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Published: June 20th 2012
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Lauren as Anenome
Lauren also explored the acrylic dome in which you could get "inside the tank" No one slept quite as well as we had hoped, but we did wake up to a stunning sunrise at 36,000 feet. We all joked about the opening of "The Lion King" as we watched the very red sun come over the horizon from the airline window. We were picked up from the airport and delivered to our beautiful hotel near the V&A Waterfront. We were all very excited until we learned that our room wouldn't be available for several hours. We fought through the disappointment and collected ourselves to go out and explore a little. We walked down to the waterfront area and had some breakfast at a cafe and then headed down to the "Two Oceans" aquarium. The guide book speaks highly of this aquarium and we (despite being aquarium snobs) were not disappointed. They had excellent exhibits and many types of sea creatures we had not seen before. Perhaps the most notable was a tank of "giant spider crabs" which were really cool in a creepy sort of way. They also had jellyfish, sea horses, spectacular anemones and corals, and a wonderful large predator tank with rays and sharks. After the aquarium we headed back to the hotel
Giant Spider Crab
These giant spider crabs were unlike anything we had ever seen in aquarium and could have stepped right out of a science fiction movie. and were disappointed to find that our room was still not quite ready. We got a nice tour of the hotel and found the rooftop bar/swimming pool to be a much more pleasant place to wait than the lobby. We did eventually get into our room and thoroughly enjoyed showering and a bit of solitude. Our primary ambition for the afternoon was to see Table Mountain. However, despite the clear sunny skies, the cable car ascending the peak was closed due to the winds. We struggled for a suitable backup plan for the late afternoon and finally settled on a stroll downtown in "The Company's Garden." We were all a bit edgy from exhaustion and perhaps a bit over-attentive to all the safety warnings we had heard, so we had a difficult time enjoying this beautiful park in the center of the city. To underscore our edginess, Andrew panicked when chased by a particularly aggressive urban squirrel. We made our way out of the park and back along a touristy shopping street (Long Street). It was the end of the day and shops were closing and people heading home. We took a detour through the open air market in Greenmarket
Andrew at the Big Tank
The large predator gank was quite a sight. Andrew is seen here with some of the lest threatening looking inhabitants. square which was quite a sight even as the vendors were starting to pack up for the day. As we reached the end of Long street and it began to get dark we grabbed a cab back to the waterfront in search of dinner. We selected a relatively upscale restaurant in the fashionable Cape Grace Hotel and they were very welcoming to us despite our less-than-elegant attire. Unfortunately they weren't yet serving dinner but they were happy to serve us "tea" in the "library" so that we wouldn't kill each other while waiting for the restaurant to open. Sonia enjoyed perusing the library's book collection while sipping a glass of wine (what could she enjoy more?) and the kids divided up the miniature pastries and sandwiches that came with tea service. Dinner was excellent. Sonia and John enjoyed the tasting menu, which (for John) included ostrich. The wine pairings were all South African wines, each presented and introduced with considerable drama. We were all exhausted by the end of dinner and were happily home in bed early, ready to begin exploring in earnest early the next morning. (Sorry we are behind on posting these. We have had poor internet connections
Table Mountain and the Cape Grace Hotel
Table mountain viewed from the V&A waterfront. The Cape Grace hotel in the foreground was where we dined the first night in Cape Town.
plus very full and exhausting days in Cape Town. We are working on catching up!)
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