A bit of a change this morning in our routine since this is our last day before heading home tonight. We "slept in" until 6:30 and went down to breakfast before showering since we are trying to save our showers for the last minute before beginning our marathon flights + train ride home. Our room was designated as one of the day rooms for holding luggage since we were not leaving for the airport until 3:30 PM.
Around 9:30 AM we went down to the front desk and asked the concierges if they could hail us a taxi to go to the University of Cape Town and look around the bookstore. Hard to believe that there was no public transportation to the university and certainly no way to walk there unless we had a whole day. So, for about $10 one way, we hired Neville Burrows from Marine Cabs. Neville was awesome! He not only drove us there, but he parked the cab in the visitor lot when we got there and walked with us to the bookstore - which we probably would never have found if it wasn't for this young lady who was working on her masters degree walking us there directly - right up to the door. (We couldn't imagine an American student doing that). Then Neville waited about 15-20 minutes for us to shop, and we all walked back to the cab. He didn't charge us anything for his waiting, and quite honestly, I would be hard pressed to say who had a better time - him or us.
We then headed down to the Waterfront for last-minutes shopping and another fantastic meal at Sevruga (well, we did consider trying to eat lunch at a different restaurant, but why mess with perfection). This time we had a bottle of 2009 Durbanville Hills Pinotage. We took advantage of the 2-course lunch for about $20. Iris had a huge tuna crunch roll as a starter, and I had the spicy fried baby calamari. For our main dishes, we tried the Prawn Penne and Carin's platter - another mixture of wonderful sushi. Shane was our waiter - not as much fun as Brad, but just as efficient. Arno, the assistant manager, stopped by our table a couple of times for quite enjoyable and lengthy conversations. Again, I don't know who was having a better time - him or us. He offered us a complimentary dessert drink - a very smooth, very tasty creme caramel martini. Now anyone who knows me knows I cannot tolerate alcohol other than beer, wine and champagne (due to extremely poor judgment during my youth). But that little shot of that creme caramel martini could very well set me back on the downward path. Iris asked if she could have another one, but this time in a 12-oz. glass! (ha ha) Dan and Jen, I think we need to get Amicci's to add this to their drink menu! Apparently they also make a mean white chocolate martini as well, but since we had been sitting there for over 2-1/2 hours enjoying our food, fantastic conversation, beautiful weather, great music and full bottle of pinotage, we thought we'd better make our way back to the hotel to prepare for our airport departure.
The waterfront in Cape Town.
And here, dear reader, our story ends. With over 24 hours of combined flying and riding on the train ahead of me, I can use the time for a final review of the 1000+ photos I've taken, finish this blog and reflect on my journey. There is a final entry with some final reflections, but overall this has been a phenomenal adventure - one that I am not quite likely to forget for a very, very long time.
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