On the KLM airplane to Holland, the first thing I noticed was how jovial the Dutch passengers were. The people in the row in front were leaning over their seats, chatting to the people next to me and laughing. A lot. I remembered the exuberance of the Dutch supporters during the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Cape Town turned bright orange during the Holland games. A massive party, including an orange double-decker bus, had travelled down to South Africa to follow their team. The Dutch are without doubt, a happy, hearty, friendly nation.
One of the many colourful cyclists
My other half and I arrived at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. From there, it was a 2 minute walk to the train station next door where we took the train to Amsterdam Centraal. And from there, you can get anywhere. The Dutch all speak English so we had no problem buying tickets. The fare was €4.20 each from the airport to Amsterdam Centraal Station.
Our first night was spent at Ibis Hotel in Stopera which was a 30 minute walk away. We could have taken a bus but after a day of sitting on planes and buses we were happy to walk. The hotel is fairly central and our room looked out onto a canal. The Ibis/Accor group are often our hotel of choice as they are well priced and it’s easy to book in advance. Breakfast is optional with Ibis hotels. Ibis Hotel.
Bicycle beer bar
Internet is usually free in the lobby. If you can get a chance to use it. Check prices before hook up to the net in your room. You may be in for a shock.
IBIS tend to do a local style breakfast so it varies from hotel to hotel. A Dutch breakfast would have been €15.00 each. We decided to take to the streets and find our own breakfast. The receptionist guided us to a quaint spot called Bagel and Beans where we each had a soy milk chai latte and a goat cheese with chives omelet which came to €16 in total.
Abandoned bicycle
This was a boating holiday for the most part. My other half is a master mariner and an avid boater. He had pre-booked a charter boat from a place called – Yacht Charters Urk. Although we have a good few boating holidays under our belts, this one was special. This boat was a Dutch steel motor cruiser. My other half has designs on one for us one day. Two things struck me about our boating time in The Netherlands. Firstly, how different the countryside is from previous boating holidays in Europe. The Dutch canals are wide, busy, commercial and a lot more modern for the most part. Big working barges barrel along the canals. This is in contrast to the narrow canals and olde worlde scenery we encountered in the UK and France. There, one only encounters leisure boats.
Family day out on a bicycle
The thing that my brain had a hard time dealing with is the logistics of a country that lies 5 metres below sea level. Everything works the wrong way around. Usually a boat “locks up” when one goes inland. In Holland, one “locks down”. Locks are the waterway equivalent of an elevator or stairs. Boats can’t go up and down slopes so they move through locks to go up or down in stages. Normally water runs toward the sea. But in Holland, well it’s different. For more on locks, boating and waterways visit Waterway Wanderer.
Bicycle parking bay in Gronigen
The next day we took the train from Amsterdam Centraal to Lelystadt to be met by the charter company rep. The trip was 45 minutes and give or take 45 kilometres. The train ticket cost €9.00 each. A big plus with doing a charter boat holiday is your accommodation and your transport are one cost. This particular charter cost €1250.00 per week.
I have been vegetarian for well over three decades now. Most of my life. As much as I love travelling, it’s simply not an option for me to eat meat. Some places and cuisines are much easier for me and fellow vegetarians to find good food. Others are not. Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Chinese and Indian food are usually best to find something to eat. Western and Eastern European foods are not good. They even put meat into salads and soups and ruin it for us vegetarians.
Why is fresh, healthy, plant based food so limited in availability. Anyone read The China Study? It’s a hellava book but there are plenty of summaries to be read on the Internet. The conclusion is that a diet high in fruit and vegetable foods reduces our risk of all major causes of disease and death. You will find similar information coming from the various heart foundations, diabetes societies and the cancer associations. Again I ask, why is it sooo hard to find nutritious food on the go?
But fear not. I have put together some of the best places to find yummy tasty vegetarian food in central Cape Town.
Starting with food markets. On Thursdays from midday through to late afternoon you will find the Earth Fair market in St Georges Mall.
On Saturday mornings you can head to either the City Bowl Market in Hope Street. Or try the Neighbourgoods market in Woodstock. Get there early or you will find yourself elbow to elbow with people.
Cafe Mozart
My favourite deli, open every day of the week, is Giovanni’s Deli in Main Road Green Point. They make the very best coffee ever. And they have yummy foods like balsamic roasted onions, caprese salad, bean salads and more. The store is a treasure trove of culinary delights that I have never found anywhere else.
Cape Town has a fully vegan restaurant called Plant. They have great food obvioulsy but also lots of well selected organic wines and craft beers as well as vegan foods like mayo or tempeh bacon for sale. Plant is located corner Buiten and Loops Street just off trendy Long Street in the inner city.
Another vegan AND raw spot is raw and Roxy in Woodstock. A small place so don’t go bang in the middle of the midday lunch time. Get there a bit before or after lunch so you don’t wait too long.
Also vegan and raw is The Happy Herbivore at the V & A Waterfront Food shed.
Now for vegetarian friendly restaurants. Head to Wellness Warehouse in Kloof Street. The menu is not entirely vegetarian but they have a wide selection of veggies. All meat is organic or free-range. They have free wifi and plenty eco and green versions of all sorts of things as well. I love their superfood chocolate brownies with spinach. Divine I promise.
Lola’s in Long Street has been around for ever. I used to be a regular until I had a really bad experience with a waitron. (Long horrible story, I will spare you.) They are no longer fully vegetarian. Check your bill very carefully.The other restaurant which was part of the family is around the corner in Bree Street. It’s called Zucchinis.
While not entirely vegetarian, these next two sister restaurants have an amazing bargain lunch buffet. They charge per plate and not by weight. No one bats an eye if you pile your plate full and the food is to die for. Think sweet potato carpachio, oven roasted veggies and delicious raw salads. These two restaurants are Cafe Paradiso in Kloof Street and Cafe Mozart off Long Street.
I am not wild about pizza and pastas. Usually too much white stodge with greasy sauces and not enough proper food. By proper food I mean vegetables and protein. However Andiamo in The Waterkant area in Green Point are not bad for a pizza/pasta place and they are well priced. I like that their vegetarian lasagne is full of veggies and I don’t walk away with heartburn.
Colcacchio’s also do great pizza and yummy well presented salads. They do a quinoa salad and they have organic wine on the menu too!
Long Street – pic sourced from Google images
My favourite fast food chains, you can sit and eat if your legs need a rest, are Kauai, Osumo and Simply Asia.
Kauai and Osumo have similar menus. Think salads, sandwiches, wraps, smoothies, fresh juices, herb teas and organic coffees. Check out their menus on-line.
Simply Asia make Thai stir fries and they are also licensed so you can have a healthy glass of red wine with your meal.
All three of these fast food eateries are easy on the wallet.
Don’t forget to look out for healthy foods at local supermarkets. Most supermarkets in South Africa have a deli counter with fresh fruit and salads. Woolworths (a local sort of Marks & Spencer) have a fair selection or organic produce.
Help yourself to the healthiest salads on offer. I always skip the rice and pasta salads. Sometimes I even find roast veggies at the warm food deli. I usually have veggies with humous or pestos and Ryvita cracker biscuits.
A bag of nuts or dried fruit are also healthy options and will last all day in a back-pack. I avoid commercial fruit juices as they are too high in sugar. My preference is for individual fresh fruits and a bottle of water. You can always re-use the water bottle with water from the bathroom or your hotel.
And now for something completely different. Ever wanted to taste a raw food pizza? Order a take-out pizza – with a difference. Google Viva Pizza or Earthshine to find them
Bon appetit!
Go to – My Holidays and Trips – at the top of this page to read about other places we have visited. Or just click on – this link.
I left South Africa a week ago and spent a few days in London. From there, my other half and I did a mini road trip to Scotland. It’s mid summer back in South Africa and of course mid winter in the UK. The contrast is sharp.
South Africa never really gets that cold. There are places that get cold, but they are remote and sparsely inhabited. Snow in our cities would be front page news.
I don’t possess the sort of clothes that people from cold countries wear. Instead I am putting on just about every item of clothing I brought with me. Wearing all this clothing is so freaking heavy.
Frost covered garden
Salt/grit bins, snow poles, clip on ice grips for shoes, ice scrapers for car windows, bum warmers in a car and many other things people in the UK consider normal simply don’t exist in South Africa.
I always though ear muffs were daft things. Now I totally understand why people wear them. I wish they could come up with something to keep my nose warm other than wrapping a scarf around my face.
Back in South Africa they have been having a heatwave. Places like Riebeek Kasteel have apparently had temperatures in the upper forties touching 50’C. Yikes! Riebeek valley tourism.
We were glad we chose to stay in the Deira area, which is the older part of the city. It’s right opposite the City Centre shopping mall, and walking distance from the Carrefour food store, which has a wide selection of yummy Middle Eastern and Asian foods. We hardly ate out, and ate well for very little money. Alcohol was not readily available, and when it was, it was so expensive that we chose not to drink for the 3 days in Dubai.
Concrete skyline
There are a few Souks (markets) and we got to see the old market. It is quaint and deserves to be seen to get a feel for how the old style architecture would have been. Dubai for the most part is a modern and almost new city. As far as the eye can see hundreds of developments are going on. They were even pulling down old buildings to put up new ones. We saw the famous Palms and The World, where they are dredging and building islands with beaches in the shape of a palm tree and the shape of the world.
Dhow
Our city guide made so many references to buildings being bigger or better or more expensive as we drove past them, I lost track, but one that stood out was the Burj Dubai Hotel. It is reputed to be the biggest and most expensive hotel in Dubai. It is right next to Dubai’s Jamirah Beach, which has warm water, as you would imagine, but also calm sea and a sandy white beach. One has to remind oneself all the time that Dubai is built in a desert. Beautiful palm trees, lush lawns and brightly coloured flowerbeds dot the city.
Our friendly guide from the day dropped us off for the dhow trip along Dubai Creek. The creek is really just a big river running up into the city not unlike the Thames into London. It has marinas with luxury yachts and beautiful old style wooden dhows. A dhow trip includes a meal but not alcohol, which, as said earlier, is very expensive. The evening was warm and pleasant but, as I don’t eat meat, I always worry whether I will have enough food at these buffet meals. However, there was plenty delicious vegetarian food. I really enjoyed the humus, pita and pickles mezze type foods. We were given lots of water in lieu of alcohol. The dhow trip was enjoyable although I could have done without the copycat hits they belted out on the PA. We saw the city lights, the mini ferries zipping across the creek and a glimpse of the harbour.
Sand dune surfing
We were taken back to our hotel and slept soundly. The next afternoon we were anxious as the tour operator was late to collect us for the dune tour. Our hotel phoned the company and the driver for us. Turned out we had another party joining us who had gotten stuck in traffic. Finally we all climbed into a great big 4 x 4 and headed off for the desert. A mix of raucous hip-hop and sweet Arabic music was playing in the car to get us all in the mood. I suspect our Egyptian tour guide and the other party with us had no idea of the lyrical content of the music we were listening to, as it was XXX rated.
We stopped at a petrol station for the tyres to be deflated and were herded into the curio shops. The usual cold drinks, sweets, fridge magnets, toy camels and tat were on sale. A plethora of highly enthusiastic sales people showed us all sorts of awful things we could buy. We escaped to the warmth outside and shortly we all piled back into the 4 x 4 and our driver drove off into the soft red sand. There were plenty of other 4 x 4’s gathered there. They seem to wait until there is a big enough party and get going together.
Cheesy desert photo
Our tour guide, who till now had been quiet, asked us to fasten our seat belts and assured us we would be safe. He then, raced the car straight up a steep dune, swung around and let it slide down the slopes. The only way I could describe this experience would be like surfing a wave on a surfboard, except we were surfing dunes in a car. How the cars do not fall over I will never know. Quite obviously not any old driver can do this. Once we realised we would be safe we enjoyed it. We stopped a few times to watch some biker demos, a sunset and then we went to a desert camp for a meal and a display of traditional and belly dancing. Again the food was good and plentiful. We avoided the alcohol but there were lots of soft drinks.
Local dancing and entertainment
Three days is enough to get a feel for Dubai. There are other tours offering rock climbing, quad biking or trips to the other UAE states such as Abu Dabi. There are Arabic countries that are not conducive to female travellers and seem repressed to western societies, however Dubai allows you to experience Middle Eastern culture in a safe modern environment. My only disappointment was that the only Emiratees we had contact with or saw was at airport customs or shopping in the malls.
We didn’t initially think of going to Dubai. However, since Emirates Air appear to be one of the better and more affordable airlines for economy class flights, we decided to throw in a three day stop-over in Dubai en route to London. It must be oil money offsetting the price, as the saving was substantial.
Also helping us to make our choice was a chance to spend time with family who live there.
Mosque, Dubai
Our flight didn’t disappoint. Emirates Air on-board entertainment has a selection of nearly everything from current and classic movies to Best-of TV shows past and present. The music selection was massive ranging from country music, the latest chart offerings through to solid rock numbers.
The seating space seems roomier than other airlines, which helps on a long haul flight. Not that Dubai is too far from Cape Town; our flight was 8 and ½ hours. They gave out warm cloths to freshen up before we left and a copy of the menu with 4-course meals. I had the vegan meal and my other half had a low calorie, low cholesterol meal. We also had some lovely French wine with our meal. We didn’t sleep much as the flight wasn’t long enough. I watched Slumdog Millionaire and my other half watched re-runs of Fools and Horses.
Fake ski resort, Dubai
We arrived in Dubai Airport at 05.00 am. We had booked into Ibis Hotel in Deira and we were told a shuttle bus ran from the airport to the hotel. Our bus driver arrived after about ½ hour and took us to the hotel. We were very early but they agreed to check us in at 10.00 am so we had a snack in the reception area while we waited.
We paged through tour brochures and probably picked the same tours as everyone else. They all had variations on the much the same thing. As we made our choice of tours we sat watching people with mounds of bags check into the hotel. It never ceases to amaze us how much luggage people travel with. We always stick to the limit for fear of penalties, yet we saw people staggering under their luggage. How do they get away with it?
Beach, Dubai
Once checked in, we freshened up and had a short sleep. I had been to Dubai before in June and the heat and humidity was particularly uncomfortable. I was pleased that in the last few days of April it was warm but not unbearable. Next, our tour guide for the Dubai City Tour collected us. We soon realised that all tour guides in Dubai are always foreigners.
In fact the only jobs the Emiratees seem to hold are in government, banks or shareholders in business. What was even more surprising is the Emiratees only make up only 20% of the total population of Dubai. The rest are workers and “ex pats”. Asians from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and those regions make up 50% of Dubai’s people and the final 30% of the population are Europeans, Australians, and South Africans etc.
Foreigners come across for work and money opportunities. They pay tax, for water, for education, and the usual things one would expect. Most people working in Dubai earn good money but the cost of living is high. Conversely the Emiratees don’t pay tax and get state grants for just about everything. Truth is they don’t have to work and one can’t help but wonder if any do as they fill the millions of shopping malls all hours of the day and night.
Outside a souk, Dubai
Dubai likes to think of itself as a shopping destination. And if shopping is your thing, you’re in the right place. There are many shopping malls with the same shops. The usual big names like Gap, H&M, Next, Benetton and even the South African store Woolworth was there but with signage in Arabic. The high-end shopping malls have designer stores with luxury goods. There is even a shopping mall with a ski resort in the middle. We watched people going up ski lifts in real snow through the glass windows.
All the shopping malls we went to were spotlessly clean and air-conditioned with plenty of coffee shops. The sight of the Emiratee people sipping coffee in their traditional clothing is a common one. The men wear a white dishdasha robe with a checked or white headdress. The woman cover up in a black abaya with a black headdress and sometimes even a black facemask or a burka.
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