We even slept pretty late – at least for us, which gave us lots of time to wake up, organize the bags, do some emails, etc. and check out at noon.  Uber into the city, he appeared right away (because he was waiting at the airport, and got out of the queue there to come get us), and we were lucky with the traffic so we arrived at our apartment in under 30 minutes.  Linda, our host? Apartment manager? Coordinator?  Comes to get us in the lobby and takes us up to our digs for the next 4 days.  There are 6 people up there, the entire cleaning crew (because we are there so early), and as they take their leave, Linda walks us around, shows us the layout, how to get in and out and her partner shows me how to download the electric company app so we can track the Load shedding power outages that occur on and off in the city.  Good to know so that we can schedule the laundry!

The apartment is great!  Large living room with sectional sofa, nice dining room table,  well-equipped kitchen – but the big attraction is the monstrous wrap around balcony.  There is so much room – you could host a party with 60 people and still have plenty of room to move around.  There are supposedly views of Table Mountain, but not today.  It is totally submersed in clouds today.  I don’t even know which direction to look for it, there are that many clouds.  After dumping our bags, we immediately head to the Spar grocery store for supplies – and a quick lunch of ham and cheese.  We find some cheap wine, and then can’t find the beer.  Hmmmm…..but leaving the store, we spy Tops across the hall, the liquor store portion of Spar.  Success!  We’re stocked up for at least tonight, so now we turn our focus on the V&A Waterfront.

Everyone, from the Uber driver to Linda and team, has told us it’s safe to walk in our neighborhood and walk to the waterfront, but this late in the day, we don’t want to waste time getting to the Aquarium, which closes at 6.  Once again an Uber for a couple of bucks is the ticket.  It’s not that far, but we’re really glad we didn’t have walk around the curving main road to get there.  It’s Sunday, so we know the place will be packed with children, but we’re willing to navigate through the crowds, because we’ve read the Two Oceans Aquarium is exceptional.  And it does not disappoint (on the kid volume or the exceptionalism). 

The displays are all really well done, informational and fun.  They’ve got a clown fish display where you can climb up into the middle of it and it looks like you are in the water with little Nemos swimming around.  There are all sorts of sea plant displays, huge spiny crabs, a cool jelly fish room, a really intriguing kelp forest exhibit, plus penguins and a monstrous shark tank. We’re lucky enough to be there for a penguin feeding –  and the once a week shark feeding.  Cool!

The penguin feeding is amazing.  There are 2 groups of penguins, rock hoppers and African penguins.  Its crazy crowded, so we stay on the Rock Hopper side and watch as they are almost force fed little fish.  It is weird how they eat, they have no teeth, so the feeder has to almost shove the fish down their throat.  But they are so well behaved – all the fish is in this carry basket that they can easily get into, but none of them touch the fish until the feeder offers it.  She also is able to move the penguins around and tell them where to stand.  Fascinating to watch.  On the other side, once the crowd clears, it looks like a scrum with the African Penguins.  There are a lot of them, and they crowd up against the feeder trying to get their share and fighting with each other over position.  I wouldn’t want to be in there with them!

Next is the shark feeding, with 3 divers in the tank handing out fish (albeit on the end of long pitch forks).  Again, fascinating to watch, and really scary to think about being in there doing that.  And you can actually book a diving experience to go in the tank with the feeders.  Um, no thank you very much!

After the shark feeding, we wander around the rest of the displays for a bit, then head out into the waterfront to explore the shops and restaurants.  There is this great “shed” full of arts and crafts vendors with everything from beaded bracelets to sculptures and paintings.  It’s a really nice place to wander around looking at everything, which of course we do, then make our way to the food market which has different food stalls and a couple of bars – all which look great but it’s too early for us to eat just right now.

We continue on around past the active dry dock (which is fascinating in its own way), past one of the malls with upscale offerings and over to the African Trading company which has awesome yard statues made up of old car parts, gears, kitchen utensils, you name it.  I’m particularly fond of the elephant, whereas Sunny narrowly escapes getting eaten by a lion!

Next up are the painted rhinos that are all over the wharf area, then we walk to the end of the wharf by the Silo Hotel (supposedly the most expensive hotel in the city) and find a great little brewery, Kapstadt Brauhaus where we stop for some very good wine and beer – and very cheap!  Its only 66 Rand total, which is a little more than $4 for both!  Crazy.

Now that we have our bearings, we walk back to the apartment, threading through the other side of the waterfront, which is a much preferable walk and probably a little quicker than the way Google maps was showing. Back in the apartment, we organize, shower and then head back down the street to Beluga, a restaurant tucked into the courtyard of an apartment/office building.  There is outside dining, plus a huge interior where, of all things, a Gate 1 tour is having dinner! We hang at the bar, perusing the huge eclectic menu that includes everything from pasta to sushi to African Springbok (a type of antelope).  Plus there are half off Sunday specials on apps and sushi, which suits me fine because I’m not all that hungry.  I order Peanut Chicken potstickers and a tuna California roll, while Ed goes for fried calamari app with Springbok for his main (when in Africa!!!!). Everything is great, including the beer and wine! A perfect way to end our first day in South Africa.