Cape Town by Bus

Monday evening the other two physical therapists (PTs) arrived. We decided to take quick overview tour of CapeTown. We purchased the Red and Blue Bus passes. Earphones were provided in order to listen to the facts and information about what we were seeing. We arrived in time to sit on the top deck of the double decker bus. The "tourguide" recording could be heard in English, French, and several other languages I don't remember. The buses can be used as transportation as one can get on and off at the stops throughout the day (they come roughly every 20 minutes). We, however, only had time to stay on. Some stops were longer than others depending on the number of people getting on/off.

We saw downtown, passed by the hospital where the first and second successful heart transplants were done, the university, neighborhood that the slaves went to when freed (the buildings are painted bright colors in response to having to wear drabe colors for years), beaches, Table Mountain, Kristenbosch Gardens, wineries, informal settlements, and the waterfront.

We did stop at Kristenbough gardens again. It was sunny making it even more beautiful than Sunday. We walked up to the back of the gardens to see Proteas.  We were rewarded with a view of CapeTown below in the distance. We also toured through the tree canopy bridge, cydads, and statues.

It was also great to see the beaches near CapeTown on the bus tour. It was sunny Tuesday, but it was foggy Sunday as we drove this area. The beach front/cliff properties are very valuable. Even Russians are purchasing the properties. Some people have lifts outside their homes, this allows them to bring their groceries and the like up without climbing many many stairs. One of the towns has 4 distinct beaches depending if single, young, older, local, traveler. Each town has their own personality and identity.

Cape Town has something for almost everyone (I hesitate to make a blanket statement and say everyone). I was able to scratch the surface. Hiking, biking, running, boating, paragliding, animals, fish, kite surfing, surfing, walking along beach front, concerts, museums, tours, shopping, wineries, restaurants, public transportation, hotels, hostels, and markets. One can choose to explore on foot, bus, guided tour, boat, helicopter, cable car, ferris wheel, and taxi.  People and food literally from around the world can be found within a very small area. If you ever have the opportunity to go to Cape Town, I highly recommend taking advantage of it.

Dry Docked Ship

Ship in dry dock with Table Mountain backdrop

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One of buildings on Long Street

Green building is one of the brightly colored ones. The others were farther up the street

View from Table Mountain

Table Mountain cablecar

A portion of the Twelve Apostles (there are really 17)

One of the beaches near the "no wind" zone. As you can see, it is not the no wind zone the realtors like to claim

Two of the languages available on the bus tour

Stadium constructed for the 2010 World Cup. It requires 100,000 RAN  a month (I think) to maintain it now. 

Fun with reflections at a bus stop

Evidence the Dutch were here for several years

University of Cape Town

An informal settlement