Robben Island and The Waterfront

  Cape Town, South Africa
December 01, 2013

It was a very yummy breakfast today. I really enjoyed my smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers and lemon on a flaky croissant. Bill really enjoyed his omelette, bacon and watermelon. 
Faith our hostess was so helpful and arranged for us to take the hotel shuttle to the waterfront. Thankfully we were able to use the screen shot of our tickets to enter the museam. We boarded the ferry and cast off at 9:00 for Robben Island. In 1999 the island became a UNESCO World Heritage site because it symbolizes the triumph of the human spirit of freedom and of democracy over oppression.
We had a 30 to 40 minute boat ride, and then boarded the bus on the island. Our guide around the island was Mike, who shared some history with us Nelson Mandela Gateway. From early on the island was used to seclude people from the mainland, such as a leper colony. Even though the men and women were kept on separate parts of the island, there were 40 babies born here. The babies did not have leprosy and were adopted by families.
Our first stop was the lime quarry where they made the prisoners do hard labour. We saw the stack of stones where Mandela placed the first stone on the pile at a reunion in 1995. The stones were to memorialize those men who died in the prisoners here. 
We saw some infractructures around the island that dated back to WWII. There are two guns remaining here out of five that were originally here. One was completed in 1947, so it was obviously never used during the war. 
There were also some facilities for the warden and prison guards - golf course, tennis courts, rugby pitch and a club house. 
The bus stopped for us to take a break and get some good photos of Table Mountain Our Guide - With Personal Experience. It is much calmer, clear and sunny today, so the view was very good!
Then we departed from the bus tour and Mike handed us over to a former political prisoner. He was incarcerated in 1978 for civil disobedience and served 12 of his 15 year sentence at Robben Island. He talked to us about the history of the prison, some of the political prisoners and their cause, then he answered questions from our group. Afterward he gave us a tour of the prison grounds and Mandela's cell. 
After the prison tour, we did the Walk of Freedom back to the boat and returned to the V&A Waterfront.
We made our way to Willoughby inside the Victoria Warf Mall. We proceeded to stuff ourselves with some incredible sushi. I had a delicious shot of saki with an oyster and quail egg! The other dishes were very good, particularly the salmon granades and tempura prawns. We both ate too much and drank too much Italian beer.
First we toured the waterfront, and then we headed over to the Craft Market and some other shops for a couple of hours Mandela's Cell. We emptied our pockets and now have some great souveniers for ourselves, family and friends. I purchased a necklace for myself that will always remind me of our trip (and it is a tree for Tree).
The shuttle took us back to the hotel and we relaxed for a while and sipped some of the wine that they provided for us. We looked up all of the great restaurants in the area and discovered that they were all closed on Sunday, so we returned to Bombay Brassiere for dinner.
Our meal was really good, but we could hear that something was going on outside. So, after dinner we took a short walk and discovered that they turned on the Christmas lights for the first time tonight. There were hundreds of people walking and driving around to withness the first night of the lights. The lights stretch over Adderley St and depict holiday scenes. We were almost instantly mobbed by a woman who was really excited to have photos taken with us. After we consented and had our photos taken, she gave me a huge hug. It was way too funny!



Pictures & VideosBeautiful WaterfrontToo big a Lunch