Frankfurt, Germany
It took two 11 hour overnight flights to get to Cape Town, South Africa. Lufthansa does a good job with their food and service in Business Class, but it's still a long way. The 12 hour layover in sub-freezing Frankfurt allowed for a commuter train ride into town, a brisk walk around the city, and even for a tourist "hop-on, hop-off" tour. After changing planes quite a few times at FRA, seeing the city was interesting which means that now it's a case of been there, seen that. Frankfurt is the "Zurich of Germany" which means lots of banks, a number of innovative skyscrapers, an old church or two, and lots of pedestrian streets. In other words, it's ok for a short walk around. The airport is about as interesting, but going into town allowed us to get in the traditional train ride.
Cape Town, South Africa
There was time to explore Cape Town's "Victoria and Alfred Waterfront" when delayed a day due to high winds when I was there in 2001 on a Silver Shadow cruise. I remember trying to walk the short distance from the cruise port there into town and being stopped by a policeman clad in a flack jacket and holding a machine gun who stopped us and said, "We don't recommend going into town". This time, the V and A Waterfront is much more developed, and the city is clean and much safer so one can enjoy its spectacular beauty. Table Mountain forms the backdrop for the downtown part of the city, and the strong summer winds usually cause the "Tablecloth" cloud to develop on the top of the mountain.
We did the tourist things, a lengthy "hop-on, hop-off" doubledeck bus ride where we could actually hop on and hop off due to it being summer, for heaven's sake. Hooray, shorts and sandals after freezing my bratwurst off in Frankfurt where we didn't hop off or hop on more than once each. Highlights of our visit to Cape Town included visiting Desmond Tutu's St. George's Cathedral and the oldest synagogue in southern Africa, just to balance the faiths. Cape Town has almost 18,000 Jewish folks, and had time permitted we would have gone for a pastrami sandwich. We didn't do that, but we had fantastic mostly fresh seafood dinners in the Waterfront area each evening as Cape Town is arguably the most cosmopolitan city on the continent. Where else can one find a gigantic soccer fan built out of Coke crates and a replica of the African Queen?
The hydrofoil ride to Robben Island takes about a half hour from the Waterfront. The tour of the political prison was sobering. The guide was a former prisoner there. He pointed out the cell where Nelson Mandela spent a number of decades. South Africa has changed from the old days, of course, as now the problems are between economic classes--not racial. But we did see a young waitress being treated very rudely by an elderly Afrikaans couple. The black waitress later said to me, "Some things have not changed."
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Michael H. Borsuk
Boulder, Colorado USA
mike@mborsuk.com
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