Cape Town

The taxi was booked to collect us from home last night at 7pm and Tommy started packing at 6.30pm, as you do! Fiona arrived and took Xena out for a short walk and then returned to the house once we had left as she said it was easier that way, and also better for Xena to accept Scooby (her own Hungarian Vizsla) staying in ‘Xena’s house’ when they entered the house together. She sent videos and Xena was absolutely fine with Scooby sharing her home, and today they have had such fun together! 

We got to the airport very quickly as there was no traffic and the airport was surprisingly quiet. We had supper in the BA lounge which was very good but by 9.30pm they were packing up dinner and getting the breakfast foods ready. I suppose for some incoming flights it was breakfast time! We did not want to eat on the plane as it was such a late flight. Gavin and I had fantastic seats, BA have changed their business class seats on certain planes so that you now have a ‘cubicle’ with a door that shuts on the aisle so you can go to sleep and not be disturbed by passing rattling trolleys, and you have much more privacy. On such a long flight it helps to be more comfortable. The kids were in the back of the plane but managed to sleep. The air hostess told us that their London - Cape Town route is  one of their busiest routes and is full every day.


We arrived at 11.25am this morning and had long queues at passport control, it took us over an hour to get through. Apparently the queues get worse all the time. They only had 6 out of 18 passport desks open, why?! We were met by our driver/guide, a lovely local man who gave us some history and information as he drove us to our hotel. At the hotel we went straight to lunch which we ate outside on the terrace which is right on the water's edge, the waves were crashing up on the side, it was magnificent setting as we sat there in the sunshine with blue skies enjoying the view of the sailing boats in the bay. Later we saw a whale swim past, it breached a few times as it went on its way.


We got access to our rooms after lunch, quickly unpacked and then walked to the nearby V&A Waterfront area. It was vibrant and bustling, full of people and street artists, musicians, and also this wonderful gospel choir group (see extra) who were dancing and singing with such energy it was mesmerising. By 4pm it was feeling cool in the wind, it is winter here after all and at 17C it was actually a good day..


We were back at the hotel by 5.30pm as we were meeting my nephew Chris and his wife Robs and their three year old daughter. It was lovely to see them again, it has been many years since we saw all of them and we had never met Olivia yet. We had an early supper, we enjoyed catching up on each other's lives and little Olivia was so well behaved. By 8.20 they left to go home. We are all tired from the night on the plane so are having an early night - tomorrow it's the winelands!