Cape Town First Full Day

We had a fantastic breakfast at hotel.

Jenni and I popped outside quickly to look at the hotel's gardens. We met one of the hotel's three tortoises.

We met our guide, Ben, in the Hotel's Library. He gave us a brief history and geography lesson on the Cape Town area.

Our first stop was the Castle of Good Hope. It was built by dutch to protect inhabitants from wild animals and was also used for trade by the Dutch East Indian Trading Company. The bricks on the top of the ramparts were brought by people from Netherland and originally served as ship ballast.

We followed our tour of the exterior of the Castle of Good Hope with a stop at the location where Nelson Mandela gave a speech when he was first released from prison and again when he was elected President of South Africa.

We walked through the gardens that served as the Dutch East Indian Company's garden before making our way to an open air market for some shopping and lunch. Bob and I were not inspired by the food or shopping options so we just grabbed a beverage and did some people watching.

Next, we made our way to Table Mountain. Ben was able to whisk us pass all the lines and use the employee entrance. Within moments we were boarding the cable car to the top. Since it was such a clear day, Ben was able to show us many landmarks. We had a brief time to walk around the top of Table Mountain. This is our fourth trip to Cape Town but this is the first time we made it up Table Mountain. I would have liked a lot more time here to hike and explore.

We then made our way to the Vicotoria and Alfred mall for dinner. We had a huge, amazing meal of seafood.

We finally made it back to our hotel after a very full day.Read more