Museums and Gardens and Churches, Oh My!

Hello everyone! Wait no longer! Here is yesterday's post! Jess dropped me off around 11:30 AM in front of the Slave Lodge in downtown Cape Town. I paid my 15 R and got to experience this very cool museum. The Dutch East Indian Trading Company used the cape as a supplying station for their ships. I believe they were the first Europeans of note who settled here. Over time they discovered the the cape itself would be a great place for a colony. But, the native people who were already living here weren't too impressed with the strangers and refused to do the work required to get a colony going...building roads, digging ditches, etc. So, the Dutch East Indian Trading Company (VOC are their initials based on the Dutch) had to ship in slaves from the Indian Ocean basin. At one point there were more slaves in the cape than colonists! Of course, the conditions for the slaves were horrible and of course all the slaves were people of color. The VOC had to have some place to put the slaves so they built the slave lodge in 1679. This is where they herded the slaves every night and kept them locked in like cattle. The construction of the building is much like a prison and it is completely intact today. Along with exhibits on slavery, the museum also houses some other exhibits and I saw one celebrating women and some general exhibits on the cultural history here.

After the Slave Lodge I took a stroll through the Company Gardens. This is a public park in the heart of Cape Town that was first established as a garden for the VOC. Now it is a dense botanical garden with statues, fountains, vegetation, huge trees, a large bird house, and a neat restaurant where, of course, I had lunch. The Garden is bordered by lots a great sights like the National South African Library, the South African Museum, the South African National Gallery, and Parliment.

I went to the National SA Library after lunch and was slightly disappointed by the small size and the fact that I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but I was happy to note that they use Dewey and that they have their catalog on a computer and not on cards! Yeah! I think their cool book-type exhibits are at the South African Centre for the Book which I knew from my Red Bus tour was close to the library, but I couldn't find it. Once I got home I discovered that I actually did take a picture of the darned building but I thought it was a church! It's the domed building. So, maybe I'll try to get back there Thursday or Friday.

I thought I'd see if tourists were allowed in the St. George Anglican Cathedral and I was pleased and surprised that not only was I allowed, the lady in charge said to take as many pictures as pleased me and to walk everywhere. They have a labyrinth laid out in the stones on the floor of the courtyard, beautiful stained glass windows, and a huge organ. I had a pleasant 1/2 hour in this beautiful church and I was the only person there!

Just about this time I walked back to the other end of the garden to the SA Museum. It was about 3:00 and lots of students were getting out of school. They walked in packs and they all had really nice uniforms on with ties. Think our public school kids might behave in uniforms? I do! The SA Museum was large and had lots of exhibits but I think it's seen better days. There were a couple of exhibits that needed help and they used lots and lots of taxidermy, but I did see their newest offering which featured cave paintings and some of the very first evidence of humans using paint as a medium to communicate. This exhibit was sponsored by De Beers. Some of my favorite things I saw in the museum were the gorilla skeleton (looks very similar to a human), the whale skeletons, the mineral exhibit (I love looking at shiny rocks and crystals!), the taxidermied extinct quagga foal, and the case after case of African mammals. There was one really wierd thing though...the rhino on display was missing both its horns because someone broke into the museum and smashed the case and took them back in April of this year! Story is below. Unbelievable. They also had one display showing primitive African life and they also had commentary saying something about how museums don't like to portray native people as primitive savages anymore and so along with that exhibit were photographs of District 6 and other aspects of Cape Town history. Very interesting.

Okay, I was running short of time so I headed over to the South African National Gallery which was just going to be open for another 1/2 hour. This art museum had lots of Dutch painting (I didn't see any Vermeer) and some exhibits that were temporary. My favorite was the Albert Adams exhibit. He is a South African artist born in Johannesburg in 1930. His work has political and social themes and he even had a few paintings about Iraq that were painted in the last couple of years. I really enjoyed looking at his work.

I really have to get up and get going now...Jess and I are driving an hour or so to more wine country for a wine tasting! Of course, I'll let you all know how it goes!


Rhino Horn Theft Story
Slave Lodge
South African Museum
Quagga
South African National Gallery
St. George Anglican Cathedral