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18 Feb 19, 10:23 PM |
#1
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Imagineer
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Cape Town Capers - Day 4 Cape Town (Hop On Hop Off bus tour)
Day 4 – Sunday 13th January 2019
Cape Town Capers January 2019 Cast (it’s the usual one!) Me: Shaun, 50’s, loves travelling, eating and drinking (not necessarily in that order!) Alison: 50’s, ditto to the above! Trip Report Index We were awake quite early today (about 7am) and eagerly looked out to see if Table Mountain was clear but no, it was shrouded in mist still so no real point in treking up there if there’s no view to speak of. Plan B is going to be our favourite Big Red Bus tour, I really should have bought shares in the company years ago due to the amount of time and money we’ve spent on them over the years. We were both a bit burnt from yesterday so were quite pleased it was a bit more overcast! At breakfast, Alison had an e-mail in to say that our upcoming Hout Bay Seal trip on Monday was cancelled due to poor sea conditions and that we could get a full refund or re-schedule. At this stage I wasn’t sure if they just hadn’t sold enough places or not or if the call was genuine or not. The news also sowed a seed a doubt in my mind, was I really a strong enough swimmer to cope? We opted for the reschedule for now. After breakfast we managed to get the F-Pace chauffeur car down to V and A, and had a lovely driver who stopped at the colourful Bo Kaap area for a picture stop for us. After we were dropped off we made our way through to the Food Court to find the Big Bus office. Crikey, the place was heaving with people wanting tickets so we nabbed their free wi-fi, booked online for a 2 day hop on hop off pass and presented ourselves at the empty pre-booked window. There were 3 or 4 different bus lines and started off with the Blue line out to District 6. Apparently, in the 1960’s the government declared District Six a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act and began to remove people and demolish everything apart from places of worship. Protests followed and no development took place and now it lays barren and remains a powerful symbol of South African Apartheid. At this point we changed over to the yellow line for a more detailed ride around District 6 before arriving back in central Cape Town. We pulled into Tigers Milk on Long Street, a sort of local brewery / hipster bar in a road that looked similar to some Australian Towns or New Orleans with its ornate wrought iron balustrade work. We had some lovely tex mex food washed down with a Tiger’s Milk lager that hit the spot during this hot and sunny day. Afterwards, we stopped by some local markets but it was a tad too warm inside them for me so we made our way back to the bus stop and carried on the Blue Route to take in some more sites. The route went out to the coast with stops at Kirstenbosch, Hout Bay, Camps Bay, Bantry Bay, Sea Point, 3 Anchor Bay, Mouille Point. We decided to get off at Bantry Bay and have a look around, quite Australian look and feel again although I guess that’s the old universal commonwealth style around. We chanced upon a café called My Sugar, an artisan bakery chocolatier and for coffee and sugar burst. Wow! – what an amazing place and so many chocolate goodies in lots of unusual combinations, wouldn’t look out of place in a trendy central London location. We enjoyed coffee, hot chocolate and donuts together with a game of dominos! We walked down to the sea front and noticed the small lido area which looked English or even French Riviera in style. After walking along the promenade for a while we got back to the bus stop to continue our slow journey around the coast and back to the V & A when I spotted a mini golf course across the road. We went and played and it wasn’t that special to be honest, a bit of an afterthought attached to a shop but it was cheap and passed some time. We called for the hotel transport but was unavailable for some time and the scheduled shuttle was some time off. Alison tried Uber again but they were restricted from the pick-up point so Alison negotiated a price with a general taxi cab back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel we enquired about the Gin Tasting session that had been mentioned in our reservation. The desk clerk looked blank and said he wasn’t sure although they had a gin trolley set up in the bar area but knew nothing about what we’d mentioned. However, he did say there was a local wine tasting session held near the bar that we could go to. Well, we signed up and off we went and just the pair of us settled down with the hotel’s sommelier for a small tasting. The lady was very knowledgeable and asked if we’d tried the Indian Restaurant yet? We said no but were looking into it and she showed us to the restaurant for a look around and we made a reservation on the spot. After getting back to the room we unpacked, showered and went downstairs for dinner in the Bombay Brasserie. The room was dark or atmospheric, depending on your point of view and a small number of tables dotted around. The food was exquisitely presented and was extremely tasty, a world away from the run of the mill local curry, a very special meal that’ll live long in the memory! We had poppadoms followed by chicken chat and ostrich tikka to start. Then following a palate cleanser of cranberry sorbet we had a vegetarian curry, a springbok curry, a potato side dish and roti to accompany. All washed down with 2 locally brewed Striped Horse pale ales, MCC sparkling wine and a large water. Total cost was about £50. Good value we thought, for a hotel restaurant. Waddled upstairs and crashed
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http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sign...igpic534_1.gif 1988 ~ Contemporary ~ Honeymoon 1989 ~ Off site 1994 ~ EuroDisney ~ Santa Fe 1999 ~ Off site 2001 ~ CBR (Aruba) ~ Poly (Tahiti) 2003 ~ WL & HRH 2004 ~ Pop Century, RPH, CSR, PBH, Contemporary 2006 ~ DLP ~ Newport Bay 2007 ~ POR ~ HRH ~ GF 2008 ~ All star sports, BCV, RPH, Vero Beach, VWL 2010 ~ OKW ~ BCV ~ HRH ~POP Century ~ Vero Beach ~ VWL 2013 ~ AKL ~ HRH ~ BCV ~ Vero Beach ~ VWL Edited at 10:31 PM. |
18 Feb 19, 11:00 PM |
#2
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VIP Dibber
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My home town! I hope you had a lovely stay. It really is an amazing city. Thanks for sharing.
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Orlando 1993, 1995, 2005, 2011 Paris 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 Orlando - May 2015, October 2016, October 2017 |
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19 Feb 19, 06:16 AM |
#3
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Imagineer
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Ouch to the sunburn!
The food looks delicious and what fabulous scenery!
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Index of my trip reports 2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg |
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2 Mar 19, 09:09 PM |
#4
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Imagineer
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food looks delicious
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Sue June 1996 & 1998 - DLP Camp Davy Crockett August 2000, Oct 2002, Sept 2008 & Sept 2016- DLP Offsite June 2001, August 2003,2007 &Sept 2010 - WDW Offsite June 2005 - DLP Davy Crockett Ranch |
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