City Tour – “Hapag-Lloyd Style”

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The next day included a quick city tour, before finally getting to the ship in the later afternoon.

The city tour itself seemed a bit odd with some more questionable stops, nevertheless for me it was nicely complementing my tour, as it stopped at places, I did not really get the chance to have a look at on Monday.

We first left the buses at the Castle of Good Hope to witness the daily key ceremony and firing of the canon, we also had some (very limited) time to check out the castle. From here we continued downtown to visit the cathedral, have a walk through Company Gardens (with a high focus on botanics … (:| ) and finally end up in the South African Museum to see the exhibition on whales.

Table Mountain

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Getting back to the hotel from Robben Island was the point in time, when I changed from being an individual to an organized group traveler – the pre-cruise program was about to start.

The rest of the group had only arrived earlier this day; I met the remaining folks in the hotel lobby in the late afternoon … and was given access to one of the three (!!) buses (but only after I had been clearly identified as a pax).

We made the way up to the cable car station and then up Table Mountain. The experience today was completely different – no clouds and perfect visibility. After the trip up table mountain, we circled back to town going by the beaches of Camp’s Bay and Clifton.

Robben Island

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I left the hostel this morning and made my way to the hotel, which came as part of my cruise package. After checking in, I made my way back to the V&A Waterfront and the Robben Island Gateway to catch a boat to Robben Island.

Robben Island used to be the prison and labor camp for non-white political prisoners during the apartheid regime. Today the island is preserved as a museum and memorial. Tours start with a half hour boat trip to the island, include a bus tour around the island and a walk around the prison, led by a former inmate.

South-African Wine-ing

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Its wines are another thing South Africa’s cape region is famous for; so I had to include a wine day tour in my itinerary.

I was picked up in the morning by the tour company – and in a small group (just four plus tour leader) we made it into wine country, with the first tasting already well before 10:00 at the Fairview Wine Estate … the tasting included both wine and goat cheese, which made a nice combination 😉

From here we continued to Stellenbosch and after a short tour around town, we stopped at another winery to try more wine … and to realize how well biltong (South African cured meat) combines with red wine.

Our next stop was at the Blauwklippen winery and its Sunday market, where we had lunch and time to look around the market – before we finally went for another tasting. The next and final winery – after a short stop at a strawberry farm – was the one owned by sock producer Peter Falke – and clearly showed that producing high quality socks and high quality wine is not a conflict – this time wine was accompanied by chocolate.

All in all a very enjoyable (and intoxicating) day with plenty of insight into South African wine making.

Arrival in Cape Town

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I left Frankfurt on a snowy December evening – heading for Munich and then on to Cape Town … the beginning of an epic journey touching three continents and some of the remotest lands on the planet … and certainly one of my crazier trips (it not THE most crazy one … so far).

The start though was not that spectacular … I made it into Cape Town in the early afternoon the day after, dropped my stuff in a hostel and kicked if of with a stroll to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront to enjoy the scenery, the sun and do a first little boat trip.

Good-byes

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The last day of the Rocky Mountain High tour … day of good-byes …

The first good-bye was silent … we were greeted by a new van this morning … Kelly had exchanged the old one (without working air-con) with another one (with somewhat working air-con).

The first actual good-bye was for Las Vegas; on the way out we stopped at the famous sign at the South end of the Strip for a photo opportunity.

From here we continued into California – towards the Pacific and Los Angeles. On the way to the hotel we had a stop in Hollywood and some time to check out Hollywood Blvd … before it was time for final good-byes.

Las Vegas

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I ended up doing my own thing on our full day in Las Vegas … I kicked it off at the Atomic Testing Museum around midday and then made my way to the Las Vegas Strip for an extended walk to get a closer look at the casinos.

into Las Vegas

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Our stop after Zion was infamous Las Vegas, NV.

We left Zion straight after the others returned from the hike; obviously it was a pretty quiet ride over to Vegas – with not more than a gas and a lunch stop on the way. Once in Vegas the first point of interest was an outlet mall – before we were heading for our hotel (right – no camping here … first night in a bed for weeks) and showers.

We met up again in the evening to go into town for dinner at the Bellagio buffet. I was still not in perfect shape, so made it back to the hotel after dinner – while most of the others continued with the night out Vegas-style.