Go with the Flow

We were up early....again. We had breakfast in the open-air restaurant of our hotel. There was a half-mararthon going on down Beach Road, right in front of us. It is called the Gun Run. Wish I knew why. We were supposed to meet our guide in the lobby by 8 am. We were ready but we wondered how our guide would make it there given the run going on.

She phoned shortly after 8 to say she would eventually make it but it would be awhile. It took so long that she called a second time to tell us that our first stop -- the cable car ride up table mountain -- now had an hour and a half wait time. I walked down the street to check out the Gun Run.

By the time our guide arrived and we were in the car moving through the runners it was 9:30 am. The cable car excursion was nixed. I was disappointed but let it go.  Maybe we will try it on our own. LeeAnn, our guide, drove us around the different parts of the city to orient us. We drove past City Hall.

There is a statue of Mandela there to commemorate his first public speech after being released from Robben Island.

Across the street is a statue of King George.

We passed a church where Afrikaans is spoken and since it was Sunday the door was open. I wanted to go in. They were between services and told us to look around. I tried to imagine what it would feel like to preach from the pulpit.

Next we saw the slave lodge. A building in which slaves of the Dutch East India Company were housed.

We were supposed to visit the District Museum next.  It is a museum in an old Methodist Church. It tells the story of when Apartheid forceably moved the 60,000 inner city residents out of their homes. It turns out that the museum is closed on Sundays....another disappointment. So we stopped to see the parliment building.

Then we headed for Green Market, where dozens of vendors sell their goods in an open-air market. We looked around but we didn't buy anything. Across the street was a Metropolitan Community Church having worship.

Children were dancing and singing with a hat out for change.

Refugees were letting us know what it is like for them in South Africa.

Back in the car our next stop was the Bo-Kaap area known for its brightly colored homes and cobbled streets. It is a multi-racial and predominantly Muslim section of town.

LeeAnn dropped us off down at the waterfront. We had just enough time for a light lunch before our timed ticket to Robben Island -- the Alcatraz of South Africa. We walked past a lengthy time line to realize that it has a very long history of white people using this Island to house lepers, prisoners and the mentally ill. We boarded a ferry for the half hour boat ride to Robben Island.

We were loaded on buses and driven to the prison.

All the tours are given by former inmates of Robben Island. Our tour guide was sentenced in1982 for his anti-apartheid work with the African National Committee. He was tortured before being sentenced to six years.

We saw the mats prisoners slept on

The different food they were given depending on their race

Nelson Mandela's cell

We boarded another bus to see the rest of Robben Island. I didn't realize that people live on the island.

The view back to Cape Town was lovely.

On the ride I saw a tortoise, a long black snake and a penguin. None of which I could take photos. I loved the clouds over the lighthouse.

After a ferry ride back to the mainland, we had a dinner of fish on the waterfront. We got a taxi ride home and I crashed hard.  I slept 11 hours.