Cape Town! Tuesday we
left for our vacation. Unfortunately,
there are only two flights out. We
passed up the direct flight since it left around 6:30 AM. Sure the boys are early risers, but by the
time you get up, get ready, drive to the airport, park in long term parking,
and check in, etc. etc., you have to get up pretty early. That seems to mean getting to Cape Town
already tired and done for the day. We
left a bit later, but of course that meant flying by way of Walvis Bay. They couldn’t seat us together because the
flight was so full. We had slightly
different seats for the flight from Windhoek to Walvis Bay and from Walvis Bay
to Cape Town. We managed to scramble
around and swap seats with people to get together. Our very full flight ended up having the four
back rows empty. Whatever. On one stretch I was sitting in between Ryan
and Justin in a bank of three seats. I
could BARELY get my hips to fit in the seat.
Since I noticed that all of the seats were not the same height and that
some were Air France seat belts and some were not (second hand parts?) I
figured I just got a skinny seat and was thankful that I am not a very large
woman. A flight attendant noticed me and
pushed a button under the arms to push them over slightly towards each of the
boys. Brilliant!
By the time we got settled into our hotel we were ready to
eat. Justin had seen a travel brochure
for a mall. It included a list of
restaurants and he spotted MCDONALDS!
What a perfect birthday dinner for Rob, right? He was very excited and Ryan started singing
Old MacDonald over and over. That pretty
much sealed the deal. Justin blew us
away by eating a cheeseburger. We aren’t
too fond of burgers in Namibia, and Justin “discovered” a new food. He had his Happy Meal and some of Ryan’s.
The wind was so strong that I thought the roof was going to
blow off of the hotel. I suppose that
since we weren’t on the top floor it wouldn’t have been too tragic for us. Miraculously, the boys slept through the
night despite the loud howling.
Wednesday we were ready for Table Mountain. Table Mountain was not ready for us,
however. We got up there and saw that
the cable car was closed due to high winds.
We drove down to the waterfront area and found a place to park near the
clock tower. The area we wanted to go
was just a short walk. With all of the
construction in the area we could not easily get from point a to point b. We ended up moving the car to a different
location.
We went into the aquarium, which thrilled the boys. They hadn’t been impressed with a trip up to
a mountain and back down again. They
enjoyed looking at the different fish and other water creatures. They were even brave enough to touch a
starfish/sea star. Living dangerously,
huh. After finishing up, we were hungry
and set off for something to eat. A lot
of seafood in the area, which I hate.
Some interesting possibilities for restaurants if it weren’t for the
boys. We ended up at McDonald’s
again. Since we don’t have McDonald’s in
Namibia, we didn’t really mind. In the
US it isn’t a first choice, but it has been seven months without American fast
food so it was a treat for all of us.
We then took a ride on the Ferris wheel to catch a bird’s
eye view of the area. Ryan thought it
was great. I think that Justin is a
little less enthusiastic with heights.
He liked to have Rob right there holding on to him. We had time for Justin to chase birds and
Ryan to play on the playground before heading off for a one hour boat ride. I think Justin would have been content to
chase sea gulls for the entire vacation, but at some point the rest of us were
ready to move on.
We had the foresight to medicate Justin before getting on
the boat and it seemed to help him enjoy his time a bit more. The pirate boat ride was complete with face
painting and a short skit. The show was
really, really bad. Kids seemed pretty
into it though, so what do I know?
Back to the car for a return trip to Table Mountain. This time we were able to go up on the cable
car. The view is absolutely amazing. The boys enjoyed running around and needed
constant reminders to stay on the paths and not climb all over the rocks. The cable car trips up and down the mountain
were not Justin’s favorite, but he managed to keep himself together.
By that point we were done.
Fortunately for us, our hotel came equipped with a kitchen in our
suite. We just went back to the hotel
and ate there.
Thursday was our day for visiting the Cape of Good Hope. We drove along the coast passing through some
small towns along the way. Our first
stop was the penguin colony at Boulder’s Beach.
It was interesting to see so many penguins just doing their own
thing. I only saw a couple of them splash
into the water. It seemed like the
majority chose to either lie down or slide along on their bellies in the sand. I guess with all of the wind they don’t want
to waddle upright. With some of the
gusts of wind I wonder if they could stand upright at times.
From there we continued on our drive. We got to Cape Point and walked the long trek
up to the lighthouse. When Ryan would
complain that he was tired, I would offer to run with him for a break. Seemed to work for him. At the top, the boys were a bit disappointed by
the stubby looking lighthouse. They
thought it was a water tower. We opted
to take the funicular back down to the base.
Since eating choices are limited, we decided to grab some muffins at the
little shop.
Just a short couple of minutes later we were in front of the
Cape of Good Hope sign for a photo op.
We walked around for a bit despite the wind.
We decided to go look for a restaurant I wanted to try. It was a bit of a drive, but it was too late
to do anything else really and a bit too early to eat closer in. Unfortunately, we didn’t find the
restaurant. We walked around a mall and
ended up eating at Spur. Yes, there is a
Spur just down the street from where we live and yes, the food is only mediocre. They do have a play area for the kids though
and food that they will eat. Justin was
anxious to get to the car and back to the hotel. Ends up that he had to go to the bathroom and
he thought he would hold it until we got home.
I was able to figure out his problem and we found a bathroom just in
time.
Back to the hotel for us, with a good many detours as
usual. The streets in Cape Town are laid
out in an interesting fashion and change names frequently. We spent a lot of extra time driving.
Friday we went on the city bus tour. It runs its two hour loop and you can get on
and off at various points throughout the city.
Every fifteen minutes another one comes by, so you never have to wait for
too long. We got off by St George’s
Cathedral which is known for allowing
Blacks and Whites to worship together during apartheid. From there we walked to the Company Gardens and
allowed the boys some time to run and chase the birds as we made our way towards
the South African Museum. We were
rushing through because the boys were not horribly interested and because
Justin had to go to the bathroom again.
I wish he would just SAY something instead of us trying to guess what
the problem is. From there we decided
that we needed to have lunch and that the most promising prospects were behind
us and not ahead of us on the bus route.
We walked for awhile and determined that McDonalds was probably the most
promising choice in the area for us.
After lunch we got back on the bus and rode it around the
rest of the route to see the city. I had
thought that the Jewish museum would be interesting, but, because of Holocaust
related displays, not particularly appropriate for the boys. I planned to run in quickly while Rob watched
the boys outside, but decided against it.
There really didn’t seem to be a great place for them to just hang
out. On we went! Much of the city was familiar as we had
already driven up and down streets trying to get from point a to point b. At least this time we were just taking in the
sights and listening to the commentary instead of trying to navigate our way
somewhere. We got up to Table Mountain
(again) before heading back down and towards the beaches.
We enjoyed being able to look at Camps Bay and some of the
other beaches, points, and bays. We
thought they might be a good location to visit on Saturday. We took the bus back to the starting
point. We were tired and it was too
early for dinner. We didn’t really want
to go back to the hotel and out again either though. We chose to go to Subway and pick up
sandwiches to eat later in the evening and then went back to the hotel.
Saturday the boys were a bit down because it was our last
vacation day. We decided that we would
go to the science center and then head out over towards the beaches. When we got to the science center and I saw
what it was, I figured we would be able to spend an hour there tops. They were renovating the museum and
everything was housed in one large room.
The boys blew me away by insisting we spend six hours there. Justin didn’t even want to eat lunch. We bagged the idea of the beach and enjoyed
our time at the museum. When they
announced closing time we were finally able to get the boys to leave.
For our last meal we headed out to, you guessed it, McDonald’s. We even took some back with us to have as a
snack on Sunday before leaving.
Sunday wasn’t an early start. We didn’t have to leave the hotel until
10:30. Traffic was very light and we
made it to the airport more quickly than we anticipated. We returned the rental car and went to check
in for our flight. Air Namibia
recommends that you arrive at the airport three hours ahead of time for international
flights. Why they don’t open their
counter until it is 2 hours until take off is beyond me. That certainly doesn’t help the line at the
counter.
I must admit that Air Namibia is one of the few airlines
which will feed you (for free) on such short flights. Unfortunately, what they do feed you gives
airline food a bad name. Not like you
will starve on a two hour flight though.
Back in Namibia we waited and waited for our luggage to come
on the carousel. It amazes me how long
it can take when there are so few planes.
I think it would have been faster to just have us climb into the cargo
hold and pull out our own bags before going into the airport. In modernizing their parking system, you now
must pay for parking before returning to the lot. The machine does not take bills larger than
N$50 (about USD 7.50). When your parking
is over N$100, it would be nice if you could put in N$100, but no. There is a parking cashier adjacent to the
machine. She didn’t have change. Hello?
The sign says CASHIER, shouldn’t you have money? She charged us a different rate than the
machine did, but it was in our favor.
(Note: This lovely “improvement” in the parking system has caused
parking rates to approximately double.)
We loaded up the van and headed home. Back to unpacking, laundry, and the glamour
of everyday life.
