South Africa 2

Well, there was nothing too exciting about the plane trip, so I will quickly zip through that. After all, we’ve all been on a plane before. Cranbrook is small, so security was a breeze, but the interesting thing is that I didn’t go thru security again...ever. I thought that Calgary would be ok since we didn’t change gates, but in Amsterdam we had to go through that whole immense airport and no security at all. We changed gates, but not terminals. Man, in the paranoid USA you have to take your shoes  off at almost every hallway and show ID and passports a ridiculous amount of times. This was a pleasure. I could have brought all sorts of liquids in all sort of sizes. 

KLM is a fantastic airline...from blankets and pillows on every seat to the warm towels for freshening up to free headphones and adapters to all the free drinks you want. That means alcohol. Bottles of wine were offered constantly, as well as Bailey’s for my coffee. I don’t day-drink or airplane-drink (I know, I know, don’t hassle me...) but I could have be soused in no time. The flight attendants couldn’t believe I didn’t want Bailey’s in my coffee, or cognac as a “relaxer for you.” The food was good too, not spectacular because after all, I am referring  to airplane food, but it was pretty decent. 

Dinner was chicken in curry sauce, mashed potato and kale, which was surprisingly excellent, plus a constant supply of cheeses, crackers, desserts etc. We were fed (like cattle) constantly, lots of carbs, I guess hoping we would all sleep. It was 8 hours to Amsterdam, and they hastily served us a hot breakfast before we landed. It was 11 PM my time I think, this is when my mind gets messed from time changes. The light outside is wrong...either black at “my” noon, or bright & sunny at “my” midnight, and then the food is all wrong....who wants BBQ beef at 7 AM?  

Anyhow, we had a short layover in Amsterdam, maybe 1.5 hrs and then the loooooong 11 hours to Capetown. Oh my god, they said it was 11 hours, but I think it was really three times that. It took forever. Thank goodness for aisle seats so that I could get up and wander without disturbing my seat mates. I watched movies, ate whatever they set in front of me (including the strangest sandwich of focaccia bread stuffed with cucumber and olives.) and eventually dozed off about 30 seconds before we landed. 

The Capetown airport is very efficient. They had 18 counters open at immigration and customs, we pretty much walked right through,  picked up the baggage for the other 4 women who had checked suitcases, found our driver and got to the hotel somewhere around 10:30. A quick check-in and then bed. I felt disoriented since we had arrived in the dark and didn’t have a clue as to what was around us or where we were. Could have taken a wrong turn and been in Albuquerque.

Nice room, nothing fancy, but to my joy, they have actual cream for coffee. Not half & half, not powdered crap, not 10% or even 18%, but genuine cream (ok, so it’s in a tetra-pack, but still, it’s cream)