South Africa Roundtrip - Day 2 - Johannesburg

Day 2 was spent in Johannesburg and Soweto.

First stop was the city centre of Johannesburg around the former Stock Exchange in Diagonal Street. The whole area around this street was right in the centre when the gold rush began. It had seen better times before most certainly but it is still quite an experience to see it!

Next stop was the Apartheid museum where we learnt more about the whole history how the Apartheid could happen and what it meant for the people in the years until the first free elections in 1994.

There is a lot of information to take in, maybe even too much if you do not have a lot of time (as we did not have) and you feel quite overwhelmed.

Still an interesting place to visit - certainly worthwhile.

 

After the Apartheid museum we were off to Soweto, short for South Western Townships, . Now incorporated in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality around 1.3 million people, largely black, live here. 

It was quite a moving journey. To see human beings live in these sheds was disturbing. Yes, some live already in some decent houses but some still do not. 

Lunch was at Robby's Place, a family run restaurant directly in Soweto popular with tourists. It is advertised that it is a place where you can "mingle with locals for an authentic township experience" though for the people running the place and working there all I saw where tourists. It might be different in the evenings but during the day that is certainly not the case. The food was not bad, but what for the odd dish I wouldn't call it South African cuisine. It may be the typical food you eat there but some dishes were no different to what I get in the UK or even here.

The gym of Soweto's YMCA - Nelson Mandela trained here as can be seen on the picture above this.

One of the stadiums built for the Football World Championship

The night was spent once again at The Palazzo Montecasino. With no dinner included I walked over to the Montecasino Entertainment Complex where dozens of restaurants are. After the day in Soweto to be at this artificial place was a bit too much. Actually I couldn't wait to get out of it ASAP after some snacks and looked forward to the next day when finally off to the country side....

South Africa Roundtrip - Day 1 - Arrival and Pretoria

For how many years had I wanted to go to South Africa on vacation? Too many.

But this year I finally got there - 22 days (group) round trip called "The Great South Africa Tour" with the travel company Studiosus to many of the typical tourist sights but also the odd place not so well known among tourists.

So after a fun night out the night before in Nuremberg seeing a certain special person I was off to South Africa on the 13th November.

After a decent overnight flight, just over ten hours directly from Frankfurt to Johannesburg, we arrived at O. R. Tambo International Airport in the morning where our group (22 people, me by far the youngest, think the average was somewhere around mid 60s (and unfortunately therefore the speed of activities was VERY slow sometimes) were picked up by our tourist guide Hardy and that is where the tour started pretty much straight away.

First stop was the The Museum of Natural History in Pretoria, not so much for the public displays but for some more hidden ones, only to be viewed by special appointment as part of the museum's educational program, largely from what is known these days as the "Cradle of Humankind" e.g. a 2.3-million-year-old fossil Australopithecus africanus (nicknamed "Mrs. Ples"), found in 1947 by Robert Broom and John T. Robinson.

We were also given an introduction into the work with fossils - most interesting!

 

After the museum a short drive around the city seeing a few of the city's sights around Church Square. Too bad you didn't get to see them while walking around! 

Next stop was the Voortrekker Monument, a huge granite structure prominently located on a hilltop, that was built in honour of the Voortrekkers who left the Cape Colony in the 19th century.

wildlife in the city

Last stop was the Union Buildings, the official seat of the South African government and of the president of South Africa, with its beautiful garden in front of it and the massive Nelson Mandela statue. Unfortunately the buildings cannot be visited, even not the balcony in front of it anymore.

The night (and the following) was spent at the stunning The Palazzo - a beautiful 5* hotel in Fourways, just next to the Montecasino Entertainment Complex, where we were served a delicious 3 course dinner. Even the vegetarian dish was not the usual boring pasta or risotto.