Cape Town Tour

Ask and ye shall receive. My sister Roisin wanted to see some photos of downtown Cape Town so she could see what it's like. In the two months I've been here, I've come to realise that Cape Town has lots of identities and the city changes radically from one area to the next. These photos are of the downtown area which brings together a lot of the different styles: colonial neo-classicism, Cape Dutch, Victorian gingerbread, 1970s fugly concrete.

I took these photos on a walk through Cape Town's CBD. First of all, here's Adderley St, one of the main arteries. Yes, those are Christmas decorations.

Adderley takes you up to the Company's Gardens and the parliament building. Confusingly, though Pretoria is the capital, parliament sits in Cape Town.

The Company in question is the Dutch East India Company who founded a trading post in what became Cape Town. It is a beautiful green space in the middle of the city. Lots of shade, amazing views of Table Mountain.

Look! It's Cecil Rhodes. There are about five bazillion Cecil Sts, Cecil Rd, Rhodes Rds, Rhodes Aves and other memorials to this man which I find bizarre. Let's face it, he was crazier than a box full of frogs.

Round the corner, past where the Race Classification Board used to meet, is another memorial.

Turn the corner again and up Waal St. Concrete office blocks, check. Palm trees, check. Victorian ironwork, check. Crazy drivers, check check check.

And heading home to Woodstock, past the Castle (now a museum). Look there's that mountain, whatsitsname, again.