Todd's parents arrived on January 18th and we were blessed to have them here with us for an entire two weeks! I wish I could tell you how wonderful it was to have them here visiting...just take my word for it. It was wonderful.
We sort of had a holiday within a holiday while they visited in that we took a trip to Cape Town! I've wanted to see Cape Town since we got to South Africa and I was not disappointed, I can tell you. We travelled down by train (have you ever slept on a train? It's easier said than done) so we were able to see a good bit of the country. It was a long and rather hot ride (no AC, naturally) but we eventually reached our destination. I'm just glad they let me on the train at all. They took one look at my middle and almost didn't.
Here's me and Todd on one of the benches in our four-person compartment.
And here we are the next day, watching the desert go by.
Our hotel in Cape Town was really more of an apartment with two bathrooms and a kitchen. We weren't here much, but when we were we enjoyed the view from the balcony:
On our first day (we spent two full days in CT), we took the cable car up Table Mountain. Here's a picture of Todd's parents at the bottom, before we took the cable car up:
And here's how it looked from the top:
In case you can't tell, Todd is standing with his back to a solid wall of fog. We obviously couldn't see a thing! There should have been a breathtaking view of sea, city, and mountain behind him, but as you can see...there's just Todd.
Personally I thought the moodiness was kind of picturesque in itself. While I'd never been able to see the ocean from any mountain I've hiked before, I'd also never felt so completely enveloped in cloud before either. It made for some interesting pictures.
Eventually the clouds did start to break and we were able to take in the view we'd been hoping for!
Such beautiful blue water!
Mountain and ocean, in the same picture? Are you kidding me?! We're not in Tennessee anymore...
Oh, as a side note, Cape Town is the absolute windiest place I've ever been in my life. It was unreal. Worse by the sea than up on the mountain, but still...
I really enjoyed Table Mountain :) Definitely wins my favorite-part-of-the-trip award. But after Table Mountain we went to the V & A Waterfront, and that was cool too! It had lots of souvenir shops, restaurants, and this massive ferris wheel!
Those cars are really big. The four of us went in one of them and we could easily put another 3 or 4 in there with us.
Me and Todd inside said ferris wheel car. We picked just the right time to take a ride as a little rain shower hit the waterfront. But by the time our ride was over, the rain had passed and we could carry on with our sightseeing :)
Here's the nighttime view of the wheel:
The next day we were off to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. I will confess that after a day of being on my feet for hours, I wasn't exactly high energy for Cape Town Day 2. I sat a lot at the gardens and tried to stay in the shade. It was a hotter day and the wind wasn't nearly as strong in the gardens.
Poor Todd...you can tell we got some sun the day before :)
After the Gardens, it was back to the apartment for a looong afternoon nap and then a walk along the incredibly windy beach! The water is freezing so there was no thought of actually going in for an ocean swim, but the view was lovely.
And no, I don't like wearing my hair in ponytails for pictures, but it was either that or have it all in my face...
We drove down to another side of the beach which for some reason wasn't nearly as windy, hence the hair-down look :)
Fabulous. Cape Town was great! It was so nice to see another side of South Africa, something other than just the city of Pretoria. It was also nice to get a little mini beach fix in.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of The Overbeeks on Holiday :)
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