And all was right with the world…

February 23-25

We got into Cape Town late on Friday night after a short layover in Johannesburg. Before we were through customs in Johannesburg we were already feeling good. South Africa, at least the parts we’ve been to (Cape Town, wine country, Jburg airport), feel like a city in the US or Western Europe. And after four months in South America and Africa, we were excited to be in an “easy” country again. Uber, English speakers, safe enough for me to go on solo runs, data/cell service inclusive in our phone plans, lots of activity and options. Now many countries had one or two of these luxuries, but South Africa has all of these and more.

Michael and I visited Cape Town a little over five years ago and just loved it back then. Since, we have often said it is our favorite place to travel. But putting so much pressure on a location, I was worried that the second time around wasn’t going to meet expectations. I now know there was nothing to be worried about.

We got in Friday night, rented a car and drove out to Camps Bay to our AirBNB home for the next 5 days. The host was waiting and the check in was easy. We couldn’t tell this in the dark, but out the front door of the apartment you can see Table Mountain and out the back porch you can see the beach!

Our friends Jeff and Vanessa flew in early the next morning, so we went to the airport to grab them. It has been about a month and a half since we had Phil and Krystal in town, so we were pumped for more visitors! We spent a few minutes letting them get settled into the apartment before we headed off for their first South African adventure.

We started in town at the Old Biscuit Mill. The area is a renovated biscuit mill (hence…) that has restaurants and stores with local artisans and designers selling their stuff. But then on Saturdays, in the space right next to the full time shops, there is a huge market with a ton of different food stalls. A lot of people come out to listen to music, eat delicious food and enjoy each other’s company. Besides eating all of the food and having a few glasses of bubbly, we got roped into a bit of shopping.

These are huge pots of paella:

The Old Biscuit Mill is also home to Test Kitchen, one of the best restaurants in the world. In order to get reservations you have to do something crazy like get online at 12:01 on the day the times are released or you can’t get a table. We didn’t do that, so we just got a nice view of the outside.

But we were just pretty happy to be enjoying everything else the area had to offer.

Saturday night we hiked Lion’s Head to see the sunset. The hike is challenging, but great because it’s (mostly) safe to do in the dark. Plus it has amazing 360 views of the city.

Sunday was another big day of exciting plans… plus it was Michael’s birthday! We had a quick lunch at La Colombe… just kidding. It was four hours. Four hours. Possibly the longest lunch of my life, but we just really enjoyed sitting and relaxing through all of it. Springbok and scallops and prawns and lobster and quail eggs and all kinds of local veggies and fruits and sauces and mmmmm it was all delicious.

Seriously, can you think of a more clever way to display the seared tuna dish?

And then this palate cleanser… because obviously you need your palate cleanser to come out in a cloud of fog:

Afterwards we were planning on hiking Cape Point, but we didn’t have enough time, so instead we grabbed some groceries and barbecued back at the apartment. That’s right… all we did all day is eat. But I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how Michael wanted it.

We still have another 5 days here, so lots more to report! More coming soon!