Cape Town Highs

South Africa was one of my favorite trips ever, but for some reason it’s taken me until now to blog about it.  Why?  I’m not really sure.  Maybe it’s because I traveled there nearly two years ago (eek, has it really been that long?) and it can be difficult to write about a place I experienced longer ago than a few weeks or months.  The memories start to fade, even though my copious Iphone photos have done much to keep them alive.

But that’s really no excuse.  I loved Cape Town, and my trip to South Africa was all-around amazing, so it’s about time to write about it, wouldn’t you say?

I’ll do some more in-depth posts on my visit to South Africa soon, but in the meantime I thought it would be fun to reminisce about a few of the highlights of my all-too-brief stay.

My Cape Town Highs (in no particular order):

• Table Mountain—On my first day in Cape Town, I arrived at Table Mountain in the morning excited to take the cable car to the top and soak in amazing city views. Unfortunately, the wind at the top of the mountain was too strong that day, causing the car to be shut down.  D’oh!  I returned on my last day in the city and luckily, the weather was perfect, so I squeezed into the crowded car after a lengthy wait and rose quickly up the mountain, taking in magnificent unfolding vistas of sea and city below until the misty fog cut them off.  Still, somehow this only made the summit more magical, and I wandered around taking in every inch of it (and yes, taking a selfie) before riding back down.  I’d love to go up again on a clear day, but even in the fog, riding to the top of the mountain that dominates Cape Town’s horizon was still a magical end to my trip.

• Beach Time—Oh yes, Cape Town has beaches—amazing ones. It’s pretty special to get to sprawl out on a white sand beach with a drink and an umbrella, listening to the waves crash on the shore, and then look up to see a mountain with a cloud cover looming over you.  Even though the water was too cold to swim, Clifton Beach in Cape Town was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever been to and the time I spent there was one of the highlights of my trip.

 

• Wine Country—While I’m not a huge wine drinker, I have come to love wine tasting, and the whole ritual that accompanies it (especially when there’s also cheese and/or lunch involved!) I tore myself away from the city for a day trip out to Stellenbosch and some of the other wine-producing towns in the nearby countryside, and I had an incredible day sipping wine, eating a lunch of South African bobotie (a sort of meat pie with a custard top—pretty good in fact), looking out on astounding views of rolling hills and green vineyards, and chatting with an enormous group of university friends who were backpacking through Africa together (seriously, why did no one tell me I could do things like that when I was in college?!?)  If you make it to Cape Town, I cannot recommend a trip to wine country strongly enough.

           

• Robben Island—I’ve always been a history buff, and I’m old enough to remember the days before apartheid ended in South Africa in the 1990s. I still recall the news stories when Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 after twenty-seven years, and how strange it seemed to see the young firebrand in the photos the newscasters had been displaying emerge from prison as a white-haired old man.  Of course when I planned my trip, a visit to Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned for many of those years, was an essential stop for me, and it didn’t disappoint.  Seeing the very cell Mandela had occupied was extraordinarily moving, but honestly, the fact that our tour guide was himself a former prisoner who spoke to us about his own experiences in jail was even more powerful.  As it happened, I traveled to South Africa about a month after Mandela’s death, so the whole country was still gripped by a strange combination of mourning this great man’s passing and reveling in celebrating his life.  I’m so glad I took the time to experience this piece of South African history.

 

• Affordable Luxury—I LOVE to pamper myself. No shame from this girl on that score.  And one of my favorite things to do when I travel is indulge in a little extra luxury, of all kinds, because hey, I’m on vacation!  Not to mention the fact that it’s often cheaper to treat yo’self in foreign countries than it is back home. South Africa provided plenty of affordable luxury, from the excellent steak dinners with dessert I enjoyed at my lovely hotel for about $20 to the spa-and-lunch package (with a magnificent city view from my table) that I booked on my final day in town for $50.  It was the perfect end to my time in Cape Town, and helped make the prospect of the twenty-hour flight ahead of me slightly less daunting.

 

I could go on and on, because really there was pretty much nothing I didn’t love about my week in Cape Town.  I can’t wait to return and spend more time in the city, as well as seeing Johannesburg, the Cape of Good Hope, and maybe even ride the luxurious Blue Train!  One day….

 

Have you been to Cape Town?  Do you want to visit South Africa?  Any suggestions for other places to see when I return?