The view from our apartment window this morning (March 14):
Mark went on a second walking tour on our final morning in the city, while I returned to Clarke’s for one final look around and bought one more book. We met in the same place, St. Georges Mall, then wanted to walk to the flower market. Mark had a map but had trouble finding it, yet when he asked a security officer where it was, he insisted on escorting us. The market was covered and was quite dark in places, not an optimum environment to show off your flowers:
Then we headed to the V&A Waterfront. On the way we passed by some low residences with canals (I had seen this area before when I was here on my own in 2013 and 2017) and docks outfitted with some nice boats:
We walked through the V&A Waterfront shopping centre and got a cone at Gelato Mania. I walked into Exclusive Books but it had relocated and downsized since I was last there in 2017. They hardly stocked any dictionaries or texts on southern African languages anymore.
I knew the Agulhas was still in port yet construction prevented us from walking down East Pier Road to see it up close, but some security guards let us through so Mark could take a picture:
Lounging seals nearby:
I spotted a car with Lesotho licence plates so asked Mark to take a picture. That must be my reflection in the front hood, to the left of Mark who is taking the picture:
When we returned to the Gardens Centre our cab driver was early and waiting for us. Mark however stopped off at the deli to get some lunch that we could eat later at the airport, so we kept him waiting a little while. With rush hour traffic we were able to make it to the airport in 45 minutes.
I have flown through both Johannesburg’s O. R. Tambo International Airport and Cape Town International Airport during each of my prior trips, and knew that the latter is much smaller. It seems tiny for an airport in a capital city. I changed from my tank top and shorts into my typical airplane wardrobe: a dark shirt and black jeans. Mark brought out the deli food and was disappointed to find out that it had leaked all over the newspapers he had just bought. Fortunately I had taken two of those exact same newspapers from a free reading stand when I entered the airport. I was going to give them to Mark later. We tried to find a place with a table to eat our lunch–memories of our last dinner in Saint-Denis, Réunion–but had to settle for a bench on the terminal’s second floor.
After we checked in Mark found a computer station to plug in and log on, while I went ahead to the gate. I was hoping to find a washroom to wash my hands and remove my contact lenses, as I expected to find one in the departures area, yet our gate had no outlet and was blocked off from where all the other passengers were walking. I had just gone through a backpack inspection and didn’t want to exit this secure area. I got antsy thinking I might have to remove my lenses in a shaky cramped airplane loo. I was seated at the back of the plane, one row ahead of Mark, yet there was no bathroom at the back. And I couldn’t go back up the aisle to find a bathroom because the plane was filling up and the passenger traffic was moving against me. I resigned myself to use a disinfecting towelette to wipe my fingers and take out my lenses in my seat. Not the best conditions yet the alternative was using the lavatory only after we were airborne, and I wasn’t taking my chances removing my lenses in there.
We flew from Cape Town to Washington, DC, a 15-hour, 22-minute flight that crossed the Atlantic Ocean from southeast to northwest. I sat in the middle seat and tried to sleep but it was uncomfortable. I never recline my seat so that must be part of the reason. Mark however was in the row behind me with only two seats, and had plenty of room to his right to place his things, so he had nothing under the seat in front of him so he could stretch his legs without obstructions.
We had a brief layover in DC Dulles then caught our connecting flight home to Toronto. We put our watches back six hours and I did a wash then went grocery shopping.