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