Okay! It's now 8:30 AM and I'm going to get caught up from yesterday! After the District 6 Museum I waited for the Red Bus which came right on time (highly recommend City Sightseeing Red Bus Tours...they are in lots of big cities and you can ride on top!). I hopped on and took the bus to the next stop which was the Castle of Good Hope. I hemmed and hawed on the bus because I was worried about having enough time at the gold museum and it does get dark here at 6:00 because it's winter (70 degree winter) but I thought, well the next bus comes in 40 minutes and I can just hop back on if the Castle isn't worth looking at.
Boy was I happy I hopped off! The Castle is the oldest building in all of South Africa! The Dutch actually took back a lot of land from the sea and the castle used to be right on the coast with waves hitting the side of it. Now the sea is many many meters away (see how metric I'm becoming?). The castle is shaped like a star, similar to our Pentagon but not nearly as big. It not only serves as a really neat old structure (construction started in 1666!) it is also about four museums, all free with your 20 R (about $3.00) admission to the castle. They did not have tours, but they had maps for 5 R (about $0.80) and then you could take your own tour, so of course I did that.
The big exciting HUGE bonus that I was SO LUCKY to stumble upon was that they had a Timbuktu Manuscripts Exhibit! Timbuktu Foundation This is a HUGE deal, especially if you are Muslim, which I am not, but it's also very cool if you are a LIBRARIAN which I am! The manuscripts and books were all hand written and some were really quite beautiful. They had copies of the Qur'an, notes on scriptures, letters about business transactions and lots of history about the manuscripts and how they are truly a world treasure that is disinigrating every day. I'm so lucky to get to see them because they are only in Cape Town for one month and the exhibit just opened three days ago! So that was really exciting.
The Castle also has a couple of rooms furnished as they would have been back in the day including a long table that seats 102! The longest dining room table and chairs (and indeed the room itself!) I think I've ever seen. They also had art work, silver, crystal, and china from the castle on display. I also jetted quickly through the military museum they had but it was mostly guns and uniforms and pictures of native people getting killed by Europeans so I didn't stay there long. They also had a gallery of contemporary artists but I was running out of time so I didn't go there. I did grab lunch at the castle (grilled cheese, ham and tomato, crisps and a coke for 28 rand which is like $4.00!) and took a lot of pictures.
Headed back out to wait for the Red Bus which was again right on time and the tour guide was my first guide and he was happy to see me again. I hopped back off at the Gold Museum and paid 25 R for a small museum of beautiful gold pieces that glorify the gold industry even though it uses and has always used child labor which wasn't mentioned and they did not say how old any of the pieces were. I was glad I went because I know I would have been always wondering how great it was, but I was a little disapointed in it.
After the Gold Museaum I walked (!!!) over to the V&A Waterfront. This was the only time in my day alone that I felt a little out of my comfort zone. I was very sure of where I was going, but it was around 4:15 and people were starting to get off work and there were a lot of people walking. I just walked with a purpose (Jess says my purpose is too fast!) and kept my bag close and arrived at the Waterfront safely and surrounded by good security and other tourists. There was one person who kept asking me for money after he saw me buy an ice-cream cone. I also went back over to the craft market where they have the Tea Bag merchandise and did buy my Christmas Ornament. I hung around the Waterfront for another hour and a half people watching, listening to an African steel drum band, eating my ice cream, and snapping a few more pics of the Waterfront. It was a gorgeous day and I was so blessed by great weather. Brian picked me up with no issue and I talked his ear off all the way home.
We had a great hilarious dinner at the McInerney's and I'm thankful everyday for these great friends who made this trip possible! Thanks guys!
2 comments:
Hurray for metric!
"Citadel" is the word I was looking for. Last year, at Some Guys, you were showing me your pictures. I said there was a word for the Castle in Capetown. "Citadel" was the word. But, unfortunately, I was wrong. It's not specific to the star-shaped structure. So they can call it a castle if they want. The one in Halifax is called a citadel. I rather like the word citadel.
Just how much land did those silly Dutch build? Didn't they have anything better to do with themselves?
Your blog is much like my travel journals. Mostly documenting the food.
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