5 - Celebrating Myra’s Birthday in Cape Town

Today we spent wandering around the beautiful Cape Town waterfront, riding the Cape Wheel – an enclosed Ferris Wheel that offered spectacular views of the City and Table Mountain, and visiting the District 6 Museum.

Before we talk about today we need to talk about last night's dinner.  It was spectacular.  It was billed as a 10 course meal with wine pairings.  It was actually a 14 course meal.  The restaurant – The Test Kitchen, is five years old and was started by a chef who always challenges his staff to come up with new and exciting foods.  It has been voted the best restaurant in Africa and is considered to be one of the top 50 restaurants in the world.  We made reservations six months in advance to ensure that we could get in.  Even the concierge at the hotel asked us how we got reservations.  The demand is unbelievable and so was the food and evening. 

After last night’s meal we had a late breakfast, came back to our room to start our day and Myra received a beautiful bouquet of native African Flowers for her birthday.  Myra is not much of a fresh flower person but Gerry went out on a limb and was successful.  If they had been normal flowers it would not have worked but being native Africa Flowers made the difference.

 

We cannot say enough about the Victoria and Alfred waterfront.  It is a working port with dry dock facilities, container yards and cranes but it is also a vibrant commercial center.  It has food markets, wine stores, hotels, banks, restaurants and live performances.  Today we were serenaded by an acapella group, similar to the one that performed on Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album 20 years ago.

District 6 is a very historic area in South Africa.  During Apartheid, the old government designated a predominately black and immigrant slum area near downtown Cape Town as a “whites only” area and began to demolish it and build new housing for whites.  The former residents, without any restitution, were forced into other slum areas further from the city.  This was in 1966 and relocation and development continued into the 80s. The District 6 Museum is a celebration of the vibrant way of life of a community removed in the infamous incident of the Group Areas Act during South Africa’s Apartheid era.  The floor of the museum is a painted map of the original District 6.

Tonight we met our tour group at a wonderful welcoming dinner here at the Cape Grace Hotel.  Tomorrow we are off to visit Robben Island, Table Mountain and a dinner at the Cape Winelands.