Dinner at Hildebrands’

Cyclists in front of the Moulle Point lighthouse.No bacon and eggs this morning. That’s not how most Saturday’s start — and actually, that’s not quite true for THIS Saturday either. No bacon and eggs AT HOME is more like it. We had our morning coffee but then went for a short walk to the Mouille Point lighthouse — that famous ‘barber-pole’ landmark that’s a 10-minute walk from here. We met Marina at a little cafe overlooking the park and the coast. And THAT’s where we had bacon and eggs. And visited with Marina for a couple of hours. I returned the photo album chronicling her 2002 Atlantic crossing that she’d let me borrow for a few days. Now we had a chance to catch up, to hear about some of the experiences and events of her life during and after that trip.

After breakfast Sue and I continued our walk along the promenade for another mile or two, coming back through Green Park which is right next to ‘our’ golf course. Wow! What a nice park! Lots of people were gathering in groups at picnic tables, quite a few extravagant birthday parties were set up wherever there was a shady spot under a few trees — kind of like Kildonan Park on a summer weekend at home. Our location here really is ideal; we are so close to so many of the best things in Cape Town.

Having such a large (and late) breakfast meant that we somehow or other missed lunch 🙁

Sue read and I worked through an online web tutorial in the afternoon — one way to avoid the heat of midday. We ‘FaceTimed’ with our kids at around 4:15 (that’s 8:15am, breakfast time for them) and then headed back outside. We had to hurry just a bit to get to the V&A and buy our tickets for a 5 o’clock showing of “Suffragette”. Saturday afternoon at the movies is another good way to escape the heat. And the movie was very good — we both enjoyed it a lot.

Crazy cloud formation swooping down over the top of Table Mountain.
Crazy cloud formation swooping down over the top of Table Mountain.

After the movie we headed out onto the waterfront. It’s like a huge “The Forks” — lots of people, lots of kids, lots of entertainers and music and buskers, lots of restaurants. Some great views of Table Mountain from here. And lots of boats, including sailboats. I remember how we came down here almost daily back in 2002, looking (and hoping) to see ‘our boat’ — the one that never arrived. And as we wandered around we saw more things that brought back reminders of our time here 14 years ago. Familiar sights. One of which was the Hildebrand Ristorante. So we sat down at a table under an umbrella and talked about Ed and Millie and what a nice place they have here!

When we’d finished our pasta and seafood dishes it was around 8:30 and the sun had set. We headed back home. We passed the giant soccer stadium.  A ring of lights from the city circled the base of Signal Hill ahead of us. When we got back to our apartment we opened up the patio door and enjoyed the coolness of the evening with a glass of wine. It’s beautiful here.