25
Jun 10

Cape Town Day 4: Kirstenbosch Gardens, Foresters Arms, Miller’s Thumb, & Rafiki’s

Friday, June 25

Cape Town, RSA

After yesterday’s long day, and due to the increasing intensity of Jeannette’s illness, we slept in.  We watched recaps of all the different soccer games on TV and then we filled out our World Cup schedules with all the updated information on who was playing who, when – now that many of the Round of 16 matches were set.

We decided to head to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.  Carol highly recommended the Tea Room, one of the restaurants on site there.  After we ate, we explored some of the grounds and saw some amazing South African flora.  It was unbelievable how gorgeous their flowers are, even in the dead of winter.

We met up with Claire and Alistair nearby at Foresters Arms Pub to watch the 4pm games, specifically the Brazil-Portugal game.  It was wicked packed with young people and a fun place to watch the game.  We all wanted to catch a good dinner before the next two games started at 8:30pm.   Claire & Ali took us to Miller’s Thumb, knowing there were no TVs, but enough time and super good South African seafood.  We had all sorts of good food: springbok carpaccio, kingklip, and cape salmon.  We headed right across the street to Rafiki’s to watch the Spain-Chile game.  For the first half we could only find seats in an outdoor, but enclosed, smoking section.  It wreaked havoc on Jeannette’s cold.  But we maneuvered for great indoor (non-smoking) seats before the start of the second half.  During the second half, two of Claire’s friends met up with us, one friend from childhood, and one MIT friend from Spain (so he was particularly invested in the game – that was fun!).

After getting home, we continued what became our almost nightly ritual of tea and toast or wine and snacks with Richard (often Carol or Claire joined us too).  Tonight we had tea and toast with Richard and while we didn’t have as eventful a day as yesterday, we analyzed the day’s games and Richard told us about South Africa and what the world event of the World Cup coming to South Africa really meant to him.  Over all our late evening conversations, we feel like they gave us special experience of South Africa and we really came to cherish our time with Richard and Carol.  We look forward to the day our paths cross again.

Kirstenbosch Gardens:

Josh really liked this sculpture – we saw it again later out near Stellenbosch College.  I think it is called Cheetah and Springbok or something like that.

Pretty flowers:

Guinea fowl:

Jeannette on the boardwalk that went through a more natural growth area, in swampy marshy spot:

Calla Lily!  One of our wedding flowers! (This is exactly 1 week before our 5 year anniversary!)

They has a lot of sculptures and nicely manicured gardens (though there were less manicured spaces as well):

This was a temporary building and exhibit:

The living walls:

The original avenue lined with Camphor trees that Cecil Rhodes planted:

A restful spot:

There were gorgeous flowers everywhere:

The weather was a little overcast in spots as we waited for the sun to come over the Mountain.  But the gray mist only made the garden’s colors stand out even more.


24
Jun 10

Cape Town Day 3: Netherlands v. Cameroon @ Green Point Stadium

Thursday, June 24

Cape Town, RSA

After driving back to the city center, we parked at Claire’s Dad’s firm on Long Street.  While we were waiting for everyone who had tickets to the game to gather, the two of us headed to an English Pub, 3 Lions, just around the corner for a few pints while we watched the first halves of the Slovakia-Italy and Paraguay-New Zealand games.  After we all met up on Long Street, we walked the Fan Mile to the stadium, stopping halfway there at Lazari at the Cape Quarter for dinner, care of Malcolm.  After a fun dinner with good people and conversation, we walked the whole Fan Mile (a lot of Dutch fans!).  We want to note here that the Fan Mile in Cape Town is much longer than one mile.

Once we were in the stadium we found that we had amazing seats!  We were right at the yellow corner flag, and two rows up from the railing.  Where we sat wasn’t as loud as the Soccer City stadium, but we were right at the corner where two goals were scored – and the subsequent celebrations were had.  Once again we were rooting for the African team, but most people in attendance were pretty stoked that Netherlands won 2-1.  We enjoyed seeing Eto’o and Robben play.  Josh spilled beer (a full bottle) on our camera bag due to an exciting PK in our corner – luckily Jeannette had the camera out on her lap at the time, so no harm done – but the great seats only served to heighten excitement.  Josh had also practiced his vuvuzela skills and was one of the better blowers in our section.

We all met back up for some wine to sit and recap the game together.  Jeannette had started to feel a bit sick for the last couple days and by the end of this long day, her cold had come on quite strong.  Luckily one of the people we had just met for dinner, and again postgame, was a nice doctor.  She offered some advice, and prescriptions if desired.  Jeannette decided to hold out for a bit longer (bad idea) but did snag a box of kleenex that was gone by the end of trip, along with a second full box.

By the time we made it home, we were feeling peckish and still pretty riled up and excited about the game so we stayed up and ate snacks with Claire and her parents, Carol and Richard, before hitting the hay.


24
Jun 10

Cape Town Day 3: Camps Bay & More

Thursday, June 24

Cape Town, RSA

From Table Mountain, we drove to Camps Bay.  It is a gorgeous seaside resort spot.  We parked in a police station’s lot that was across the street from the building (on the beach) – we weren’t sure if we would have a ticket or a car when we returned, but it worked perfect!  We didn’t have to drive the strip over and over looking for a spot, we didn’t have to pay, and our car ended up being perfectly safe and secure.

We walked along the beach’s main road and finally found someone selling USA car flags! We’d been looking all over town, but so far had only been able to acquire a South Africa car flag.  People drive with them attached to their windows to show their national pride, or to show whichever team they are rooting for. We were super excited to finally find a USA one for our rental car.

We walked over to the Sandbar for lunch.  Peroni girls were out in full force, giving away Italy football paraphernalia for drinking Peroni.  From there we drove along the ocean to Hout Bay, turned around there, and drove back to Cape Town center.  Traffic was starting to get backed up and slow with people trying to get in to and out of the city before the Cape Town game started.


24
Jun 10

Cape Town Day 3: Table Mountain

Thursday, June 24

Cape Town, RSA

We said our goodbyes to Claire at breakfast, and then we drove to Table Mountain.   Once we were there, we were inundated by Dutch fans wearing all orange (bathrobes, full dress suits, wingtip shoes, wigs, and then “normal” orange clothing like shorts, shirts, ties, socks, flip flops, etc. as well).  There was also a Dutch hype safari-type vehicle driving up and down the public access route blaring their anthem and jingles, painted in all orange and covered in about 50 Dutch flags.  It was pretty funny.  It was nice to have entertainment while we waited in line.  We rode a rotating cable car up to the top and then we spent a few hours exploring the top of the mountain, seeing the views from all sides and trying to catch a glimpse of the Cape of Good Hope – this landmark held special significance to Josh in his formative years and he was very excited to see it for the first time.

Lion’s Head from Table Mountain:

Looking up (with some of Josh’s favorite African trees):

I see Dutch fans!:

Our cable car ride!

View from the top of Camps Bay:

Dassies!  One of our favorite South African animals!  We got to see these little guys sun themselves on the rocks in various Parks, but this was our first introduction.  Their other name is the rock hyrax.  The fun tidbit of trivia for the day is: the dassie’s closest known genetic relative is the elephant! How is that for fun?!

JFJ, with the Cape of Good Hope way out behind us:

Pretty, tiny bird:

Jeannette, figuring out Cape Town and what we’re looking at:

Beautiful views were found in 360:

Jeannette:

Deep crevasses:

Table Bay:

Jeannette, overlooking Table Bay:

Duncan Dock and the City Bowl:

Super fun, pagoda-like flora:

Walking back towards the Cableway terminus:

Our last views from the top of Table Mountain were of Signal Hill and Green Point Stadium:

Signal Hill, Table Bay, City Center and Suburbs:


24
Jun 10

Cape Town Day 3: Breakfast in Vredehoek

Thursday, June 24

Cape Town, RSA

We had big plans for our third day in Cape Town, and as such needed to break up the day’s post up into four smaller, more consumable posts.  We started our day off in Vredehoek for breakfast with Claire at a cool little cafe, the Sidewalk Cafe.  Vredehoek is a beautiful suburb of Cape Town with quaint houses right on the slopes of Table Mountain, just off to the side of the city center.  We had a delicious (and large!) breakfast before heading off to do Table Mountain.

Vredehoek, looking back to city center:

Vredehoek, with Lion’s Head in the Background:

Jeannette & Claire, after a yummy breakfast:

The Sidewalk Cafe, with Table Mountain National Park behind:

Sidewalk Cafe: