Day 38
Cape Town
I’m in my happy place. If you’ve been following along so far on this journey, then you’ve seen Kenya, Mozambique, Madagascar, and a few other cities in South Africa.
Forget all of that. This is not that. This is Cape Town, one of my top five favourite cities in the world. When we pulled into port, our side of the ship was looking at the container works, large cranes, etc. Pretty much like all the other ports. On the other side of the ship, though, the view is very different and I was flooded with fond memories of this place instantly. I was giddy. I mean, how can you not?
The ship is here overnight and I just heard an announcement that it will be moving to a different berth tonight, much closer to the V&A Waterfront - which will be more convenient, yes, but we’ll probably lose this view. But hey, it might even be a better one at the new berth! Regardless, we’ve got a tour coming up in a few minutes and I’m super-excited to get out and about and soak up all that Cape Town has to offer.
After brekkie, we hopped on a bus which drove us out to Kirstenbosch, South Africa’s oldest botanical gardens. They were lovely, especially with the dramatic backdrop of Table Mountain just behind them.
They had a gallery / shop as well, with paintings and art by local artists. One of them, a painting of Table Mountain as seen from across the bay at Table View Beach, brought tears to my eyes almost instantly. It’s the exact same view I had the first time I saw Table Mountain, back in 2003. The painting is all packed away, but here’s the photo I took from that spot back then. (Pardon the graininess - I had a very low-res camera back then)
After the gardens, we hopped back in the bus and headed over to Groot Constantia, South Africa’s oldest winery (circa 1685). For those who’ve seen Guardians of the Galaxy, you’re probably pronouncing the first word as if it were a character from that franchise. The actual pronunciation isn’t really spell-out-able, but it begins with a guttural, clearing-your-throat kind of sound, at least when our guide pronounced it. Regardless, it was very nice!
A wine tasting was included, and unlike the previous wine tasting, we liked several of the offerings this time. In fact, we bought some.
There was a chocolate pairing with each of the wines. The chocolates were labeled with the wine they were paired with.
Notice the ‘pinotage’ - that’s a grape that was “invented” here in South Africa back in the 1920s by grafting a Pinot noir and a hermitage vine together. Other than a few small plantings in California and New Zealand, South Africa is the only place this grape grows. According to the guide, it’s a love-it or hate-it varietal, but Rob and I both love it. We fell in love with it on our last trip here in 2019. If you’re looking to try it yourself, Kanonkop and Spier wineries are both widely available outside South Africa and both make good pinotage. We were a happy group, sampling the outstanding pinotage at the tasting today.
Back to the ship, the hop on the shuttle to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, and the Victoria Wharf mall.
Not much to say about the mall… it’s a mall. Was fun to see Woolworths again, even though it’s not related to the dead five-and-dime stores that were prevalent in North America awhile back. This one is much swankier, like a Macy’s.
If for some reason I had to move away from Canada, Cape Town would be on the short list of places I’d choose to live. Maybe second in line behind Copenhagen, - and Copenhagen would only nudge it out because it has my all-time favourite roller coaster in it.
And I’m going to say this: a number of my favourite cities are ones that I visited before I met Rob, or I visited them solo first. New Orleans, South Africa, Scandinavia… I loved them all. But returning to them with Rob makes them even better. I get to share places in the world that mean a lot to me with the man that means the world to me. I love him and he makes everything in my life better.
Back on the ship for dinner at Manfredi’s, then the evening show, which was local musicians and singers doing local music. It was absolutely fantastic. By far my favourite show of the trip. Three marimbas (!), conga drums, a djembe, a trap drum set, trumpet, and alto sax. The vocal choir was started to get kids in the townships off the streets. Both groups were fantastic and they came together at the end of the show for a combined number.
We finished packing and set the suitcases outside our room to be collected. We have to be off the ship early tomorrow morning. It’s bittersweet - we’ve had a great cruise, but we’ll miss our floating home.
While up on deck to get that last shot, I noticed how nice the V&A Waterfront looks at night.
I also noticed that the ship is flying the South African flag, my second-favourite country flag after the Canada’s iconic maple leaf.
The lights on the harbour paint rippled colours across the water.
Even the view from our room was shimmering, dancing colours.
…and that’s the end of todays’s post. Another big day tomorrow!