2023-08-08: Exploring Victoria & Alfred Waterfront

We woke up around 8:30am this morning. We got cleaned up and dressed for the day before heading to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast. The breakfast offering at this hotel was much better than the hotel in London. They had an egg/omelet station, warm options, a large selection of fruit, and pastries. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then made a quick stop back at the rooms to grab our jackets.

We headed to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. We returned to the mall and explored some of the stores for a while. We left the mall and explored the waterfront. We walked by a number of stores, restaurants, businesses, and hotels. There were several interesting sites along the way. We found a store that had a bunch of animal sculptures outside. There was another sculpture of a penguin wearing a water bottle as a backpack. We were about to cross a bridge when we heard an announcement that the bridge was closing for boat traffic. We stopped and watched the bridge swing open for a catamaran sailboat. While we were waiting, we saw a seal swimming beside us. We watched it go up a set of steps on the other side of the bridge.

Once the bridge swung back and re-opened for pedestrians, we crossed over and went looking for the the seal. It didn’t take us long to find it and six of his friends. They were hanging out on a platform soaking up the sun. There was a sign beside them that informed us they were South African Fur Seals. We watched them for a few minutes and discovered that seals are pretty stinky.

A little further along we came across a herd of decorated rhinoceros sculptures. We ended up a place called The Silo. It looks like they converted an old business with big concrete silos into a hotel. It looked pretty cool. That was about as far as we could go without wandering into the industrial areas so we turned around and headed back. On the way back, we passed a big chess set on the sidewalk. It was in use when we walked by earlier, but it was empty now. Michael really wanted to play a game so Darrell and Patrick teamed up against Michael. Michael lost.

After the chess game we stopped at a restaurant called Quay Four for some lunch. The restaurant is right along the waterfront. The food was enjoyable and the view was great. We all had some form of seafood except for Patrick who went with a burger. It has gotten pretty busy by this point and after sitting for a while for lunch, we were starting to feel a little chilly. We were right by the mall again so we popped in the mall to warm up and pick up a few items we were eyeing earlier.

We left the mall and continued to explore what was on the other side of the mall. We walked past the Table Bay Hotel which looked awfully fancy. We did talk about that hotel when booking this trip with our agent, but he said we didn’t have the budget to stay there. We came across a couple more seals on the dock beside us. Beside the hotel there was a boardwalk that went along the water. We wandered along the boardwalk for a bit until we’d had enough of the wind. We walked back towards the mall. Beside the mall was a large Ferris wheel of sorts with enclosed capsules. Michael really wanted to go on it, so a few minutes later we were onboard. It takes you around four times before they kick you off. There were some nice views from the top of the wheel. Amanda wasn’t too keen on the heights and the rocking capsule.

We’d seen about all we could see once we got off the Ferris wheel so we headed back to our hotel. We hung out there for about an hour before we decided to go grab some dinner. We walked back to the waterfront area and found a place called Mitchell’s Scottish Ale House. We sat inside due to the wind and they sat us right beside a fireplace. It kept us warm and provided a nice ambience. The food was enjoyable as well. During dinner Darrell received a message from our guide for tomorrow informing us he’d pick us up at 7:30am in morning. Gross!

After dinner we returned to the mall so the kids could have some gelato for dessert. Michael still loves his gelato. We returned to the hotel and verified what time they served breakfast in the morning. They serve breakfast from 6:00am until 10:30am so we’ll be able to grab breakfast before we leave in the morning. Since it’s an early morning start we chilled out and got ourselves ready for bed.