Cape Town
In April I went down to Cape Town, South Africa for two weeks of .NET, SQL Server, and XML training. The training was really good. I learned a LOT! I'll even be able to use it soon. :)
I arrived Sunday afternoon. It was sunny and gorgeous! When I checked in I found out my hotel (the Capetonian) had a free shuttle to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. I basically dropped off my luggage and took the shuttle to the waterfront. There's a huge mall, with too many restaurants to count (I could have eaten at a different one for each meal while I was there and still not hit them all). The Two Oceans Aquarium is also on the waterfront. I didn't get a chance to go there, but I would have liked to. I saw a sign as I was driving by it one time that said you could dive there if you're SCUBA qualified.
My hotel room had a partial view of Table Mountain (what wasn't obscured by other buildings). It was clear when I first arrived, then it got cloudy and foggy later in the evening. It started raining sometime during the night and the temp dropped. After that it rained every night and part of every day. The worst day was Saturday, when I did a half day city tour. It rained during the entire tour. It wasn't too bad, though. We went to the castle (the fort that used to be right on the water, until the Dutch reclaimed about a km of land). We went to the District Six museum. District Six was an area of Cape Town that was home to a diverse group of people (Muslims, Jews, and Christians, blacks, colored and Indains). They had homes, businesses, and houses of worship all in District Six. They peacefully coexisted until 1966 when the South African government declared it a "whites only" area under the Group Areas Act of 1950. By 1982 all of the homes and businesses were demolished and the residents were moved to separate areas according to their "group". Almost no white people moved into District Six after it was cleared. That was surprising to me, as it is mostly on a hill, and you'd have gorgeous views of the city centre and ocean! Now that apartheid is over, there is a group trying to restore the empty land to the people that were forcibly removed. When I was there, a few former residents (or descendants of former residents) had moved back. You can read more about District Six on the museum's website (http://www.districtsix.co.za/frames.htm) And here is a link to an article from last year about the return of the first group of former residents (http://www.southafrica.info/10years/district-six_120204.htm).
Towards the end of the tour we went by where the cable car leaves from the bottom, but it was closed due to the weather. Since it was a little before noon, we then went to Signal Hill to watch the noon gun. They have an old cannon that they fire every Monday through Saturday (except public holidays) at noon. It was pretty cool! How many people do you know that have watched a cannon fire? Obviously there's no cannonball, it's just a lot of gunpowder. You can hear it all over Cape Town. It's a good way to set your watch!
More later.
I arrived Sunday afternoon. It was sunny and gorgeous! When I checked in I found out my hotel (the Capetonian) had a free shuttle to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. I basically dropped off my luggage and took the shuttle to the waterfront. There's a huge mall, with too many restaurants to count (I could have eaten at a different one for each meal while I was there and still not hit them all). The Two Oceans Aquarium is also on the waterfront. I didn't get a chance to go there, but I would have liked to. I saw a sign as I was driving by it one time that said you could dive there if you're SCUBA qualified.
My hotel room had a partial view of Table Mountain (what wasn't obscured by other buildings). It was clear when I first arrived, then it got cloudy and foggy later in the evening. It started raining sometime during the night and the temp dropped. After that it rained every night and part of every day. The worst day was Saturday, when I did a half day city tour. It rained during the entire tour. It wasn't too bad, though. We went to the castle (the fort that used to be right on the water, until the Dutch reclaimed about a km of land). We went to the District Six museum. District Six was an area of Cape Town that was home to a diverse group of people (Muslims, Jews, and Christians, blacks, colored and Indains). They had homes, businesses, and houses of worship all in District Six. They peacefully coexisted until 1966 when the South African government declared it a "whites only" area under the Group Areas Act of 1950. By 1982 all of the homes and businesses were demolished and the residents were moved to separate areas according to their "group". Almost no white people moved into District Six after it was cleared. That was surprising to me, as it is mostly on a hill, and you'd have gorgeous views of the city centre and ocean! Now that apartheid is over, there is a group trying to restore the empty land to the people that were forcibly removed. When I was there, a few former residents (or descendants of former residents) had moved back. You can read more about District Six on the museum's website (http://www.districtsix.co.za/frames.htm) And here is a link to an article from last year about the return of the first group of former residents (http://www.southafrica.info/10years/district-six_120204.htm).
Towards the end of the tour we went by where the cable car leaves from the bottom, but it was closed due to the weather. Since it was a little before noon, we then went to Signal Hill to watch the noon gun. They have an old cannon that they fire every Monday through Saturday (except public holidays) at noon. It was pretty cool! How many people do you know that have watched a cannon fire? Obviously there's no cannonball, it's just a lot of gunpowder. You can hear it all over Cape Town. It's a good way to set your watch!
More later.
posted by Theresa | 1:29:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home