28^th of April, 2018. Happy, Happy 15^th birthday to our second grandson, Alex! We love you very, very much!

Greetings from somewhere off the coast of Western Africa! Today is the second of eight sea days before we reach Tenerife. Sea days mean the same routine, so my blog may be less than exciting. Despite the similar schedule each day, I quite like sea days. It's time to catch up with long chats with friends, read a book, work on a crossword puzzle (I still have a few from the Sunday New York Times that I saved for this cruise.), Trivia (the least said about our score yesterday, the better. We've lost Lin and Bryan, and gained an infrequently attending third couple. Lin knows Roman and Greek mythology well and Bryan is great at pop culture. They decided to spend more time together in the afternoon.) attend lectures, etc. But before our sea days began, we had Cape Town!

Wow! What an amazing city! The sail in is beautiful, past an extended town and suburbs all on the water's edge. We had a very special day the first of our two days. Last fall I was celebrating my birthday with friends at Jack Dusty at the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota, and our friends Randell and Bobby were also celebrating another friend's birthday. Also present was the National Director of Sales for Red Carnation properties: hotels and Uniworld River Cruises. When he found out that we were going to be in Cape Town, he arranged for us to tour the spectacular Twelve Apostles Hotel. At 10 am, we met a car sent by the hotel for the four of us. Eric, our driver, gave us a short tour of Cape Town on our way to the hotel. The sea front in Cape Town is dramatic ocean! Crashing surf against huge boulders form the coastline, and strikingly modern condos, apartments and private homes line the shoreline. Interspersed are building bearing the hallmarks of the early Dutch design. Some interesting facts about Cape Town:

Africaans is the most widely spoken language in Cape Town, followed by Xhosa and English.

Table Mountain's peak, Lion's Head, hasn't seen a lion in 200 years.

Each cable car climbing Table Mountain holds 65 people and the car rotates as it climbs to give everyone a view. (Clouds covered Table Mountain until our sailaway on day two.)

We arrived at the hotel and were greeted by the Deputy General Manager, Lukas Laubscher. What a gracious young man! We were escorted to the main lounge where we had coffee or tea. I tried Red Bush Tea, an African staple thought to encourage good health. I liked it and bought some later in the day. After chatting, Lukas turned us over to the Guest Satisfaction Representative, Prince. Prince is part of a program that 12 Apostles is very proud of. They have encouraged promising local young people to pursue training in hospitality at the luxury level. Prince has been working for Red Carnation for three years, and just returned from a two year internship at The Rubens at the Palace Hotel in London. He had a great personality. It reminds me of the ethos of Crystal: they hire for personality and train for the job. The hotel has 70 rooms and suites and 300 employees. That tells you quite a bit about the service you will find if you visit the hotel. It is set into the mountain overlooking the spirited ocean. The guest rooms and suites either have mountain view or ocean view rooms. Every room was luxurious and very comfortable. Mrs. Bea Tollman, who owns Red Carnation, along with her husband, personally oversees the colors and décor of every hotel. Having stayed at the Rubens, and having had guests stay at other Red Carnation properties in London and Guernsey, and sailed Uniworld, I could easily see Mrs. Tollman's touch. No two rooms are the same, but the style and use of color was familiar. There are several interconnecting rooms for large families or entourages, and these connect with the amazing Presidential Suite. You will see photos of the rooms at the end of the blog. My favorite touch was the huge bathtub overlooking the ocean with glass walls all around. The glass is treated to be able to look out, but not look in. I think everyone was a bit concerned when I removed my clothes and ran a bath! The rooms have balconies or patios and comfortable seating. One thing that I noticed was that each shower had a large plastic tub to catch the gray water. Housekeeping empties the tubs into the landscaping. As you know, Cape Town is suffering a from a severe drought, and 12 Apostles is doing its best to lower the amount of water that is used. Guests are encouraged to have contests to see who in each family can take the shortest shower. Prince than showed us the casual dining restaurant and then the spa. Wow! What a unique setting. The spar is carved into the mountain with private pools that extend deep underground. There is even a sensory deprivation pool.

After our tour, we met Lukas for lunch in the fine dining venue, Azure. After 4 months of fair fare, this was a sparkling dining experience for our taste buds! Our table overlooked the ocean and we each ordered something different. A huge selection of fresh bread was brought to the table, still warm, but definitely not microwaved: flaky cheese sticks, focaccia, seeded bread, crusty rolls, etc. I had garden pea risotto as my starter. My main course was Cape Salmon, moist and delicate, unlike the salmon I was used to having. Dessert was a hard choice, so David ordered the tapioca with caramel sauce and caramelized nuts and I ordered the cheese cake so that we could share. Lukas asked the waitress to bring a copy of Mrs Tollman's cookbook to the table so that we could see the recipes for some of the dishes we had ordered. Upon leaving, Lukas presented each couple with a copy of the cookbook. I am eager to try some of the recipes at home. Randell and I decided we would do a dinner party and each make something from the cookbook.

Eric drove us back into town around 2:30, and dropped us off at the Victoria and Alfred seafront. This is a popular area with locals and tourists and is a short distance from Duncan Dock where the Queen Elizabeth was docked. We bought some South African wine to take on board, even with a $20 corkage fee, it is less money for better wine than on board. We took the shuttle back to the ship, and stepping off, I twisted my knee. I could hear it crunch and grind. I hobbled back to ythe cabin and David immediately got me ice, but, sadly, we had to forego our friend Paul's birthday dinner at Groot Contantia that night. I was so disappointed....

Our second day in Cape Town was dramatically foreshortened by South African Customs and Immigration. We were supposed to sail at 5 pm, but they insisted all guests be back on board by 2:30 to go through immigration. One would think they would prefer that we stay later and spend more money in South Africa. We did, however, bring bucketing rain to Cape Town that evening. I am taking responsibility for helping eliminate the drought.

We had our morning taken up with a scheduled appointment with a lawyer to notarize documents for the sale of our second condo at One Watergate. We took Uber from the port, with me limping along with a cane, to the law firm in a large, modern building downtown. Lots of security is evident, but perhaps no more than office buildings have in large US cities. By the time all the documents were signed and notarized, we had to return to the ship. South African law is quite different than the US. All of our documents had to be taken to court for the attorney's signature to be notarized by the court. Far more complicated and expensive!

The sail away from Cape Town was equally beautiful with a sunset and curious seals. David was able to get clear photos of iconic Table Mountain as we left, with the “tablecloth” of clouds dissapated. As we got further away from city lights, we were able to see phosphorescence on the sea caused by plankton. Magical!

We feel that we missed much more than we saw in Cape Town, and we are excited to return in 2019 on Crystal Serenity. We have three nights in Cape Town, so we are looking forward to that.

A word about personal safety in South Africa. The ship was very strong in reminding us that crime does exist and to use common sense. This is the same warning that we have received in every port, but it was more emphatic in South Africa, with a sheet to carry with emergency phone numbers, etc. I did not hear any stories of anyone getting mugged or getting their pocket picked.

We had one sea day before our arrival in Walvis Bay, Namibia. The seas were a bit rough, but not bad enough to cancel any activities or performances on board. A Wing and a Prayer came in second again in Trivia. Boo hoo!

Everyone has begun to talk about the winding down of the World Cruise. We only have about two weeks more onboard. Sad...but looking forward to the crossing on the Queen Mary 2 with Randell and Bobby.

Walvis Bay, Thursday 26^th of April! Walvis Bay is a town of 85,000 inhabitants, but growing rapidly based on the construction we saw. The port is right in the middle of Namibia's coastline and the Chinese are busy increasing the size of the port to serve as a large distribution center for all of Africa. The Chinese are “colonizing” Africa in almost every country, tapping into natural resources, building infrastructure, and making their presence of chief importance. They will own Africa in the future. The largest uranium mine in the world is located in Namibia, and China buys all of it.

Walvis Bay is also known for its natural beauty—it is the gateway to the Namib Dessert with the undulating, changing huge dunes and the rare plant and animal life. It also has an amazing lagoon that attracts thousands of birds including flamingos and rare white pelicans.

David elected to do the Living Desert tour in a 4x4. I wanted to go, but was worried my knee wouldn't help me climb the dunes. The shore excursion team warns against anyone with a bad back doing this trip. David had a great experience and saw sidewinders and rare lizards with transparent skins. He returned with about a pound of sand in his shoes!

I took the shuttle in with Randell and Bobby. Again, the shore excursion desk was incomplete in its information. The shuttle dropped us at a mall, far away from the real downtown of Walvis Bay. The mall could have been anywhere in a first world suburb. It was anchored by two upscale supermarkets and wine shops and had plenty of shops with familiar brands. Disappointing! Our ride in and back to the ship passed one housing development after another with new modern homes, each with its own satellite dish. Each development had high walls, and each house had walls around it.

Another sea day yesterday, and I will not mention the weak score of A Wing and a Prayer. It wasn't the worst score, but we have certainly done better. Part of the problem is that the entertainment staff use outdated and erroneous information to create their questions. At times there is a great deal of push back from the guests.

Last night we were invited to a cocktail party in Paul and Andy's new Queens Grill Suite. They upgraded for this segment. This is a Queens Grill 3, and each number indicates more room. So this is about a mid level Queens Grill. What ever it is, it is still lovely! For those of you familiar with the Penthouse on Crystal, the square footage is about the same, but the layout is very different. There is more room in the living area on Crystal, but greater storage on the Elizabeth. Andy and Paul are gracious hosts and we had a lovely time. Everyone looked smashing because it was a formal night and the Black and White Ball. Thank you, Paul and Andy!

Off to Trivia now, lets hope our score improves!