Cape Town, South Africa – April 7-9

Cape Town, South Africa – April 7-9

Our arrival in Cape Town was cloudy and rainy but it cleared later in the morning and we took the shuttle to the Waterfront area and wandered around for several hours stopping at several crafts markets. We had a great time looking at all the clothing, jewelry, wood carvings, jewelry and other crafts but I didn't see anything that had to follow me home – since we had already walked more than half way back to the ship we decided to continue walking instead of backtracking for the shuttle. While not terribly exciting, it was a very enjoyable day and we were back at the ship before another round of rain moved in. The picture of Cape Town was actually taken as we were departing; naturally we had beautiful weather for that.

The second day I was going to call Frontier airlines which had emailed to say our flight was canceled and we needed to call to reschedule – sadly it couldn't be done by computer. After screwing around for a long time with the new cell phone (with the international chip) and not being able to get a signal, I gave up and we came back to the ship. I ended up downloading Skype to the new computer I called Frontier using it and was able to reschedule – but now we are flying out the morning after we arrive in Fort Lauderdale so I also had to make a hotel reservation for that night. We decided to have a quick lunch and then head out for the city tour on the Hop on Hop off bus. By the time we finished lunch the black clouds were rolling back in and we decided to skip it. We ended up spending a quiet afternoon reading (no complaints!) My new friend next door had me over to her cabin to show me the beautiful glass beads she had gotten at a bead shop – I decided I had to go there the next day and we decided to 'dump the husbands' for a few hours and go together. We had a great time and I bought a bunch of lovely glass beads. Guess what – glass beads weigh a LOT … it was like toting home a large bag of rocks and we still have to get this stuff packed! The Jims (her husband is also a Jim) said they enjoyed the time without us so neither of us felt bad about going.

 

Although the ship wasn't due to leave until about 5:30 we had immigration procedures for leaving the country that started at 2:00 and then a lifeboat drill at 4:15, so the rest of the day was spent either relaxing or doing the mandatory stuff and then dinner. Just before we went to dinner we watched the Queen Mary 2 come into port. She is a beautiful big ship; she makes Amsterdam look quite small.

Today is a sea day and finally we have some bouncy seas – they actually started right after we left Cape Town. The swells (4 meter) and winds (force 8) are coming from behind us so our ride is surprisingly smooth considering the look of the sea and the amount of waves and whitecaps. This ship is perhaps the best we have ever been on as far as cutting through the sea smoothly; we have had very very little 'rock and roll' for the 3 months we have already been at sea.