Drive to Cape Town and Explore: 2/27

 Our plan was to visit Table Mountain and getting there early meant less wait time, hence our 6:30 start with breakfast on the bus. There was a horrible traffic jam on the way in and our day was re-arranged to  to visit the Botanical Gardens of Kirstenbosch today, one of the seven best in the world. Table Mountain will wait for tomorrow. Plants here are typically native to South Africa.

The grounds are extenive -- it would take several trips to really do it justice. It is built on a hillside and we started at the highest level parking lot, about halfway up, so most of the walking was downhill. 

Another variety of Bird of Paradise - more yellow
and reedy leaves

Silver Tree - in the Protea family

Agapanthus or Lily of the Nile - white variety

Lily of the Nile typical in USA

Protea above and below

Snake Bridge because it winds 
around like a snake

Our other stops were related to some of the unfortunate history of South Africa. We visited the District 6 Museum. This was a mixed race area with deep internal ties among communities that was somewhat run down. The powers that be decided that it should become white only and the 66,000 non-whites living there were forcibly removed and their homes were bulldozed. This separated them into race specific locations, often far from where they worked and which split up formerly cohesive communities. Because of international pressure, it has remained mostly abandoned.

The blue blocks show where people
were moved. The white blocks are
where they came from

We moved on to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, but mostly just had lunch there. 

J.C. Smuts, an influential South
African leader

Interesting architecture on an 
office building

The memorial is the poles below

Cecil Rhodes who donated the
land for the botanical garden, among
many other things

After lunch, we had a talk with one of the guards at Robbens Island where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were held. His accent was quite strong and I had difficulty understanding much of what he said. He did make it clear that the prison was designed to give loved ones very limited access to the prisoners, perhaps monthly or less. 

Our hotel is quite modern looking and fairly close to things to see.