As a full-time solo traveller, it's always great to have visitors, especially from your kids. You might remember that my youngest daughter travelled with me for four months at the beginning of my journey to Asia. She met me in Bangkok, and then we were in Chiang Mai, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hongkong, China, North Korea, South Korea. And when we got to Japan, my oldest daughter joined us, and we had two weeks together there – during cherry blossom season. Since then, I've only seen them when I've been back in Denmark. When I knew I was going to be in Cape Town, they decided to be spontaneous and book a flight to visit me. And I can't be happier. I've planned to show them why I love this place, and I'm going to be the best tour guide I can be, and below you can find my personal Top 10 Things to See in a Week in Cape Town. The first thing on the list is a must-see when you're in Cape Town. Like San Francisco has Alcatraz, Cape Town has Robben Island. An island close to the city where there used to be a prison. When you visit Robben Island, you start with a 40-minute boat ride from V&A Waterfront. FACTS ABOUT ROBBEN ISLAND:
- The World Heritage Site, Robben Island takes its name from the Dutch word for seals (robben), the Dutch/Afrikaans name Robben Eiland translates to Seals Island.
- It's 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) of the coast of Cape Town – and the island itself is 3.3 km (2.1 mi) long, and 1.9 km (1.2 mi) wide.
- The island was first used as a political prison in the mid-1600s. This was where the Dutch settlers sent people who refused to bend to colonial rule.
- In 30 years from 1961, a maximum-security prison here held enemies of apartheid.
One of the prisoners was behind bars here for 18 years, was a political activist named Nelson Mandela. The South African also call him Madiba – and our guide, who's also an ex-prisoner, calls him Father Mandela. In total Father Mandela served 27 years in prison until he was released in 1990. After the fall of apartheid, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 together with the former president, Frederik Willem de Klerk, and one year later this former prisoner of Robben Island was elected President of South Africa. The guide takes us for a walk around the prison and tells stories of what it was like being there. And then we get into the corridor with the cells in B-Block. One of them being the cell of prisoner #466/64 A 2 x 2-meter cell with a thin mattress on the concrete floor as a bed and a bucket for a toilet. They were allowed one visitor a year for half an hour, and one censured letter every six months of no more than 500 words. Outside is a courtyard where Mandela and fellow prisoners would eat breakfast, exercise and worked long days in the yard hammering rocks. A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY Editing this episode, we're in the middle of the Corona Pandemic, and I'm alone in an apartment in Cape Town during the lockdown. We're not allowed to go for a walk unless it's to a supermarket or the pharmacy. We're to stay at home. When I think of the 18 years, Mandela spent in this tiny cell on Robben Island, and we really shouldn't complain. We have Netflix, YouTube, WIFI... and TikTok. We have music, radio and podcasts. We can talk to our friends via video calls – and we do that all the time. Mandela was just alone with his thoughts. And still, he later said that he came out of prison a better man. Thar being alone with your thoughts give him a "wonderful opportunity" to think. What a remarkable man. He said this not that long after he was released from 27 years in prison most of this in a small cell with a matt as a mattress and a bucket as a toilet... and a light bulb shining in his head 24 hours a day. Let that sink in. And then maybe give this a thought: Can we use this difficult time with social distancing as a ... "wonderful opportunity" to sit alone and think. LIMESTONE QUARRY MADE MANDELA "SNOW BLIND" Then we went on a bus ride around the island and passed a bleak limestone quarry. It was here Nelson Mandela, and his inmates worked virtually every day for 13 years, digging up rocks, some of which paved the road we were driving on. The sun was so relentless, the white limestone quarry so bright and dusty, that Mandela got "snow blindness" – something that damaged his eyes. Our guide also tells us how Mandela and other heroes of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement used their time in this quarry to teach each other literature, philosophy, political theory, and much more. In 1997, three years after apartheid fell, the prison was turned into the Robben Island Museum. Robben Island is a must-see for any visitor to South Africa. Tours leave Cape Town four times a day, and even though I've been here before I'm glad I went back and shared the experience with my daughters. BO-KAAP WALKING TOUR We're at the foot of Signal Hill, at the edge the city centre; and we're about to go on a tour in what used to be known as the ...
