We parked in Queen Victoria Street, next to the Company Gardens, on a Saturday morning. A parking attendant relieved us of R30 and we crossed the road and entered the leafy, cool sanctuary of the gardens. For most of us, this brought back memories of primary school outings to the museum, situated in the middle of the gardens, where we would all traipse in neat lines behind our teachers and look at stuffed animals representing the local fauna, and gasp at the bones of the blue whale suspended from the ceiling. Today, although we gave the museum a miss, these displays are as they were 50 years ago, and schoolchildren still traipse behind teachers. However, we were not doing culture today, just a general overview of the CBD.
The Gardens were peaceful, clean and well kept and the huge old trees, some of which date back to the early days of the Cape settlement, provided ample shade for those relaxing on benches and meandering along the paths. The Gardens abut on upper Adderley Street and from there it was just a block to the leafy St Georges Mall. Back in the day, when I worked in town, this was one of the busiest roads, but its transformation into a bricked walkway with traders, pavement cafes and deciduous trees providing shade in summer and sunshine in winter have made it an oasis for city workers at lunch time. The traders are all the same - the African curios and knock-off bags that are found at every opportunity throughout the world, and yet they are bright and colourful and no one is hassling you to buy. Law enforcement officials are in evidence, but there was no sign that they would be needed. One street lady did approach us as we refreshed ourselves with smoothies and fresh juice at a cafe, but only in a half-hearted way and soon moved on.
We passed through Greenmarket Square simply because the reports list it as a must, but I found it to be without any special characteristics and we headed for Church Street where art galleries and antique shops abound. The highlight of the day was visiting the exhibition of cartoons by our most outspoken cartoonist, Zapiro, who unflinchingly exposes the truth behind the smokescreens of our politics - his workbooks are also on display, providing a fascinating insight into the work bchind what eventually appears in print.
Long Street by day is an excellent place to browse in the really old buildings of Cape Town, where exclusive boutiques share walls with cafes and music shops, speciality restaurants and shuttered nightclubs, a varied and eclectic mix of cultures apparently getting along just fine, thank you. This street needs more hours than we had to spare for a thorough exploration, as many shops closed at lunch time, being a Saturday. Which brought us to lunch...the subject of future blogs!
Our town experience reinforced the reasons why we live here - there didn't seem to be any good reason why not!
