spent some time wandering about the estate's beautiful grounds:

Amber shows off the wine glasses from our tasting that my wife and I were allowed to take home as a memento:

For the return drive to central Cape Town, we took the scenic route along the Atlantic coast. To Shu-E, it reminded her of the east coast of Taiwan; for me, it recalled my several drives along California's scenic Pacific Coast Highway:

We stopped off in Camps Bay, another affluent Cape Town suburb, for a closer look at the ocean scenery:

Standing in front of the Camps Bay Tidal pool, which several brave souls were braving on this windy spring afternoon. The central part of Cape Town lay on the other side of Table Mountain:

We eventually returned to the Dutch Manor Antique Hotel. For dinner on Wednesday evening, the three of us walked the 110 meters (360 feet) along Buitengracht Street to The Famous Butcher's Grill. Perhaps in atonement for my Americanized lunch, I went full-on South African for dinner, beginning with a basket of biltong and a glass of C.B.C. Draught...:

...followed by an ostrich fillet as a main course...:

and finishing it all with a Malva pudding topped with custard and a scoop of Rooibos ice cream:

It was a great South African meal to finish up a great day in South Africa.

Cape Town, Day 3: Riding Out the Intestinal Storm

A very Cape Townian scene

Last Tuesday in Cape Town got off to a rocky start. Our daughter woke up with an upset stomach, and promptly went into the lavatory to throw up. She vomited again after breakfast, and would do so several more times as the day went on, though fortunately with lesser frequency and severity. We weren't sure what the cause of the intestinal distress was, but it did impact our activities for that day. Amber is a trouper, however, and accompanied my wife and I as we set out on a somewhat limited exploration of the city.

Close to our hotel is the Bo-Kaap district, a magnet for camera-toting tourists such as myself. From the Wikipedia entry:

The Bo-Kaap ("above the Cape" in Afrikaans) is an area...formerly known as the Malay Quarter. It is a former township, situated on the slopes on Signal Hill above the city center and is a historical center of Cape Malay culture in Cape Town...Bo-Kaap is known for its brightly colored homes and cobble stoned streets. The area is traditionally a multicultural neighborhood, and most of its population is Muslim...the area contains the largest concentration of pre-1850 architecture in South Africa, and is the oldest surviving residential neighborhood in Cape Town.

According to Shu-E, the origin of the vividly-colored heritage houses lies in the fact that the residents originally weren't allowed to have residential addresses, and so turned to bright colors as a way of distinguishing their homes. These days, the former slave quarter is falling victim to inner-city gentrification:

Holding up well, considering:

From Bo-Kaap, we turned our attention to the V&A Waterfront, "where the City meets the Sea". It's a mixed-use, commercial/residential development that includes bars, cinemas, cruises, restaurants and shops. It was also a place where we quickly found a pharmacy, explained to the pharmacist the troubles our daughter had been experiencing, and walked away with a couple of OTC medications that helped Amber feel better by late afternoon. It was simple conveniences such as this that we had forgotten about in the fewer than three months we've been living in Addis Ababa:

We also took time to explore some of the shops, and I crossed a very important item off the personal Cape Town to-do list by purchasing an official South Africa national rugby team jersey. And speaking of rugby, the Springboks Rugby World Cup Pool B match against Canada, taking place at NOEVIR Stadium Kōbe ノエビアスタジアム神戸, was being broadcast live throughout the Waterfront on big-screen and restaurant TV's. We caught the first-half and part of the second over lunch at Quay Four, yet another establishment serving that cuisine my wife couldn't get enough of in Cape Town - seafood:

Toasting the Springboks' 66-7 shellacking of the Canucks:

Amber didn't eat anything for lunch, but the sight of a Krispy Kreme outlet perked up her appetite:

If shopping malls like the V&A exist in Addis, we haven't found them yet:

After taking care of our daughter's needs at the chemist's, it was time to see to my wife's. Live Mart Bakery Cafe is a Taiwanese-run grocery store located in an industrial area northeast of the city center. Shu-E took the time to stock up on some familiar goodies from home:

I was pleased to find nǎichá 奶茶:

We returned in the late afternoon to the Dutch Manor Antique Hotel, where I tried unsuccessfully to pass myself off as a buff rugby player:

Amber was feeling much better as dinnertime approached, and so we got back in the car for the short drive to the South China Dim Sum Bar (we could've walked there, but the hotel desk clerk advised against it). It was one of those hipster foodie spots that bear little resemblance to the dim sum joints I've eaten at in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but the food wasn't bad (the girls enjoyed the fried turnip cake) and the atmosphere had a cool, young vibe. And don't feel sorry for the young gentleman sitting alone - his female friend turned up later:

And so while our sightseeing options were restricted on Tuesday due to our daughter's condition, the good news was that she was feeling more like her old self by the end of that evening. And the even better news was that she was almost back to normal for the remainder of our stay in Cape Town.

Cape Town, Days 1 & 2: Welcome to South Africa

The Company's Garden, with the iconic Table Mountain in the background

After 2½ months adjusting to life in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa አዲሱ አበባ (and some of our things, such as our car, have still not arrived!), we decided to take a break, in conjunction with our daughter's first break from her school. Our destination was that most scenically-located of cities on the southern tip of Africa, Cape Town, where we spent seven days and six nights reacquainting ourselves with some of the conveniences of modern life. Our Ethiopian Airways flight departed from Bole International Airport shortly before 0900 local time Sunday morning...:

...and arrived at Cape Town International Airport six hours later. We picked up a rental car at the airport (a Toyota Yaris), and drove to the Bo-Kaap part of the city, where we checked into accommodations. As it was late on a Sunday afternoon and the three of us were hungry, we decided to find a place for dinner. It wasn't a very difficult choice - since arriving in Addis Ababa in late July, my wife has been suffering from the lack of fresh seafood in the capital city of a landlocked country. Cape Town, on the other hand, being a port city has an abundance of establishments serving up bounties from the sea. We soon found ourselves at Sea Breeze, enjoying fresh oysters as an appetizer:

I had the...well, I don't remember what I ordered as it was a fish I'd never heard of. I do recall that it was tasty:

Dessert was an apple crumble cheesecake. Dining-wise, our trip was off to a fine start:

After dinner it was back to our home-away-from-home in Cape Town, the Dutch Manor Antique Hotel, an atmospheric inn housed in an 1812 building:

The highlight of any visit to Cape Town is to ride the cableway to the top of Table Mountain and look down upon the city, but on Monday morning the rock was shrouded in mist. So instead we drove to Signal Hill for views of the mountain and out over the waterfront:

Lion's Head is a popular hiking spot, though it's best to go with a group due to the security situation (crime is a serious concern in Cape Town as it is in other South African cities):

From Signal Hill we drove down to the Company's Garden, a park and heritage site in the central part of the city. What began in 1652 as the vegetable patch for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) is now a series of gardens free of charge for the public to enjoy:

Not only have we been yearning for seafood while in Addis, we also realized how much we miss the ocean. After the gardens we drove to Sea Point, one of Cape Town's most affluent suburbs, situated between Signal Hill and the Atlantic Ocean. Being early spring in the Southern Hemisphere, it was too chilly to go for a swim, but perfectly fine for admiring a seaside view:

No surprises as to what kind of cuisine we had for lunch. On Monday afternoon, we ate at the Sea Point branch of Ocean Basket, "South Africa's favourite seafood restaurant":

This trip to Cape Town was more than just a sightseeing excursion. For example, after lunch, Shu-E bought herself and Amber some pants, while I had my reading glasses repaired (apparently something as simple as replacing a missing screw is beyond the abilities of Addis Ababa's finest opticians) and perused what was on offer in Wordsworth Books, settling on a copy of Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa by Paul Kenyon. My wife also picked up a sunhat at the local Woolworths, which in South Africa appear to be much classier shopping establishments than the gritty K-Mart/Sears-like shops I remember from my youth.

Shopping completed (for now), we continued driving northeast in our rented Yaris, admiring the ocean scenery:

Eventually we turned inland and returned to Dutch Manor for a short rest, before going out again to meet with some friends from the Foreign Service for dinner. We joined Obio, Yvette and their young son Harrison (along with a couple of Yvette's friends visiting from Taiwan) at Jonkershuis, a casual brasserie-style restaurant on the grounds of the historic Groot Constantia winery (which we would visit later in the week). I had a tasting plate of Cape Malay dishes (Cape Malays are an ethnic group whose ancestors originated from the then-Dutch East Indies, though nowadays the term denotes more of a Muslim identity). It was only R198, around $13.40 - it turned out we had arrived in South Africa at a time when the exchange vis-a-vis the South African rand was clearly in our favor:

After dinner, we drove over to our friends' residence to catch up on things that had been going on since we last got together. Below, Shu-E, Yvette and Amber pose with the bag of Ethiopian coffee we brought with us as a gift, while those with sharp eyes will note your humble scribe in the background (Obio had the good sense to hide himself around a corner):

Our first full day in Cape Town wasn't as busy as the ones that would follow, but we enjoyed coming to the realization that we, too, could get used to this kind of lifestyle. More to come...