Visiting Cape Town, South Africa (Part 1)
So John and I are back from our whirlwind tour of South Africa. I have a lot of photos to go through, but I wanted to start blogging about the experience while my memories are still fresh.
Getting to South Africa
So we left Chicago on the early morning of Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - the day before Thanksgiving. We were at the airport at 6am so even though it was a busy travel day we had no problems getting checked in for our flight. The first leg of our trip was to Atlanta, and we arrived around 10:30am local time. Our direct flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg wasn't until 6pm, but I didn't know five months ago whether there was going to be a blizzard or problems so I had planned to spend the whole day in the Atlanta airport "just in case" because there was only one flight to Jo'Burg each day.
We paid for a daily membership to the Delta Sky Club, and the Club in the international terminal was really very nice. John watched TV, read a book, and took advantage of the complimentary beer, wine and vodka tonics. I worked all day remotely but did sneak in a couple of gin and tonics in the later afternoon. Teehee! At some point, our flight got rescheduled to 8:30pm. We boarded and left Atlanta on time.
It was a 16.5 hour direct flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. John and I had our row of three seats to ourselves and it was nice. I stayed up until about 2am, and actually was able to "sleep" for about 6 hours. We landed in Jo'Burg around 7pm local time on Thanksgiving, which was only noon in Chicago.
We stayed at a hotel airport, and had a mini-Thanksgiving of various African game meats at the ritzy hotel restaurant in the InterContinental. We went to bed around 10:30pm, and even though my brain was telling me it was just 3:30pm I was out like a light. Thankfully, that let me adjust to the new time schedule pretty much right away.
Cape Town
We got up in Johannesburg on Friday, November 28 at about 4am since we had a 6am flight to Cape Town. Since we were already at one of the airport hotels, getting over to the terminal was easy. Everything went on time for checking in on our flight and after two hours we were on the ground in Cape Town. We got our luggage and picked up the rental car and immediately drove around the penninsula, starting on the eastern side going through Simon's Town and past False Bay. I was worried I would have problems driving on the left side of the road but everything was fine. We got to the Cape of Good Hope around 11am and spent the rest of the day hiking. It was a gloriously beautiful hike, and the sun burned through the clouds by about 1pm and there was blue skies and cool breezes off the ocean. We had a late lunch at Two Oceans (since its basically where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet) of delicious fish and very inexpensive African wine before we left the Cape around 5pm.
We then drove up the west side of the penninsula with spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean. We ultimately reached Cape Town and checked into the hotel, just north of the city, at about 7pm.
There was a mixup on rooms - I had not been able to get an ocean-facing room for both nights since there was a wedding at the hotel on Saturday. I had e-mailed them to let me know if one became available since we were in a hotel room facing the parking lot for both nights. Right before we started our trip they let me know they could accomodate my request. In actuality, when we checked in they gave us a sea-facing condo time share rather than a hotel room facing the ocean. Which was awesome, because it was a two-bedroom, two-bath condo with a living room and kitchen, as well as a private deck right on the Atlantic Ocean! And since it was so clear I was confused and there had been a mixup, they charged me the room rate, vs. the condo rate... which was great since it would have been twice the cost. A clear win on our part and great service by the hotel. We were able to sleep both nights with the window open and the sounds of the Atlantic surf, as the ocean was just a couple of hundred feet outside our window. After hiking all day I was exhausted and fell asleep pretty easily.
Some photos. As always, click on the photo to embiggen!
A view from the hotel our first night in Cape Town, South Africa.
The sun was setting and Table Mountain in the background.
Driving through the headlands to the Cape of Good Hope.
Another shot of Table Mountain, Cape Town.
A view of Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain
I will post some more photos from the Cape of Good Hope and Table Mountain once I go through them. After that, there's a night at the former Chinese consulate in Jo'Burg, and then five days on safari near Kruger National Park.
Getting to South Africa
So we left Chicago on the early morning of Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - the day before Thanksgiving. We were at the airport at 6am so even though it was a busy travel day we had no problems getting checked in for our flight. The first leg of our trip was to Atlanta, and we arrived around 10:30am local time. Our direct flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg wasn't until 6pm, but I didn't know five months ago whether there was going to be a blizzard or problems so I had planned to spend the whole day in the Atlanta airport "just in case" because there was only one flight to Jo'Burg each day.
We paid for a daily membership to the Delta Sky Club, and the Club in the international terminal was really very nice. John watched TV, read a book, and took advantage of the complimentary beer, wine and vodka tonics. I worked all day remotely but did sneak in a couple of gin and tonics in the later afternoon. Teehee! At some point, our flight got rescheduled to 8:30pm. We boarded and left Atlanta on time.
It was a 16.5 hour direct flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. John and I had our row of three seats to ourselves and it was nice. I stayed up until about 2am, and actually was able to "sleep" for about 6 hours. We landed in Jo'Burg around 7pm local time on Thanksgiving, which was only noon in Chicago.
We stayed at a hotel airport, and had a mini-Thanksgiving of various African game meats at the ritzy hotel restaurant in the InterContinental. We went to bed around 10:30pm, and even though my brain was telling me it was just 3:30pm I was out like a light. Thankfully, that let me adjust to the new time schedule pretty much right away.
Cape Town
We got up in Johannesburg on Friday, November 28 at about 4am since we had a 6am flight to Cape Town. Since we were already at one of the airport hotels, getting over to the terminal was easy. Everything went on time for checking in on our flight and after two hours we were on the ground in Cape Town. We got our luggage and picked up the rental car and immediately drove around the penninsula, starting on the eastern side going through Simon's Town and past False Bay. I was worried I would have problems driving on the left side of the road but everything was fine. We got to the Cape of Good Hope around 11am and spent the rest of the day hiking. It was a gloriously beautiful hike, and the sun burned through the clouds by about 1pm and there was blue skies and cool breezes off the ocean. We had a late lunch at Two Oceans (since its basically where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet) of delicious fish and very inexpensive African wine before we left the Cape around 5pm.
We then drove up the west side of the penninsula with spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean. We ultimately reached Cape Town and checked into the hotel, just north of the city, at about 7pm.
There was a mixup on rooms - I had not been able to get an ocean-facing room for both nights since there was a wedding at the hotel on Saturday. I had e-mailed them to let me know if one became available since we were in a hotel room facing the parking lot for both nights. Right before we started our trip they let me know they could accomodate my request. In actuality, when we checked in they gave us a sea-facing condo time share rather than a hotel room facing the ocean. Which was awesome, because it was a two-bedroom, two-bath condo with a living room and kitchen, as well as a private deck right on the Atlantic Ocean! And since it was so clear I was confused and there had been a mixup, they charged me the room rate, vs. the condo rate... which was great since it would have been twice the cost. A clear win on our part and great service by the hotel. We were able to sleep both nights with the window open and the sounds of the Atlantic surf, as the ocean was just a couple of hundred feet outside our window. After hiking all day I was exhausted and fell asleep pretty easily.
Some photos. As always, click on the photo to embiggen!
A view from the hotel our first night in Cape Town, South Africa.
The sun was setting and Table Mountain in the background.
Driving through the headlands to the Cape of Good Hope.
Another shot of Table Mountain, Cape Town.
A view of Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain
I will post some more photos from the Cape of Good Hope and Table Mountain once I go through them. After that, there's a night at the former Chinese consulate in Jo'Burg, and then five days on safari near Kruger National Park.