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Published: January 5th 2010
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Table Mountain from the Market
Wonderful day for views of the city, if only places were open. The drive from Kleinmond/Hermanus to Cape Town is surprisingly shorter this way than passing through Stellenbosh and Franschhoek. To be sure, the biggest issue with the last is that the road from Franschhoek is very windy as you are passing through the Holland Hottentots Mountains which makes what looks like a short distance quite long.
High Places in Cape Town
I knew when I booked us on tomorrow's Premier Classe train that trying to get things done on New Year's Day would be a problem. Well, it has been, although I don't think we missed all that much. We saw The Castle (Cape Town's main defensive fort), but it was closed; we saw and drove up Table Mountain, but the cablecar was closed; we drove up to the Noon Gun, but the gates were closed; we drove up Signal Hill and there was nothing there they could shut down.
What matters most from these places, other than The Castle, are the views and we generally got those save for the unsurpassed ones available form Table Mountain. What is interesting is that most mountains here rise from a low flat plain rather rapidly so the feeling of altitude is
Cape Town Capital Building
I forget the name and am very lazy right now. Built by the British for administration of the Cape by way of the adjacent Castle. significant and we started from what is a rather low Noon Gun Hill (but felt quite high) and then proceeded to Signal Hill and then the Lower Cableway Station of Table Mountain.
Food in Cape Town
We then headed down for lunch to Green Point and Mouille Point by way of Sea Point and had fabulous views of the ocean and some rather impressive homes. I understood that food in this area is quite good but restaurants and commercialization remain few and far between even in this area (unless we missed one big street or something) and we ate at some place the DK Eyewitness Guide recommended that no longer carried the same name and had some rather mediocre pizzas. The highlight of the lunch was giving the server a 15 percent tip and being significantly thanked; and two younger and one older blonde lady who sat next to us and then moved outside who were an interesting perspective on the Miami Beach type crowd of Cape Town. Evidently where we were, though unimpressive to us, was the local dive to be (not much competition is the real issue I believe) and we got to see what the
Lion at Noon Gun
The Noon Gun was closed and did not fire today, but at least there was a lion up at the gate. local fashion is - some mix between punk and tramp. I'm not trying to be mean or deragatory, it really is the look and I struggle to describe it. It's not bad, any man would like it but I am sure most women could criticize some aspect of it. So I think my explanation is probably pretty good based on that? If I were anywhere else in the world I would have assumed many of them were Russian working girls.
Big City Walk
The headache of the day was to be returning the rental car to the airport but it was simplified thanks to the Westin who was able to get us to return it to a nearby hotel. Cheap as ever, I saved 20 bucks and earned us a walk through downtown Cape Town which was uneventful but allowed a 10 block tour of the city. Walking always brings out more things and it is interesting to see the smaller older buildings with a pedestrian design of a time where this area was clearly much livelier whereas now most streets have large buildings not dissimilar to ours in America save that any attempt at a first floor
View from Signal Hill
The waterfront on the far left, the City Bowl (downtown), and Devil's Peak draped in clouds. presence is thwarted by a lack of desire to spend time in the street by all save the local black and sometimes Coloured population. Sad.
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