Cape Town coast and Kirstenbosch Gardens

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Today we needed to return our car at noon, but we still had a few things on our list. We figured we could do 2 of those things before then: drive along the Cape Town coast and visit the Kirstenbosch Gardens. Both were on the way to the airport, which is where we were going to return the car prior to flying back to Johannesburg at 6pm.

We left the hostel around 8:45am and proceeded to drive along the western coastline, visiting such places a Camp Bay, Hout Bay and other beaches along the way. We saw some nice posh houses along the coast avenue. It sure is a beautiful place to live without question. The ocean offers beautiful views, and if we had more time, we would have preferred to stay there much longer. The sand on the beaches looked to be nice and thin too.

After the coast drive, we arrived at the Kirstenbosch Gardens. We spent an hour walking around the nice quiet park. It amazes me how much green there is in Cape Town despite its size. I guess you have to see it to get an idea and be able to compare it to home. It reminds me of Brazil, and I think it is even greener than Brazil, and that’s saying a lot. This visit was more like seeing something just for the sake of seeing something, because a garden visit is not really up my alley. And as I type this Janel says “and you wanted to do this more than me”, which couldn’t be more true. Like I said, this was a check mark on the to-do list, but nice nevertheless. Hehe

We dropped the car off and hung around the airport for a few hours waiting for our flight, which is where I caught up on blogging and managing pictures. In Jo’burg, we will stay at the same hostel we stayed at the first nights in South Africa. The next morning, we will drive to Hazyview, just north of Nelspruit, and stay at the Sabi River Sun Lifestyle Resort. It is there what will hope to be able to book a safari that will certainly be another highlight on this amazing trip of ours. Hopefully, they aren’t fully booked.

Our flight to Jo’burg was delayed about 30 minutes or so, so we landed a little later than expected. Considering we wanted to watch the semi-final game between Spain and Germany, we needed to get our stuff, rent a car and make it to our hostel without having a map or ever have driven there before ourselves. We arrived at the car rental place 20 minutes after the game started, but they had two TVs showing the game. We decided to watch the first half there and drive to the hostel for the second half. Everything worked out nicely and we watched the rest of the exciting game with Nadine and her husband, who own and run the place.

Spain seemed to be on, seemed to be the team they have been for the last 4 years minus the first few games in this World Cup. Xavi and Iniesta were on, controlling the passing in the midfield. David Villa was playing the striker position instead of Torres, and that wasn't the smartest thing to do because he was pretty useless today. Even though Spain was controlling the game, only a few chances were created. In one of them, Iniesta did his magic on the left wing and waltzed into the box, only to fire it across the net to a sliding Villa. If Villa was his normal self on the night, he would have expected the pass; since he was off, he was slow and missed a great chance.
With 20 minutes to go, on a corner kick, Carles Puyol headed the ball into the net for the all-important first goal. This means that all of Spain's goals in this World Cup have been scored by Barcelona players...interesting. Barca's players are scoring (Villa and Puyol), controlling the midfield (Xavi and Iniesta), stealing balls in the midfield (Busquets) and defending really well (Puyol and Pique). If Spain wins this World Cup, the trophy should permanently be displayed at the Nou Camp. Hehehe

Anyway, we were hoping Spain would win it because most of their team plays for Barcelona. Nadine's husband is a hardcore Spain fan, and he was super nervous. It's actually funny to watch him suffer and he always has something to say about everything. Once the final whistle blew, we were pretty pumped as our next game will be between Holland and Spain, two nations that have never won the big one before. Janel and I will be cheering for Spain, but if Holland wins, we will also be happy because it would mean we followed the path of the champion. So either way, it should be a fun, historic night.

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