Given the remote rural Arizona desert life which I have arranged for myself, it’s obvious that I am preferentially not an urban dweller. But if I had to choose a large city in which to live, Cape Town would rank in the top five of the places I have been to. It’s cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic, diverse, beautiful, and by western standards fairly affordable. The backdrop of Table Mountain makes it instantly identifiable worldwide. With 3.7 million residents, Cape Town is large, well-connected, and sophisticated enough to offer almost anything you would want from a big city, while the immediate proximity to a strikingly beautiful natural landscape with tremendous biodiversity adds a dimension of wilderness that so many urban centers lack. Truly a world-class metropolis, I am so glad that we spent several days here at the finale of our South African tour, since my first trip in 2009 left me wanting more at only one single night. Viva Cape Town!
The Southern Sun Cullinan Hotel, located in the downtown district, where we stayed for three nights to close our trip in September 2016.
Table Mountain serves as an iconic backdrop for the Alfred Basin waterfront. Rugged scenery like this is something I can gaze at all day long. I find mountains both restful and dynamic at the same time, which is why I live where I do in rural Arizona. But it’s equally wonderful to have such dramatic topography so close to a major urban center. This is a top-drawer view indeed!
All three days we spent in Cape Town in late September 2016 were very pleasant, mostly sunny with moderate temperatures and windless. The day we had atop Table Mountain was simply glorious as well – it is fiercely windy up there a lot of the time, but not the day we went. The Red Bus City Tour we signed up for took us through some of the priciest zones of Cape Town, and the stated reason was primarily because those pricey neighborhoods and districts had the best combination of the least wind and the nicest views. And of course that equals a premium for the cost of living in those places….
As with many port cities, the working waterfront district of Cape Town went into decline from the 1970s through the 1990s. However in recent years the Alfred Basin area has experienced a resurgence, with new residences and businesses springing up along a formerly blighted industrial landscape. New construction was everywhere and it looks like a very nice place to live now.
Random photo of random person doing the tourist photo op thing in a New York shirt, which was where we were flying later that afternoon and overnight….
The Cape Wheel is just one of the things you can do along the busy commercial Victoria & Albert District. The area is crowded with restaurants, bars, and shops as well.
I’ll post a separate album sometime of our day atop Table Mountain, looming 3000 feet high over the city in the background. What views, from both below and above! Not to mention the remarkable plant and animal life of Table Mountain and the Cape Peninsula in general.
Waiting for our ride to take us to the airport in the lobby of the Southern Sun Cullinan Hotel. The prepaid shuttle we’d planned for was over 40 minutes late with no firm time of arrival given, so eventually we called two additional smaller taxis to ferry us there, since the airplane wasn’t going to wait if we weren’t there on time. I hope we got the refund for the double trouble….