We rose late in the morning and found the weather a bit cooler, but much cloudier. Probably an indication of pending rain. Mona wisely packed an umbrella to get to/from her conference, but I had not. This mornings adventures include taking a walking tour of Cape Town, so we headed off.
A few blocks away, we joined up with our tour guide. This tour was called "Apartheid to Freedom", and focused on a few of historical impacts of Apartheid on Cape Town and its inhabitants. We started our tour on the next block at St. George's cathedral, where Bishop Desmond Tutu once concealed Apartheid freedom fighters. Inside the church, we marveled at the ornate stained glass windows as was passed through.
A few blocks away, we reached the high court annex, which used to house the racial classification board. This court office determined which race you fell into, based on your parents, occupation and variety of completed-unrelated factors and arbitrary decisions. Based on their ruling, it determined where you could live and work, and who you could love.
Moving on, we passed under an ornate wooden arch, a landmark dedicated to Bishop Tutu, the "Arch for Arch". We stopped at one of the finest bakeries in Cape Town, Charly's Bakery, known for its decadent chocolate brownies. These were sizable chocolate cakes, slathered in fresh chocolate sauce. Ramona and I shared one, but sadly we couldn't get more than halfway before succumbing to chocolate overload!
Around the bend, we stood near the site where Nelson Mandela addressed a crowd of over 200,000 people after his release from prison after 27 years. Today, the square was covered with market stalls and signs, but it was incredible to imagine a quarter of a million people packed into a space with a temperature of over 100 degrees in the South African summer.
Bidding our tour group farewall, we rejoined the city Hop-on, Hop-off bus and resumed our bus tour of the city. A few stops onward, we opted to stop at District Six, a resettlement district where tens of thousands of people were forcibly resettled during Apartheid. We were met by our guide, Belinda, and she took us through the many blocks. All around us, people had built their own shanties and shacks. As climbed the steep hill into the settlement, we found housing that had been built by Habitat for Humanity and other charitable organizations. We learned that the district had numerous schools for the many children, as noted by streams of children passing us in school uniforms. We visited a preschool where the children greeted us with hugs, handshakes and song!
Meandering through the town, we arrived back at our bus stop and rejoined the bus tour. Our next hop off would be the Mariner's Wharf, where we were greeted by the curious site of a man feeding a seal. He would lop off small pieces of fish and toss them to a seal just a few feet away.
Boarding the bus for the last time, we came back to our original stop and headed for the flat. The day was winding down, so we found a nearby restaurant and made our way there. Miller's Thumb was reportedly one of the best places to get Kingclip, a mild whitefish well-known in this area. We headed over and grabbed a table early, as the Yelp reviews said it fills quickly and reservations are highly recommended. As this was our 8th anniversary, it was really nice that Ramona found such a special place for us to share!
Our dinner was absolutely fabulous, but lacked something vital - french fries! It's hard to say 'no' on our anniversary, so we walked a block to a nearby restaurant, DaVinci's to get some fries. That worked out quite well, as the trendy place wasn't too crowded and we quickly got some pretty good steak fries.
Meandering back through the city streets, we soon returned to our flat and got ready for bed. Tomorrow would be our last free day, with Ramona joining the conference schedule the following day.
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