I came to South Africa for a math conference, followed by eight days as a tourist.
The conference organizers were very hospitable: a trip to Cape Point, the conference dinner at a winery, a concert, a beach lunch (4 hrs of seafood, wine and swimming in cold water ) for us orphans the day after. Port Elizabeth is a medium sized resort town on the East coast: I should have done more swimming there. Instead - Addo elephant park - lots of elephants up close, aquarium and museum, steam train ride, tour of local township, boogie in bar, wade in the indian ocean, learn enkosi kakhulu is Xhosa for thank you. Capetown: big city. Robben Island blows my mind - you gotta read "Long Walk to Freedom". Victoria and Albert Waterfront: Mall of Africa--but found a good microbrewery, restaurant with super belgian beer,ate springbok, heard some ok music and saw some fantastic fireworks. That's the Reader's digest version
trip to addo was by
Fundani Township Tours
winery for dinner
Robben Island
restaurant at cape point
"You will meet an American and they will ask you where you are from. You say 'South Africa' and they say 'Oh, I have a friend in Morocco. Do you know him?'."-- President Thabo Mbeki on the ignorance of Americans. From the Daily Mail and Guardian
Yes. I know, Amsterdam is NOT in South Africa, but I had a 12 hour layover. For some obscure reason the airfare was a lot lower that way. Schiphol is still one of my favorite airports. I had a shower, changed and headed into town.
One train and one bus later, I am at the Rijksmuseum. I saw "Night Watch", and then found the Asian collection. The Buddhas are beautiful and there's a very nice explanation of mudras on the wall nearby.
On leaving the musuem, turn left on Stadhouderskade. There is (or was) a small wagon selling seafood salads and sandwiches. The prawn curry sandwich is yummy.
Had dinner at "In de Bontekoe" restaurant in the airport. Named after William Ysbrandtz Bontekoe, a 17th century captain for the Dutch East India company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie -VOC) whose logs were published in 1646. The salmon is good, and the red beer ( I didn't get the name) is also delicious.
I am in Stellenbosch. My luggage is still in Amsterdam. I am kind of jet lagged. But so what - let's go to a Math lecture. One of the other people from afar is giving a colloquium talk. Followed by a few drinks- Castle Milk Stout is quite nice, thank you - and one of the professors invites us to his house for dinner!
He lives in Somerset West, about 15 km south and a little east of Stellenbosch, on False Bay. The home cooked dinner is wonderful - like in New Zealand pumpkin is a squash. Also, asparagus is all white.(In the U.S. asparagus is green)
Somerset West is named
"after Lord Charles Somerset [ that's him in the picture] who, as Governor of the Cape of Good Hope in 1814, sought the tranquillity of country life without forfeiting the amenities and convenience of city life"
It is the Sunday before the conference starts and several of us have come to Cape Point for lunch at the
Two Oceans
restaurant at cape point, and a hike around the point.
Lots of warning signs about the baboons, but we didn't see any until we were leaving: they were on the side of the road on the way out.
For dinner I had
crab remoulade, seafood curry - it comes in a pot like this as do many of the dishes. The chocolate mousse for dessert is also quite decadent. For wine we did
Buitenverwachting Sauvignon Blanc and Blanc de Blancs, and a
Zevenwacht Chardonnay.All of them were very nice - if forced to pick a favorite, probably the Blanc de Blancs.
Stellenbosch is a small university town - a lot like Boulder, Colorado (where I work) but with a lot more wineries in the neighborhood.
a geomtrically elegant design which had to wait 65 years for the technology to actually make one.
Nice technical results, but also really wonderful quotes about the discovery and use of quaternions.
a predator prey model: predator = elephant prey = trees.
This one is close to my own interest in n-sided surfaces.
Dinner was at the Delaire winery. We arrived inn time to watch a spectacular sunset. Since it was fish for dinner I tried the Green Door Merlot and Cabernet as before dinner drinks. With dinner, a Neil Ellis Chardonnay and a Hazendal wooded Chenin Blanc - both went well with the kingklip which was the main dinner course. A Noble Late Harvest went well with dessert.
Johan de Villiers of the University mathematics department is also the director of the Stellenbosch Libertas Choir . They gave a delightful concert for the conference attendees.
My favorite restaurant in Stellenbosch (although I didn't try a whole lot - breakfast was at the dormitory and lunch (which was also good) was always at the same place) is the Decameron. The fish carpaccio is superb, and the night I had a filet they cooked it the way I like it: I heard it go "mooo" when I stuck the fork in.
The student union Neelsie's has the cheapest Internet access and a good bulk laundry. The difference between the conference time (students on break) and the day I came back a week later (they're baack) was impressive.
My last day in South Africa was in Stellenbosch, after a week of being a tourist. I gave two more lectures, bought a La Motte Cabernet for dinner( at the decameron - the filet mentioned above), had a bobotie for lunch at Le Pommier.
Yzterfontein is on the West Coast, about 80 km north of Capetown. It's a beach resort and about twelve of us have come for lunch - half locals and half people from Scotland, Germany, Denmark and the U.S. who are still around after the conference.
Earlier in the week I had seen "snoek" on the menu and although adventurous at least wanted to know what it was before I ordered it.The host at the Villa Grande told me it was a kind of fish, further discussions said it was sort of like a barracuda or a pike. We had some for lunch and it tastes MUCH better than it looks.
The story is as old as human empires: there was a war but it's over, the (no longer needed) soldiers are restless and unemployed. What to do? The Chinese did it, the Romans did it and in the early 19th century (1820) the British did it: sell the old soldiers a bill of goods and ship them out to settle the new boundaries of the empire. Free land (we'll ignore the locals) in beautiful South Africa for veterans of the Napoleonic wars. Thus: Port Elizabeth. (PE was named not for an old British Queen, but for a young soldier's wife who died of fever in India before he even got here.)
I am here to see elephants at Addo Elephant Park, ride the Apple Express , a narrow gauge steam train, and see the Indian Ocean. Staying at the Edward Hotel a fine old Edwardian heap. I'm only on the first floor but I ride the vinatge 1913 elevator up and down because it's such a kick. Also the dinner buffet here is quite good, and the bar does have Castle Milk Stout. Hotel staff were very helpful - got me re-booked from another hotel to one closer into town in Capetown. The airport shuttle (free) also provides transport to and from the beach.
There are more black folk evident here than in Stellenbosch, and mainly I hear Xhosa on the street. This is where I learned enkosi kakhulu means "thank you very much". Also where i worked up the courage to be the only white guy boogieing in a bar kitty-corner from the Edwardian.. Up the Khyber (across the street from the Edward) had a good calamari targheera - nice and spicy.
I booked a tour to Addo with Fundani Township Tours. Xhanti Mpakamisi Singapi (who I found out later is the CEO of the outfit) picked me up and did a great job finding elephants and red hartebeests. On the way back I got to stop by his house (a very nice 5 bedroom house in New Brighton township) and meet his mother. She is wonderful - we talked about family and her (late) husband who built the house we we are in but then had a stroke and never really got to enjoy it. The township has an incredible range: from Xhanti's house which is nicer than mine to the shacks with corrugated tin one sees in the news.
The Apple Express is a narrow gauge steam line. It runs from Port Elizabeth to Thornhill (about 83 km). I was lucky, April 9th was a day they were running: the next date was 3 weeks later at Easter. In the middle is a bridge (the highest narrow guage bridge in the world), passengers get to walk across while the train re-waters.
Then on to Thornhill - apparently not much but the hotel.
I had a Castle Milk
Stout in the bar and commented to the guy next to me how it was nice thay had it. "Wouldn't come here if they didn't" he says - I guess he was a local. Dinner back in town at Le Med was the Plate o Prawns - very good, lotsa garlic but REAL messy: served in the shell.
My last day here I did the museum, snake house and oceanarium which are all in the same complex by the beach. The world was always small: the museum had a bronze cannon cast in Macao (~1450), sent as a present to the King of Portugal, sunk off Port Elizabeth.
Capetown is beautiful but still a big city. I am staying at the Capetonian very close to downtown.
First full day in Capetown it was too windy to go up Table Mountain, so I tried to get to Kirstenbosch - the botanical gardens. That didn't work because I arrived at the train station where one can get the bus...three hours before the next bus. So -back to town off to Robben island. I have learned how to take a bus from the hotel to the waterfront (1.5 rand) instead of a taxi(25 rand)...
After the trip to Robben Island I hung around the V&A waterfront and ended up catching the Dunhill Symphony of Fire - a great fireworks show. Also a Spanish-flavored band called "Los Gitanes"..
The Victoria and Albert Waterfront is a very large refurbished port area with lots of stuff. Totally tourist, but so what. I had some delightful Belgian beers at Den Anker: worked up to a trippel on my last visit, and a local beer from Mitchell's called Raven Stout.
The best food was medallions of springbok! Not quite like the venison I am used to but very nice. Local gyros and a soup and salad place were also nice.
The aquarium and the South African maritime musuem are both worth the visit. I enjoyed the exhibit on eels and the jellyfish.
I did not spend all my time at the V&A : wandered around downtown Capetown a little bit, found the South African version of Denny's (not a bad breakfast),looking for the Virtual Turtle an Interent cafe, found it and an open air market and a good sushi place.. I never did get to Table Mountain: second day it was too cloudy...
This is me on Robben Island - Table Mountain
on the horizon (I am on the south side of the island).
Robben Island
is the site of the prison where Nelson Mandela, other ANC and other poltiical prisoners were kept for years. It has been turned into a musuem, and the musuem guides are former inmates.
The tour is impressiive and moving. Despite the hardship these men turned the experience into a way to get education and continue their struggle for independence
A friend recommended The Long walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela's autobiography as a required read. It is very good, and I recommend it highly. It provided a grounding for my visit that does not come out in the above (which is more like Pierre eats and drinks his way acros the southern tip of Africa). South Africa is a beautiful country with very hospitable people -- they deserve to succeed in their new beginnning..
Now included in
The Africa Guide
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Last Updated June 18, 2000
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