Day 41--Cape Town

3 October. In port, Cape Town, South Africa

Words can’t do justice to this very beautiful city, sitting at the base of what they call Table Mountain. So I’ll post pictures on Facebook. Suffice to say that we’re docked adjacent to the Table Bay 5-star hotel, at the Victoria & Alfred waterfront, steps away from the low-rise, Dutch-colonial-style old city. And, as if custom ordered by SAS, the sky is cloudless, the wind is nonexistent, and the temperature is a perfect 75 Farenheit.

I have no firm plans for the next two days other than to explore the city, probably take a ride to the top of the mountain, maybe cruise to Robbin Island, where Mandela was imprisoned for almost 30 years, perhaps take a train down to Simon's Town, the farthest south suburb, which sits on an False Bay. Tonight I’ve been invited to join Jim and Shamim for a drive down toward the Cape of Good Hope to buy some wine and have dinner in “the oldest restaurant in South Africa.” Tomorrow morning I’ll take in the Sunday market. Then, Monday morning, we head off on safari.

It’s wonderful to be tied up to land and looking forward to 6 days in what those who have been here before say is the most beautiful country in the world. We’ll see. Being here, looking forward to those days, almost takes away the sting of Chicago’s loss of the 2016 Olympics.

Almost.