A and V waterfront

This morning we hopped onto the train for the first time to go downtown Cape Town. Henry and Harry were free, Katy was half price. Carla and I were 20Rand return. Total cost of trip $5.00 Canadian. While we there we saw seals and the kids were excited to watch them play! The waterfront is much like the forks but on a much grander scale. There are many more restaurants and shops, hotels and a real working sea port. There were also many water tours to take along with a trip to Robben Island that must be booked ahead due to the popularity. We will try those another day. We ended up having lunch of fish and chips with some calamari on the side.

Bunny Munch!

The highlights for today include a trip up to the Rhodes Memorial on Table Mountain. We loaded up Harry in the chariot and the rest of us trekked up without major issues. We saw some huge red grasshoppers on the way, pictures included. From the memorial we could see for many miles around as well as the ocean (Atlantic). We'll try to get to the ocean tomorrow. Upon return we took to the pool and then had lunch outside in the common area.

I did some car shopping today, the best buy was a 1988 VW Jetta for 15000 R. That is 50% more than the rental we thought we might get, but this way we could get most of our money back when we sell it before we leave. We've decided that tomorrow we'd like to visit the Victoria and Albert waterfront. This is one of the major tourist attractions in Cape Town. But Pam from the 4^th floor here (Liverpool) says that the food is great and cheap. We had the Bunny Munch for supper from the Sunny Day Curry shop down the street. For 60Rand we got five curry chicken filled half loaves of bread which was far too much. Too spicy for the kids, but we loved them. There is also beans and potato in the filling. Picture posted. Note to Ray Giesbrecht, this will be on the agenda when you come.

This just in from Kapstadt!

We are here. Cape Town at last. It was over eleven hours in the wonderful South African Airlines A340 jet but we pulled through with some help with some excellent wines from the western cape and four movies on the inflight entertainment system (You, Me and Dupree, My superhero exgirlfriend, Little Miss Sunshine (good one) and The Lady in the Water). The food was great, we got a little sleep and celebrated our 12 year anniversary mid flight with some bubbly…all compliments of the airline.

We're still adjusting to the time change (I'm writing this at 5:00AM), and the kids are restless too. We had a nap after we got to our apartment after which the kids did NOT want to wake up. We managed to coax them though and then proceeded to take a walk to their new schools. Katy's is about fifteen minutes down our street (Main Rd), and Henry's is another fifteen minutes down Campground Rd). They look great and by all reports they are. Carla's advisor here, Liz Gwyther gave them good reviews. She also picked us up at the airport along with a friend Neville since we needed two cars. They were there early and we had no problem getting though customs, we basically got our passports stamped and then were waved through.

The scenery is breathtaking. I'll upload shots when I get connected. The fauna is glorious, flowers everywhere. We've seen zebra, buffalo and maybe gazelle up the mountain. We've also passed by the squatters (townships) areas on the drive to the apartment.

We are getting used to many things at once, living on a well traveled street, having VW transports honk to pick up casual travelers, being the extreme visible minority in our neighbourhood. During our walk, people were taken in with our chariot for Harrison. They would stop and look, or give him a big smile and ask where his steering wheel was. People are quite friendly, that is nice.

We took a short stop at the pick and pay grocery store to get some wieners and chips (yes they have Simba Brand chips) for our first meal. Liz had already bought some basics for our fridge which was great.

Today we need to look at getting our vehicle, internet access, etc along with more groceries.

Layover

Frankfurt Germany airport terminal 1 McDonalds!

We've made it almost halfway…it's 3pm local time (8am Winnipeg time). The kids have been awake for almost five hours already after a decent sleep in the plane. It was a nice flight over in the 767, quiet most of the time. We gave the kids a shot of gravol before hand while waiting at the international terminal in Toronto and that seemed to help somewhat, Harry had already slept from Winnipeg to Toronto after the more than two hour delay in the plane waiting for the fog to dissipate before taking off. The entertainment system on that flight was great; movies, TV, music and games on demand on every seatback. I watched Invincible and part of Heavy metal : a headbanger's history. Henry watched Barnyard and Monster House. It was good to have that while we waited.

It was a tough goodbye at James Richardson International Airport, but we managed…the house was completely cleaned from top to bottom; we were glad for so much help.

The kids are playing in the playland here although they seem to have much more fun on the escalators and moving sidewalks….back and forth, it seems like forwver. Wow our plane just pulled up to the McDonalds! South African Airlines…nice paint job! Hopefully the food is just as good. I'll take a picture and post it. Airbus 340-600, not a huge plane, but it'll do. Apparently they are fuel efficient.

More later.