Onward to Johannesburg...
We needed another seven hours of flying time to reach Johannesburg arriving at five AM. By now we are both tired of sitting, lying around and eating. There is currently no global entry here but we cleared customs handily because we deplaned first and our luggage showed up quickly.
Reunited with Gary and Chris from the Quad Cities we meet our guide, Tony, from Cape Town and pile into a large van with another tourer from the Bay Area for the forty-five minute drive to our hotel. While it is still early, rush hour is in full swing. Our driver uses what he calls cut and paste, his technique for backtracking through a maze of side streets to avoid the freeways and heavily traveled roads.
He seems to know what he is doing and we get to see a lot of the residential areas. School kids are walking to school in their uniforms past the high walls surrounding homes and businesses, many topped with wire. There are other iron fences topped with multi-pronged spears that call to mind the hubcaps on chariots. Everyone is very security conscious and we were given a mini-lecture on do's and don'ts from Tony.
Johannesburg, simply called Joburg, is a city of 6 million, a number that swells to 11 million with the addition of the metropolitan areas. It was a sleepy little place until the 1866 discovery of gold. Within a few years it grew to 100,000. Platinum, diamonds and iron are all present in the surrounding area.
While Joburg is the capital of nothing it headquarters so much industry that everyone seems to come here to begin their careers. There is certainly a solid middle class but also much poverty.
We are at the end of the rainy season which is always a gamble when touring, but we had cool and refreshing weather today with no rain.
Our hotel is 54 on Bath in the Rosebank suburb of the northern part of the city and it is small and lovely. We have a spacious bedroom and bath and a good bed. It is adjacent to a mall and restaurant area and Tony takes us for an orientation tour of the mall, restaurants, banks and ATM's.
Even though it is not even 9AM our rooms are ready and we all retire to freshen and nap before we are picked up for a tour of the Apartheid Museum, located in the center of town. Our driver is Geoffrey, but we just call him "G", and a busy guy he is, expertly slicing through traffic, doling out history and answering his phone in Zulu.
He drops us at the museum which is adjacent to a mine experience and amusement park. Admission is very reasonable but the back of our ticket randomly selects us to begin the experience either as a black or a white with entry through separate entrances.
These shortly converge but it sets the tone for the museum which is a well done explanation of apartheid. But mostly it is a homage to Nelson Mandela.
We wend our way through the exhibits and videos emerging into the veld garden where famous quotes from Mandela are organized by color. After studying them, we each select a colored stick that corresponds to our favorite quotes and plant the stick along a promenade. These colored "reeds" line the path.
"G" is waiting for us and soon we are back home for a very early dinner and an early bedtime. Surprise... we have already brushed our teeth when housekeeping arrived with cold fruit tea and baby brownie squares.
We needed another seven hours of flying time to reach Johannesburg arriving at five AM. By now we are both tired of sitting, lying around and eating. There is currently no global entry here but we cleared customs handily because we deplaned first and our luggage showed up quickly.
Reunited with Gary and Chris from the Quad Cities we meet our guide, Tony, from Cape Town and pile into a large van with another tourer from the Bay Area for the forty-five minute drive to our hotel. While it is still early, rush hour is in full swing. Our driver uses what he calls cut and paste, his technique for backtracking through a maze of side streets to avoid the freeways and heavily traveled roads.
He seems to know what he is doing and we get to see a lot of the residential areas. School kids are walking to school in their uniforms past the high walls surrounding homes and businesses, many topped with wire. There are other iron fences topped with multi-pronged spears that call to mind the hubcaps on chariots. Everyone is very security conscious and we were given a mini-lecture on do's and don'ts from Tony.
Johannesburg, simply called Joburg, is a city of 6 million, a number that swells to 11 million with the addition of the metropolitan areas. It was a sleepy little place until the 1866 discovery of gold. Within a few years it grew to 100,000. Platinum, diamonds and iron are all present in the surrounding area.
While Joburg is the capital of nothing it headquarters so much industry that everyone seems to come here to begin their careers. There is certainly a solid middle class but also much poverty.
We are at the end of the rainy season which is always a gamble when touring, but we had cool and refreshing weather today with no rain.
Our hotel is 54 on Bath in the Rosebank suburb of the northern part of the city and it is small and lovely. We have a spacious bedroom and bath and a good bed. It is adjacent to a mall and restaurant area and Tony takes us for an orientation tour of the mall, restaurants, banks and ATM's.
Even though it is not even 9AM our rooms are ready and we all retire to freshen and nap before we are picked up for a tour of the Apartheid Museum, located in the center of town. Our driver is Geoffrey, but we just call him "G", and a busy guy he is, expertly slicing through traffic, doling out history and answering his phone in Zulu.
He drops us at the museum which is adjacent to a mine experience and amusement park. Admission is very reasonable but the back of our ticket randomly selects us to begin the experience either as a black or a white with entry through separate entrances.
These shortly converge but it sets the tone for the museum which is a well done explanation of apartheid. But mostly it is a homage to Nelson Mandela.
We wend our way through the exhibits and videos emerging into the veld garden where famous quotes from Mandela are organized by color. After studying them, we each select a colored stick that corresponds to our favorite quotes and plant the stick along a promenade. These colored "reeds" line the path.
"G" is waiting for us and soon we are back home for a very early dinner and an early bedtime. Surprise... we have already brushed our teeth when housekeeping arrived with cold fruit tea and baby brownie squares.
Sounds like a very neat day....!!! Never brush your teeth before midnight
ReplyDeleteLiking the flight and this day, cannot wait to read more! Hi to Paul.
ReplyDelete