Cape Town - V&A Waterfront

We alighted the city tour bus at the Victoria And Alfred Waterfront. Read more about this most charming and bustling waterfront here. We spent the rest of the day here but there were just too many things going on to be covered in a day. 

A guitarist preforming with an instrument made out of a Castrol motor oil tin can. 

Another with a saxophone.

 

A group performance of native music. They even have CD recordings for sale.

Saw this seal and many more at the jetty. Very beautiful animals. Notice the neck, looks like it has some leash round it? These are cord or noose cutting into the seal's flesh. It is the result of fishing line, raffia cords, plastic ropes etc that find their way to the water. Being very playful animals the seals swarm into the noose. As they grow the noose gets tighter and cuts deeper into the flesh eventually causing death if not removed. It is not an easy task to get near the animal to cut the noose as they are very alert and can be aggressive.  Another victim to human's pollution. 

Took a cruise out of the harbor to the open ocean and K was busy snapping away...

at all the yachts and boats that rolled by and I yelled and waved at him 'Hi, I am here, remember?' but to no avail as he was totally engrossed with the passing crafts. 

 

This boat 'Susan Kruger' was used to ferry prisoners to and fro Robben Island (about 7km from Cape Town) where a maximum security prison was housed but now is a museum.  It is so famous because Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 imprisonment years incarcerated there and was only released from Pollsmoore Prison in 1990. In 1993 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He celebrated his 90th birthday on 18th July, 2008. 

The Nobel Square

The four nobel prize laureates: Luthuli (1960), Tutu (1984), De Klerk (1993) and Mandela (1993).

Below are the many facades of the waterfront:

 

By evening the whole waterfront becomes even more magically enchanting.

The swinging bridge.

The clock tower.

As it is winter here in Cape Town the sun sets very early, by 5.30 it is already dark. 

Only then we started looking for food. Earlier on I spied a huge crowd in a restaurant we passed and I as usual applied my father's rule of thumb - 'a restaurant with a crowd is a restaurant with good food'. 

This is our first proper dinner in Cape Town so I wanted a little ambience too. All this lead us to Quay Four, a place by the sea front, alfresco and very quaint. K suggested another one called 'Ocean Basket' which he had tried before and like it too but I was dead set on Quay Four. Big mistake as far as food was concerned. I think the thumb's rule only applies to Chinese eateries. Anyway, the setting was fantastic and the company was right so we made the most of it and did have a very good evening. 

Quay Four

For starter, we had mussels (R29~ Rm13). The cream sauce as you can see was very thick and also too sweet for my liking but K thought it was ok. The mussels were very fresh and that made the dish palatable. 

Mushroom Salad (R46 ~ RM21) 

Good fresh produce and a huge portion.

Hake (R65 ~ RM30)

This was the only good dish. The Hake was fresh and moist inside its crunchy crust. Hake, I learned is a fish very closely related to cod with the taste and texture quite similar too.  

BBQ baby pork ribs (R59 ~ RM 26) 

The sauce was good but I tasted frozen meat and that put me off. The freezing must also be one of the reasons why the meat was dry.

Had this fantastic bottle of Domaine Chandon to celebrate our stay in Cape Town and life together.  

Btw, I am leaving for Japan tonight for a 5 days trip. It is not a holiday and has very tight schedule planned  everyday but I am an optimist so I am bringing my camera along. The posts for the rest of my trip to Cape Town and Buenos Aires will have to be put on hold for a while. Have a lovely weekend!