After rousing ourselves, we had a quick coffee and luxuriated on our patio. The plan for the day was to start with the Hop-On, Hop-Off tour and see where it would lead us. Fortunately for us, the Hop-On tour office was just a few blocks up the street. Walking through the city streets on a winter morning was a bit surreal. In the sun, the temperature was probably almost 60 degrees. In the shadows of the tall buildings, however, it was easily in the 50s. For so late in the morning, there were rather few people on streets, probably because everyone was already at work.
At the tour office, we gather a collection of brochures and looked a tour options. There was a wide variety of tours - bicycle tours, winery tours, bicycling-to-winery tours, you name it! We bought a ticket for the double-decker tour bus, and caught a ride around the city.
We meandered out of the city and up along the steep road that led to the foot of Table Mountain. From the winding road, we could see much of the city, from sprawling, palatial mansions, to casual beach bungalows.
After following the bus for many miles, we stopped at the foot of the mountain, at the cable car stop. Unfortunately, we had arrived during the week that the cable care was down for maintenance, so our chances of riding to the top of the mountain were severely limited. Sure - we could always hike up, but we warned about sudden changes in the weather - and sudden exhaustion. Seems like this one is off the table, this trip.
Back on the bus, we cruised back down the hill and began to journey towards the coat. In mere minutes, we cruised along the ocean and felt its cool (COLD!) winter breezes. We were told to be on the lookout for breaching whales, as this was the middle of their migration season, but alas, we saw none.
After a time, the bus stopped along the white sandy breaches, and we opted to hop off. Walking along the beach, I could smell the salty sea air on the (cold!) breeze. Visiting Lake Michigan this year gave me temporary amnesia about the sea and it's smell. The water was clear and cold and made me long for getting back home and being able to enjoy getting in the warm, summer waters!
We made our way along the beach, and climbed an outcropping of rocks for a photo-op. We took pictures of each other and got a some very nice pictures of the crashing surf. While walking back to the beach and our bus, OOPS! My camera goes in the shallow surf. Oh, well! Later, I would grab a bag of rice at the store and submerge my camera in it, to see if we could pull the water out.
We headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch, before climbing back aboard the bus. After a short while, we left the beach and climbed back to the city center. We soon reached the harbor and left the bus for a short canal tour. Our tickets included a canal tour, so we climbed aboard a boat and proceeded to lap the canal. As we neared a ship, we could see logs bobbing up and down out of the water. Upon closer inspection, we realized that these were seals. A deckhand on a nearby fishing trawler was lopping hunks of fish off with a knife and tossing the pieces to a small herd of seals. The seals would never grab the fish out of the air, but would always dip under the water to quickly snatch their treat. After watching the display for several minutes, we turned to continue our tour of the bay.
After we returned to the dock, we boarded our bus again and headed back towards our lodging. We unloaded our belongs and headed up the street to a nearby market. We picked up fixings for breakfast, and stopped by a nearby gastro-pub for an (excellent) hamburger, sweet potato fries and a milkshake. Fantastic!
Back in our rented flat, we unloaded groceries and proceeded to get caught up on email and book tours for the next day. Stay tuned for more exciting happenings tomorrow!
