"A Window to the Soul of South Africa"

Tuesday (Feb 7)

Technically, this was our "free day" in Cape Town, but I have trouble just sitting around relaxing when there is a whole city to explore! :)

We did lounge around pretty much all morning and enjoyed the hotel's buffet breakfast. Table Bay breakfast is no ordinary hotel fare. It's a HUGE buffet offering anything you could possibly imagine for breakfast -- fruit, cereals, yogurt, muffins, croissants, pastries, eggs, bacon, breakfast meats, hash browns, sausage rolls, waffles, sushi (?), oysters (?), spreads, juices, and so much more. We definitely enjoyed making breakfast the main meal of the day everyday we were in Cape Town. It was also just so relaxing to sit outside on the patio overlooking the harbor, the waterfront, and Table Mountain while enjoying your breakfast (and sometimes fending of seagulls). The breakfast item I got most excited about? Lichis! I've missed these delectable little fruits and they are NEVER in season when I usually visit South African in June/July, so enjoyed them while I could.

After lounging around the hotel, Mom, Ben and I headed to greenmarket square to do some curio shopping and to meet Imar and Nadia for some coffee on their lunch break. As we got out of the taxi at the square, we saw Imar and Nadia walking down the road -- perfect timing! After they headed back to work, we started wondering around the different stands looking at all the different bracelets, necklaces, belts, t-shirts, placemats, decorative items, paintings, bowls, purses, and other wares the locals were selling. I enjoyed browsing among all the different shops, but I wish you could do it in a more relaxed atmosphere because the moment you set your eyes on any object, the own of the stand would start trying to get you to buy it. "You like it? You want to touch it? Touching doesn't cost anything. What do you want to pay for it?" I did however manage to get myself the best priced necklace in the square as well as some other gifts.

We sat down at a nearby cafe to enjoy some kind of ice cream/coffee concoction before heading back to the hotel. We asked our taxi driver to drop us off at the One and Only instead of our hotel because we wanted to see what it looked like since we had almost stayed there. It was very...modern and sleek. It looked like a fun place to stay, but I'm glad we got the Table Bay instead. The Table Bay may be more traditional, but it's beautiful and the service and location can't be beat. After our stop at the One and Only, we walked back to our hotel stopping at a local market on the way. This market had some great stuff! I wish we had more time to spend there (and more space in our luggage -- ha).

By the time we returned to the hotel, it was time to get ready for "High Tea" in the lounge (smart casual dress required). So we dressed up, prepared our pinkies to stand straight while sipping our tea, and headed down. It was a "3 course" tea with sandwiches/quiches served first, then a variety of scones for second course, and a buffet of sweets/pastries for the third course. Needless to say, we were feeling very full after our tea.

After tea, I decided to spend some quality time with my kindle at the pool -- very relaxing -- until Ben wrangled me into going pants shopping with him in the adjoining Victoria & Alfred mall. After roaming around the entire mall, not finding anything he liked, we decided to settle for Woolworth's to find Ben some pants. After some quick math to figure out his pants dimensions in cm, we were able to find a pair before heading back to meet Mom and Dad for some pre-dinner drinks in the hotel (we shared a bottle of the Rose from Avondale).

Earlier in the day, we had asked the concierge for dinner reservations -- something not too fancy, not too casual, with a nice a view, not in the mall. He recommended Cafe Balducci, so we made a reservation. We arrive at Cafe Balducci to find it is in the mall and our "view" was the mall entrance :/ However, we weren't about to try and find another place to eat, so we settled in and ended up eating some very tasty food (I got the Regina Pizza, yum! -- another South African classic I miss). After dinner, Ben and I decided to ride the Ferris Wheel in the waterfront. It was...ok. They play this cheesy video in your little pod while you are going around. I also wish it was more open instead of an enclosed little box.

The next morning we were departing early for the Blue Train, so we headed back to the hotel, enjoyed a bottle of champagne and went to bed.

Wednesday (Feb 8)

William (the same driver from the airport) was there to pick us up to take us to the train station. He was just as friendly and conversational as before and got a kick out of Ben calling a "braai," a barbeque.

Upon our arrival at the station, we had a porter take our bags while the Blue Train staff checked us in. We could then enjoy some pastries and tea in the lounge while we waited for the train to be loaded. Prior to boarding, they also introduced us to our own personal cabin butler -- pretty fancy. Ben and my butler's name was Joyce and she was very friendly.

Once aboard the train, we settled into our little cabin as the train traveled...about 10 miles, then stopped. We were stopped at a small station for about an hour while they replaced a device on the train. We spent our first few hours exploring the train. It was really beautiful -- wood paneling on the walls, marble bathroom countertop and bathtub, plushly upholstered couches and chairs. We also spent some time in the observatory car (the last car in the train with a big window in the back) and the lounge car. We found the lounge car to be more comfortable, so we settled in there drinking tea and reading. After we finished tea, Ben was feeling a bit tired, so we asked Joyce to set up the bed in our room. He then proceeded to nap until we reached Maitjiesfontein while I continued to read my book -- "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest."

At Maitjiesfontein, we were allowed to get off the train for about 40 minutes. The conductor mentioned some sort of "tour" we could do, but I wanted to explore on my own. However, we somehow ended up this tour bus from the twilight zone. The tour guide was....weird and cheesy and I felt uncomfortable for the whole 5 minutes the tour lasted. He kept speaking like a circus ring leader and kept saying "showtime" in a weird little whisper after every sentence. All the while, one of the guests from the train, and older British man, kept hysterically laughing. All I could think was "get me off this bus!" The 5 minute tour eventually ended, and we could go inside the old hotel for a glass of sherry. I didn't particularly like the other guests from the train, so I decided to head over to the local cafe and do my own thing. Here I was able to order some koeksisters for Mom and Dad to try (unfortunately, they weren't the best example to offer). The strange thing is that I almost had to serve myself. The owners/workers in the cafe didn't seem to be too concerned about attracting business/serving customers even though it looked like this little town hardly got many visitors. After leaving some money on the table for our koeksisters, we went back to board the train where it was time for the afternoon tea.

At tea the fun continued as the other annoying American family had planted themselves smack dab in front of the tea table. While I looked for some tongs to pick up the sandwiches to put on my plate, they decided to deliver commentary -- "oh, don't worry. We're not looking at what you're eating." -- except they clearly were. Oy. This was the same Texan family that held their conversation during lunch loud enough for everyone to hear -- "Oh, well my son who is a doctor does this," "I ran everywhere in Cape town, I don't know how I'm not going to exercise on the train," "I think you should be allowed to shoot immigrants you find on your property." YUCK. Other than these annoying guests, tea was pretty enjoyable. They had a nice selection of tea sandwiches, chicken pastries, carrot cake, chocolate cake, and fruit.

Between tea and dinner, we had some more time to read and relax while enjoying watching the Karoo pass us by. Dinner was apparently a "Jacket and Tie" affair which didn't make Dad and Ben too happy since that had neither a jacket nor a tie (thank goodness we had bought Ben pants the previous day!). Luckily (or unluckily, however you choose to view it), the Blue Train had some jackets and ties to lend -- not the best fitted jackets or the classiest ties, but a jacket and tie nonetheless. Sufficiently dressed up for dinner, we headed into the dining car where we had a wonderful meal -- smoked chicken to start, followed by the main course of Karoo lamb chops, finished off with a nice dessert. After dinner, we went to the observation car to enjoy a nightcap of Amarula before heading off to bed. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy evening, so we couldn't enjoy the beautiful night sky the Karoo is so well known for. We lay down in bed with the train rocking us to sleep.