We were hoping to take the cable car to the top of Table Mountain today but it was a cloudy morning so we decided to wait and try another time.
Plan B was to take the Hop On Hop Off bus (HoHo bus) to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.
However the bus got a flat tire shortly after we began our trip and we had to get off and wait until a replacement bus came. Turns out we were left off in the older part of the city where the Jewish Museum/Synagogue and Holocaust Exhibit were located. We had wanted to see those places anyway so we walked there. It was a very informative and sobering place.
From here we went to the ferry for a tour to Robbens Island. Another sobering place. Robbens Island is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. After getting to the island, we boarded a bus and got a tour. Among other things we saw the cemetery where prisoners with leprosy were buried and the limestone quarry where the prisoners worked without proper attire or adequate food and water.
The bus then let us off to take a walking tour of the inside of the prison. Many of the guides, including ours, are former prisoners making their presentations all the more poignant.
Our guide had been charged with terrorism against the state and was sentenced to Robben Island. He spent 7 years there before being released.
The conditions for the prisoners were appalling. No beds - just straw mats on a concrete floor, no glass in the windows so the prisoners were subjected to rain and cold, the meals were inadequate and the bathroom facilities were primitive.
Most prisoners worked in the limestone quarry. There was no need for the stone, it was something they had the prisoners do so they'd be too tired at the end of the day to talk politics to each other.
At the end of our tour we saw Nelson Mandela's cell.
It was a very sobering day to see both the Holocaust Museum and Robben Island. Then we went back to the ship and had our good-bye dinner with George and Jayne who were leaving the cruise in Cape Town. It was an emotionally draining day.
Plan B was to take the Hop On Hop Off bus (HoHo bus) to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.
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| Karin and Joe on the HoHo bus (before it broke down) |
However the bus got a flat tire shortly after we began our trip and we had to get off and wait until a replacement bus came. Turns out we were left off in the older part of the city where the Jewish Museum/Synagogue and Holocaust Exhibit were located. We had wanted to see those places anyway so we walked there. It was a very informative and sobering place.
The bus then let us off to take a walking tour of the inside of the prison. Many of the guides, including ours, are former prisoners making their presentations all the more poignant.
The conditions for the prisoners were appalling. No beds - just straw mats on a concrete floor, no glass in the windows so the prisoners were subjected to rain and cold, the meals were inadequate and the bathroom facilities were primitive.
Most prisoners worked in the limestone quarry. There was no need for the stone, it was something they had the prisoners do so they'd be too tired at the end of the day to talk politics to each other.
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| The quarry where the prisoners (including Mandela) worked. |
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| Leper cemetary |
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| What the prisoners slept on |
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| Courtyard garden where Mandela kept a copy of his book that eventually got smuggled out |
It was a very sobering day to see both the Holocaust Museum and Robben Island. Then we went back to the ship and had our good-bye dinner with George and Jayne who were leaving the cruise in Cape Town. It was an emotionally draining day.
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