Friday started at the Bo Kaap museum- very disappointing. They had a video of residents telling about how the neighborhood used to be. They could do so much more.
2nd stop: Slave Lodge. The indigenous people refused to work for the Dutch, so they had to import their slaves from elsewhere- Madagascar, Indonesia, etc. Excellent exhibit on the Carnesons- he was Catholic, she was Jewish. He was the editor of a Communist newspaper. Their daughter wrote a book about their struggle- Red in the Rainbow. He was arrested and sent to prison. She was under house arrest- could not speak to more than one person- very difficult as she was raising kids. He was released and then went to the UK. Then they showed pictures of them coming back to the new South Africa. Great exhibit on Freedom songs.
Next: National Gallery. Quite disappointing except for the exhibit on Irma Stern- one of SA most famous artists. When she was barred from traveling to Europe during WWII, she traveled to Africa. Her style is Impressionist- showed artifacts from her travels that she incorporated into her paintings.
Next door is the Garden Shul- a gigantic synagoue- but, closed because it was close to 4. Walked through the Gardens. Back home to change for Services. Walked to the Progressive synagogue, right across from the Waterfront. Didn't need to check the address, as soon as I saw the guard, knew I had arrived at the synagogue. No big inspection just asked for ID.
They were meeting in the smaller sanctuary. They are 3 congregations in the northern part of the city- meet in separate places but act as one. There was a Bar Mitzvah the next day, so the family came. There were about 50 or so people. In the front sat musicians- guitar, drums and singers. Pleasant songs. People were friendly. All seem to have relatives outside of SA
Then took the bus to the Arts Cinema. Luckily a friendly young woman was going my way and we changed buses together. The place was funky, but the Italian movie was boring. The parking attendant helped me get a cab back. Now I'm familiar with the area. It was actually close to me, but not good to walk back in the dark.
Friday afternoon I emailed Dominique- she is the tenant of Leslie in Harare. Leslie asked her to climb Table MT with me. The Irish girl on the Robben Island boat suggested taking the cable car down. I thought Dominique would not want to do this, but she agreed and I bought the tickets, which I could pay for at the Pick N Pay.
Saturday morning walked to the Garden Shul. They indicated choir at 8:30 and Torah reading at 9:15, so I thought I had to get there on time. Turns out I was the only woman up in the balcony. This is an Orthodox shul- could seat thousands. The men have wooden seats that open up as cabinets for their tallitot. Huge dome, stained glass windows, mosaics near the ark- just beautiful. By the Torah reading there were maybe 50 men and 20 women- about 5 children. The choir consisted of about 8 men- quite pleasant- not cantorial stuff. The Baal Koreh sang beautifully, new tunes. People were friendly, Rabbi greated me- asked what shul I attended- "Young Israel" was an acceptable response. The kiddush was beyond fantastic.
1 pm got a taxi from the Hilton. The driver called Dominique to confirm the drop off. We were climbing Platteklip Gorge. The start was 2 km from the park entrance. I got there early. There was a race- scores of people were running from Cape Point to the Waterfront- up and down hills for 100++ km. Crazy!!! There was quite a bit of traffic on the path. It was very difficult. It is the most popular route- there are hundreds of routes up the mountain. It is very steep, rocky path. I thought I would never have enough water. First time I was dreaming about ice. Dominique was very patient. Took off the lower part of my pants- first time being this hot. Unfortunately I lost one leg of the pants! Once I got to the top, I forgot the pain of the ascent. It felt so good to be on flat land. The top is nicely developed. Lots of viewpoints- you can see all sides of the city. The mountains are amazing. I paid 115 Rand for the cable car. [13 rands to the $] I would have paid $115 for that cable car. I thank that Irish girl a thousand times. The cable car took about 3 min. It revolves 360 degrees. We were blessed with an amazing sunny, cloudless day.
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