Europeans have watches, but Africans have time.

We woke up to a bright and beautiful day today, which was great, because we had planned to go to Robben Island in the morning, which involves another boat ride, so I was hoping for flat sea- which we almost got:  still a bit rougher than I like, but no roller coasters this time.

Robben Island is the island prison where Nelson Mandela, and all of the black and colored people (which in South Africa referred to people from India, other Asiatic people, as well as mixed people) were incarcerated – both criminals and political prisoners where incarcerated there.  It is a very humbling experience.  We had a great guide, who managed to be informative, somber when appropriate and very funny too – which is a very tough balanced to keep, and which he managed very well.  He is the one who gave me the title for this blog: “Europeans have watches, but Africans have time”, which I think is a wonderful line (he used it when describing the canons that one can still see on the island, facing the sea:  they were built during world war II, because they feared a German invasion, however, while the war ended in 1945, the canons’ installation finished in 1947…….).

Anyway, Robben Island is in fact very pretty:  great views of Cape Town, lots of penguins (we know by now how I feel about these!) and beautiful shoreline.   

 But its long history as a penal colony, particularly during apartheid is what makes it the remarkable place it is:  Most of the guides were in fact prisoners there- one of ours for 10 years for high treason (which basically meant fighting against apartheid).  The conditions where awful, as shown on this menu board (note in particular that Apartheid’s rules went so far as distinguishing between the amount of food black –i.e. Bantus- and colored people got).

The prison is now a museum, whose board includes both ex-prisoners and ex-wardens.  And that is the most remarkable fact in all this:  that so much suffering ended without a revolution, without a massacre, with very little fighting (at least at the end).  It is a true testament to Mandela’s leadership that he succeeded in leading this mostly peaceful transition – after spending 27 years in jail, under awful conditions.

In the afternoon, we took the cable car to the top of Table Mountain (a little over 3000 feet above sea level – straight up!).  

 It has awesome views- which pictures cannot really do justice to:  First it was a bit hazy, so it’s hard to get a really good picture, but mostly because what is awe inspiring is the full panorama, and that’s very hard to show in a picture.  Can’t say that I am a huge fan of cable cars though – they always make me a bit uneasy – and this one, on top of going straight up, also rotates while it goes up (so that you can see all sides) – it’s a bit disconcerting.

Joe and I here at the top, with the new soccer stadium all the way down by the sea (note the state of my hair, it' gives you an idea of how windy it is up there.....)

We toured the city, including the old segregated quarters, and the technical university that was built literally around Desmond Tutu’s old church, because he refused to move it (go Desmond!).

Ended the day with a wonderful African meal, which involved a lot of small dishes – too numerous to name- besides, I just don't know what most of them were...., all delicious.

Tomorrow is a lazy day:  we plan on getting up late, do some shopping, hang out at the harbor, pack …

I leave you with this quotation from nelson Mandela, upon being sentenced for high treason, which carried a possibility of being sentenced to death:

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

so many wines, so little time......

Here is what you do when your day’s plan is to just “visit the wine country”:  you leave your hotel room around 9am and drive for about 1 hour.  So at around 10am, you arrive at your first winery – which is situated at the foot hills of the Hottentots’ Holland mountains (interesting side note:  the mountain was named that way because when the Dutch met the native people – the Hottentots – they described where they came from and told them it was “Holland”.  To which the Hottentots pointed to the mountains and said “this is our Holland” – thus the Hottentots’ Holland mountain….).

Anyway, you make it to this beautiful vineyard at 10am, and then start wine tasting.  Wine tasting does not involve drinking a lot of wine.  Just a sip really.  So even though you taste 6 of them, it’s OK, even at 10am.  But………

There are 22 distinct wine regions in the valleys that surround Cape Town – of which we only saw 4 – and of these, only stopped at a total of …  well, I forget, but not all of them for sure….  Anyway, we ended up tasting roughly a gazillion wines………

We are very happy that we had a guide we us (who did not take a sip of anything), and he did all the driving!

The countryside is very pretty, and the weather was lovely.

I did learn some things , such as:

- Dry wines have higher alcohol content, because in order to make them dry, all the sugar has to be fermented into alcohol.  Thus very sweet wines – on top of being gross – also have less alcohol.

-If a red wine has more tannin, it is obviously too young – but it means that it was kept in oak barrels for a longer time, and thus, if it is also fruity, it will most certainly age well.

- You can actually taste the difference between  wines kept in French oak barrels and American oak barrels.

- The Dutch planted a lot of oak trees here, and they grow well in this climate- but too fast, thus the wood is unusable for wine casks and furniture.

- If you taste enough wines, you stop caring about any of this…………….

baboons are dangerous and attracted by food...

Wow, I’m tired… it’s 8:20pm, and I’m ready to go to bed….  We went down along the Cape peninsula today, on the West side (the Atlantic Ocean side) and then back up on the east side (the India Ocean side), stopping all the way to see a lot of beautiful rugged landscapes, lot of wildlife and wild flowers and of course, like everywhere else on earth, lots of German tourists.

So here is the quick debrief:

We stopped first at Hout bay, to see sea lions:  we had to get on a boat – where the waves where much higher than I had bargained for – like MUCH higher – roller coaster high, hang to your neighbor on the boat high, focus all of your attention on not loosing your breakfast high….

But all these things I did – successfully-, and it was in fact lovely and there where a lot of sea lions to see – and a lot of waves–.....

We then went to the Cape of Good Hope , 

where I learned that several facts that I thought I knew are in fact incorrect:

1)     Vasco De gamma neither discovered nor named the Cape of Good Hope: Bartholomew Diaz did about 10years before Vasco did, but was not as well funded, and thus did not circumnavigate it, nor brag about it, so old Vasco got the credit (isn’t that always the case??).  Bartholomew wanted to call it Cape Storm – because it is so stormy – but the king of Portugal thought that would discourage further exploration, so asked for a better name – and Bartholomew choose Cape of Good Hope -  proving that PR was very important even then!

2)      I thought (doesn’t everyone??) that the Cape of Good hope was the southern most point of Africa – it’s not.  That title goes to Cape Agulhas – a cape I had never heard of – which does not seam fair.

3)     Baboons are not cute:   

 well, I still think they are, but the people here think they are a nuisance, and dangerous -  In fact, anywhere in South Africa other than the National Park we were in, you can shoot them and even get a reward for shooting them, because there are so many of them, and they are so aggressive and destructive.  Here is one at the restaurant:  he was eyeing all the tables, trying to steal food……  still, I thought they were cute.....

In any case – the Cape of Good Hope is still believed to be the point at which the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet- based mostly on the temperature difference in the water on the east and west side of the cape.  Also, it is very beautiful .....

We also saw a lot of ostriches there – I guess they made Joe hungry, because that’s what he had for dinner……

Then, we went back up along the Indian Ocean and stopped by to visit some penguins, which made me very happy!!!  In fact, penguin love seems to be one of these universal human trait on which we may be able to build understanding between nations:  On the trail up to the top of the Cape of Good Hope was a family whose language I did not understand:  it was clearly Arabic based, and the family was obviously Muslim.  The teenage daughter was talking with some excitement – apparently about the next stop on their trip – the only words I understood where “yeh! Penguins!!!”  Which was exactly how I felt – now, if we can all agree about that, can’t we just also agree about peace on earth?  This somehow gives me hope….   

Then, we stopped by this random fabulous beach, 

and then the botanical garden, where this was my favorite flower (It’s called a pincushion flowers, they are blooming right now and are beautiful).

Joe took 420 pictures…..  So it was tough to choose just these few......

Tomorrow – the wine country!

Chilling at the Taj.....

Made it to Cape Town this morning at last!  The flight was long, but not unpleasant – if fact, I slept like a baby……

Arrived in pouring rain, but it is now clearing up, and I can almost see the top of Table mountain.  

We are staying at the appropriately name Taj hotel (e.i: it is large and luxurious).  Joe is still at his conference, so today if basically a day to catch up on time zones and getting settled.  After it stopped raining, I took a walk to the harbor, which is very beautiful, even in gloomy weather.  The town reminds me a lot of San Francisco or Seattle (or maybe Sydney) – one of these beautiful places by the sea, with mountains in the background.

I started writing this at 3:00pm – and I was feeling quite chipper, and not jet lagged at all – but then I made the mistake of lying down, having a nap, getting up again when Joe came in, having 2 glasses of wine with dinner (FABULOUS Indian food), and I’m completely zonked…..

So I guess we’ll call it a day – tomorrow, we are going down around the Cape of good hope peninsula- and seeing penguins and whales!!!!   I’m very excited about this – in fact, penguins watching is what convinced me to take this long trip – so there better be a lot of them!!!!!!

Hopefully – pictures tomorrow evening!

killing time at London-heathrow airport......

First, let me say:  I'm not complaining...  The British Aiways first class lounge is very nice, and I realize that there are many worse ways to spend..... 7 1/2 hours!!!!!!!!!!!
The flight from NY was early (does that EVER happen when one has a tight connection - NOT!), making an already lengthy lay-over even lengthier...
There are all these lovely young ladies bringing me wine, cheese, coffee,.... it's nice, so I am really not complaining - but I am REALLY bored....
I spent the first hour here freaking out because my computer gave me "the blue screen of death" every time I tried to connect - very bad timing for that - but, after doing exactly the same thing for the 4th time, it worked, and here I am, connected....  This proves that when Einstein defined Insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results", it's only because he was not running windows.....
I am bored enough now to actually connect to my work e-mail and check what's happening there....
5 hours and 15mins left.................

off we go!

This is it! after months of planning, I am at last at JFK, awaiting my flight to London Heathrow, where I will have to find something to do for the 6 hours (!!!!) lay-over  (good shopping at London Heathrow!, but who can afford to buy anything in Pounds these days?).  And then a short 13 hour flight to Cape town, where I will arrive on Wednesday morning, about 30 hours after leaving home - hey, this is a trip that would have taken my grandparents' generation about 5 months, so i'm being Zen about it...

Also, Joe, who went there ahead of me has been sending enticing pictures - and here is what is waiting for me upon arrival  (not sure if i'm looking forward more to the views of Capetown - which does look spectacular - or to the wine tasting in the wine country - which does not look bad either.....

Next stop (and next blog) - the British Airways Lounge at London Heathrow!