April 16, Stellenbosch to Cape Town

Thursday, April 16, Day 73 - Stellenbosch to Cape Town
 
It rained during the night and is quite cool in the open air breakfast area. Again, this is not a stellar breakfast offering but will do. With nothing holding us, we load up and head into Stellenbosch where we find, miracle of miracles, a parking place within a block of where we want to go. There are no parking meters but young men in official vests who make note of the time you park and to whom you pay a parking fee upon leaving. A very inefficient and costly way of doing business!

We visit the Stellenbosch Town Museum, a collection of four homes dating back to 1709 and find it quite interesting. These Dutch settlers, the wealthy ones, lived quite well and comfortably for the period. There are numerous school classes of 4-6 six year olds visiting and they are cute to watch. The docents are surprised to find we are from the USA and more so when they find we are from Texas. Texas has a very positive image all over the world, even if it is not exactly one of the reality of Texas. You know, cowboys, horses, rich people who own oil wells, etc. We also visit the Dutch Reform Church that is next to the Village Museum. It has an interesting history and the church is very pretty.

Leaving Stellenbosch, we gas up and make the 50km drive to Cape Town and see some thigs seem to never change..

 Our hotel is the Mount Nelson . We are delighted to find, upon checking it, that the manager has given us one of their nicest suites in acknowledgment of our upcoming anniversary. The suite contains a large bed room, huge bath, dining room and living room along with a guest’s half bath. It is bigger than our first home!

 Dick uses the hotel’s business office to print out our paperwork for boarding the Queen Mary II on Saturday and then we go to "Tea" which is included in our package. After that we retrieve our car and head to the Victoria and Albert Wharf Mall. Dick hopes to find the barber who cut his hair there in 2009 and does so. In "Mr. Cobbs the Barber" he finds Jonathan, a black man who is a wizard at cutting hair. While Dick lavishes praise on him and tells him he has bragged about his skills for six years, Jonathan rises to the challenge and proceeds to repeat the "Best Haircut I Ever Had" performance of 2009; all for R180 ($15US). Then, he trims Carolyn's bangs and hair for R42 ($3.50US). Dick tips him R100 ($8.36US) and they agree to meet again next time we are in town. All in all, a very nice experience and it proved to be the exception to the rule that you can’t go back.

Carolyn does a little shopping for some gift items and we head for the car about 7PM. It is a little cold and very windy. Once again, thank heaven for the GPS as Cape Town, especially after dark, is a warren of streets. But, we are led back to our hotel and we retire to our room where we order a light meal from room service. Carolyn works on the blog and Dick promises to write up the recent days when he gets up in the morning. We have gotten so far behind it is hard to catch up. Poor internet and lack of power isn't helping! Thank goodness the hotel has its own generator!