Frankies Travels - Final Day Aaaaah :(

And on the last day - we relaxed... Drove through some city centre and saw some marathon runners (some ladies in blue uniforms stoppd us running them over...) Then we cruised through Clifton to Camps Bay for a massive magnificient breakfast (wish I had taken a picture) Eggs/Bacon/Sausage/Tomato/Hash Browns/Toast/Grilled Mushrooms... Sunday Morning Happy-Food.

Then we went to go and enjoy the beach (for the last time in a while for me) I went to go dip my toes in the water (as usual managed to get my pant wet)

A Zimbabwean came to ply his wares and perhaps due to his effort we purchased a painting of a giraffe. I should snap a photo of it to show off - It has become another item of my collection of travel items for my new home (when ever it is that I manage to have a new home...) I am just not sure of the best way to mount it. I would want to preserve the fabric from aging so I was thinking of "laminating" it in glass with the unhemmed edges giving it a raw look ... but the glass will make it monstrously heavy to hang... hmmm... Ill have to give it a think.

Then we made our way back so I could finish packing and enjoy the sunshine (just about the only sun we saw all weekend) at least the mountains popped out from the clouds in farewell.

The airport was INSANELY busy and by flight was ultra full but at least I sat next to a pretty friendly Indian gent. Can't say the same for the drive home. I discover I am a bit of a hazard on the roads... Thank goodness for the more experienced drivers that were driving near by... And as much as I hate the drive to and from the airport... I should be driving it myself more often so that I can do it without having to Make my Peace with God along the way...

The End! :) ... until next time at least...

Frankie's Travels - On the Third Day

.... I remembered what rainy weather was. we have just come through
the dry dry Joburg winter so I haven't seen a lot of rain lately
(except for those 3 weeks in Germany...)

So on Saturday we woke up to a cloudy sky - the shy mountain was
almost completely hidden. We decided to make our way across to Cape
Point. So after a very scenic drive to and through and beyond
Simonstown (again) we paid our International Tourists Hiked entry fee
to the Nature Reserve. I decided that first prize would be seeing
Zebra and Ultra first prize would be to see Whales too. With the
gentle swish of the windscreen wipers we admired the alternate views
of the opposite coasts and made our way through to Cape of Good Hope -
snapping pictures of the view along the way. Like any intrepid
traveller we decided to brave the wind and the cold and climb up the
hiking trail at C of GH....

And OH BOY!! The wind was strong! It was all fun and adventurous on
the way up having my hair whipped around and trying to negotiate the
next step... (my co-tourist had his hoodie up and tied down - he
looked like a ninja!) And then!!... I got sand blown into my eye and
suddenly I was not having fun any more. So we turned around and slip
slide stumbled our way back down with one eye shut and the other half
covered for protection and made it back to the car for some precious
eyedrops. And happy Frankie returned. :)

Then we drove up and round and along to Cape Point where we tackled
the walk up to the lighthouse and were appalled to find out how unfit
we were. Ill say We found plenty of excuses to stop and admire the
incredible view...

It is amazing how clean the beaches look at the bottom of the cliffs -
like very clean and untouched. By now it was more than a drip drip of
rain and closer to a windy horizontal drizzle...

Let me say that I saw more foreign tourists at Cape Point than I saw
at OR Tambo international airport on Wednesday. We played a game of
guess the nationality by the accent - Lots of Brits, Aussies and
Chinese Tourists.

We made our way down again and paid for an overpriced lunch sarmmie
and moved on to seeing the last few sights of the park through the now
rapid swish swish of the windscreen wipers.

Saw Da Gama and (oooh can't remember the other spanish name...
Something also with a D - an old guy with a poofy hat) ... Diaz!
Crosses and some penguins and very big seagulls And then we decided to
leave and go on to drier more indoor sights.

So we looked up the Iziko museum and swished across there! Pleasant
surprise was that entrance was free for Heritage Day week... Score :)
And so we wandered around in the warm dry museum and saw life size
skeletons of enormous sea living creatures and a lot of taxidermied
animals (including a very very cute baby quagga - The Baby Quagga) The
dinosaur exhibit was interesting but I had my own personal views
raising big flags at the back of my head... just because the museum
can make a beautiful display of the artifacts, doesn't mean that I
believe the surrounding science is true... but Ill let these views
stew a while longer and make a proper blog post on it.

We made an exit from the museum when it was getting close to closing
time and drove through a slightly less wet Cape Town back to the place
of residence.

For dinner we went to a L-A-R-N-Y French restaurant. We enjoyed fine
conversation, a fine Shiraz and I had Beef Medallions in red wine,
onion and cocoa sauce. the cocoa was a brilliant ingredient and really
added to the flavour. then we made our way through ice-cream, meringue
and chocolate mousse for afters.... and proceeded to go home to digest
and sleep.

I saw a beautiful jersey dress through the window of a closed shop and
it can to call me to go and buy it in my dreams. Pity the shop was
closed in Sundays, - Frilly woolen jersey dress- I long for you (but
probably not your price tag!)

Frankies Travels Cape Town Day 2

... Written with some head scratching at the end of day 3...

Sooooo... On Friday we went off to Ratanga Junction. True we were among the oldest people in the queue but at least we weren't spending our parentally supplied pocket money on the entrance fee so there!

So of the rides were wild and some were pretty exhilarating and some were slow (boat and train rides) and bizarrely the longest queue was for the Bumper Cars (???? What's so exciting about that) Some of the kiddies rides looked like enough fun to be popular adult rides. We had a good time enjoying the rush of adrenalin and we got plenty of exercise walking from end to end to end of the park. My only real complaint was that the music was really bad - like taking an average of all the popular music on the radio and playing it at Full Volume ... Let me also say that renditions of the Single Ladies dance is so so so so last season ans old and going out of fashion - it's been done and dusted and youtubed and it's just about ready to be translated into Afrikaans and added to Sokkie Treffers 2009 to be blasted out at every caravan park New Years party along the Natal Coast! Give the song a break already!

Aaanywaay... After the childish exuberance of the theme park (couldn't figure the theme tho...) we decided to swap over to the adult solemnity of wine farm visits and wine tasting. First at Durbanville hills we sampled some of their best (which was a good way of learning which names go with which flavours: Sav Blanc - white, Cab Sav - Red, Merlot - Red fruity) I now can't decide if I prefer Shiraz or Pinotage but my education in vino is by no means coming to an end... (H: when you finish laughing at me... I welcome your guidance :P )

Then we decided we had time for one more wine farm so we drove along the road with all the wine farms and randomly turned off at the second next suitable wine farm. (for the sake of the story - D'Aria) There a super friendly lady behind the counter let us have a taste of their finest... I was amazed that the white wine with hints of asparagus Really did have a taste of asparagus! And the wine with a hint of green pepper really did too - didnt like it very much tho. Anyway I purchased a very tasty Merlot-Savigion Blanc blend called Blush And a very pleasantly light and fruity Merlot.

The novelty factor of the wines was that the labels were also in Braille! Extra points for originality!

Then we made our way home through the sights of town and District 6. After many several sip sip sippys of wine my gracious host decided to haul my fuzzy slightly inebriated unfit ass halfway up Lions Head and back my pounding head was soon replaced with the foul cursing of my buns-and-thighs. But at least the view on the drive and walk up and down was so totally worth it! Except that the clouds closed in and it all began to feel eerily like a computer game with a lazy scene designer...

and then I made dinner which was complimented by some of our newly acquired wine. High Five to my Domestication! I even washed dishes!

And after a DMC (look it up - I hope I got the TLA correct... or just ask...) we passed on to the exhausted happy dream-like state...

Frankies Travels - Cape Town

So I landed safe and sound in the famous Mother City and after negotiating an exit from the Parking Lot we (being myself and my host)made our way across to the foot of Devils Peak to stay for the next 4 days.

I got a tour of the sights of the area which was to admire the view down onto the city (sparkly yellow and white), how close the burning mountain became burning complex (very close) then to admire the hulking great view of The Mountain (invisible due to clouds).

Yesterday we went and looked at some natural sights of the area. First a visit to the Sea - Camps Bay (altho too cold to take off shoes let alone swim) Then Hout Bay area which became a search for the Hout Bay Embassy (snooty exclusive bunch...) which resulted in a stop for a delicious Lindt Cappucino and a magnificient slice of Lemon Meringue Pie.

We gave up on the embassy and decided to go across to Simonstown. The trip across had me marvelling at the over-mountain bos and sights and once in Simonstown, we went to Boulders beach to see (smell) the penguins. We decided to walk the wooden path before paying entrance and we got so many sights of the pink eyebrowed little black birds that we decided we didnt need to pay entrance at all!

We then decided to drive back into Simonstown and walk the historic Mile - and stopped off for a very generous hake and chips along the way!

We took the scenic route home and after all the walking and eating we settled for baked veggies and a classic movie and were asleep by 10:30pm!

Felt like an old lady by the end of it but it was all together a pretty darned great first day!

Frankies Travels - Cape Town

So after flying every month this year (except February) I am finally flying without needing a passport! I haven't been to Cape Town in more than 5 years and I am pretty darned excited. Firstly I am flying down by myself - this is like a spontaneous holiday all for me... Well as spontaneous as you can be when the flights were just about sold out a month before... Secondly I haven't been to the beach in quite a fair while so being at the sea (with or with out swimming weather) is something to look forward to for this born and breed Vaalie. Thirdly I am seeing a good friend who, despite the fact I see him VERY rarely, I could consider him amongst my long standing friends. Fourthly I just got that awesome monthly email saying my bank account just grew by a salary So I can be a lot less budget conscious this weekend. And finally (five reasons is enough) I have 4 work free days ahead and Ill be flying for at least 4 hours of it.

Let the Frankies (domestic) Travels Commence!

Reason 6 - Window Seat :D