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Cape Town is
truly one of the most picturesque cities in the world. It is southern
Africa's most beautiful, most romantic and most-visited city's.
Indeed, few urban centres anywhere can match its setting along
the Cape Peninsula spine, which slides like the mighty tail of
the continent into the Atlantic Ocean. By far the most striking
of its sights is Table Mountain, frequently mantled by clouds,
and rearing up from the middle of the city to provide a constantly
changing vista to the suburbs below.
More than
a scenic backdrop, Table Mountain is the solid core of Cape
Town, dividing the city into distinct zones with public gardens,
wilderness, forests, hiking routes, vineyards and desirable
residential areas trailing down its lower slopes. Standing on
the tabletop, you can look north for a giddy view of the city
centre, its docks filled with matchbox ships. Looking west,
beyond the mountainous Twelve Apostles, the drop is sheer and
your eye will sweep across Africa's priciest real estate, clinging
to the slopes along the chilly Atlantic seaboard. Turning
south,
beyond the leafy middle-class suburbs of Newlands and
Constantia,
lies the warmer but more distant False Bay seaboard, which curves
around before fading off to Cape Point.
To enjoy
Cape Town you need to spend time outdoors, as Capetonians do,
often choosing mountain bikes in preference to cars and turning
adventure activities into an obsession. Sailboarders from around
the world head for Table Bay for some of the world's best windsurfing,
and the brave jump off Lion's Head and paraglide down close
to the Clifton beachfront. But the city offers sedate pleasures
as well, along its hundreds of hiking trails and 150km of beaches,
as well as in its marvellous botanical gardens and wine
estates.
Cape Town's
rich urban texture is immediately apparent in the diverse architecture:
indigenous Cape Dutch architecture, rooted in the Netherlands,
finds its apothesis in the Constantia wine estates, which were
themselves brought to new heights by French refugees in the
seventeenth century; Muslim slaves, freed in the nineteenth
century, added their minarets to the skyline; and the English
who invaded, and freed these slaves, introduced their Georgian
and Victorian building styles. In the tightly packed terraces
of twentieth-century Bo-Kaap and the tenements of District Six,
coloured descendants of slaves evolved a unique brand of jazz,
which is still played in the Cape Flats and some city-centre
clubs.
Other
highlights of Cape Town include taking a drive through the enchanting
Chapman's Peak, going on a deep sea fishing excursion, visiting
Robben Isalnd to see where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated
for over a quater century, enjoying the best of Cape-Malay
cuisine, spending down on the many exquisite beaches, visiting
the Cape Point to witness the meeting of The Indian and The
Atlantic Ocean's, hanging out with the locals at the countless
bars and taverns, tucking in to seafood feasts at one of the
Hout Bay restaurants, going on a shark dive, scoring a bargain
at The Green Market Square Flea Market, watching one of the
pro teams giving it stick at a live cricket/rugby/soccer match,
getting in touch with the Cape music scene, partying hard all night
at one of the many down-town night clubs or simply escaping
for extended periods of relaxion on a secluded hill top by
the seaside.
Useful tips about Cape Town
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