A Day in Cape Town

Since we only had one day left in Cape Town before wine country, Mike and I decided to see as many of the city's sights as we could.  Our first stop was Robben Island.

We arrived at the departure terminal at 8:55 and bought tickets for the 9:00 ferry.  It was a thirty minute boat ride to get to the island.  Once we arrived, we got on a bus for the first part of our tour.

The island has played host to many institutions over the centuries, including a prison used by the Dutch, a leper colony, and the first line in defense for Cape Town during World War II.  But most notably, the prison where Nelson Mandela spent over a decade of his life was located on the island.

Nelson Mandela's cell.

During the bus tour, we learned quite a bit about the history of the island.  A lot of the buildings were constructed by prisoners who were serving time.  The prisoners were also required to do hard labor, which included tasks such as mining for limestone with very primative tools.  They were also not given any sort of protection for their bodies while performing this task, so a lot of the inmates later suffered vision and lung problems.

The limestone quarry.

The prison was home to non-white criminals and political activists.  They were housed in the same building until the government caught wind that the criminals were becoming political.  The two groups were then separated and housed in different buildings on the island.

While the first part of the tour was very interesting, it was the second part that really moved me.  A different guide took us through some of the buildings for the second half of the tour.  This guide was a former prisoner on the island.  He was sentenced to 35 years in 1984 for plotting to overthrow the government.  It's one thing to hear stories about a place like that from a tour guide or a book, but it's another thing to hear them from someone who lived through it.

Our guide, the former prisoner.

When we returned to the V&A Waterfront, we stopped in a market to get some local beer and food.  After we finished up, we got tickets for a Hop On, Hop Off bus.  Usually I don't like these sort of things but we only had a day to see Cape Town and Table Mountain was closed due to gale force winds.  So we figured, why not?

The tour was actually pretty interesting.  I was expecting it to be gimicky, but luckily it wasn't.  We definatly saw much more of the city than we would have otherwise.  One of the stops was the base of Table Mountain.  When we got up there, they had opened the mountain, but we had already committed to the tour so we decided to not go up.  The view of the city from there was amazing anyway, so it worked out.  We also spent some time at the bay.  It was a very beautiful and tony place.  If I had millions, I'd buy a place there.

Cape Town from the base of Table Mountain.

That night we ate at an amazing place called Arnold's.  I had warthog for the first time in my life, and let me tell you, its my new favorite thing.  Once they found out we were on our honeymoon, they gave us the star treatment.  It was a great way to end our time in Cape Town.