These Flights are Getting Harder and Harder to Tolerate.....

.....but I made it here ok around 11:00 pm.  The Houston to Amsterdam connection actually went pretty well.  I was in a row of three empty seats and was able to lie down but couldn't sleep.  The Amsterdam to Cape Town was eleven hours and packed.  I really struggled with that one.  International airline food is absolutely the pitts.

The hotel really is an old converted colonial prison.  Not the one Nelson Mandela was at, but actually much earlier.

Part of the prison is a hotel and the rest is part of the University of Cape Town school of business.  It's an exotic and nice place to stay.

Got in just before midnight but couldn't sleep until around 4:00 am and nearly slept through breakfast.  I do have sketchy Internet here which is free but very slow.  I posted pictures on Facebook until I could sleep then woke up at nearly 10:00.

After breakfast--and I was surprisingly hungry--I took a cab to the Convention Center for the Marathon Expo.  Ironically, the Convention Center is between the Westin Hotel (where I used to stay last time I was here) and the Chevron Building where I worked.  I used to walk to work through the Convention Center every morning.  They're building high-rise buildings everywhere in this area now.

Race expos are the same all over the world.   I checked in, got my race kit of bib, timing chip and race shirt.  I walked around and looked at the vendors and bought another shirt that I really liked.

The race kit for this event was particularly nice and included energy bars, hand sanitizers, sun block, first aid kit and--a first--a bottle of South African olive oil.

After I left the expo, I walked over to the Westin Hotel and tried to catch the free shuttle to the Waterfront but it isn't working right now because of the construction so I caught a taxi back.

The Waterfront hasn't really changed since I was here.  It's very picturesque and laid back.

The old historic clock tower and swinging pedestrian bridge are the same as my last trip.  The swinging bridge is still active--Cape Town continues to be a major shipping and repair hub for world marine traffic.  

These are typical for ports all over the world.  The clock is elevated so the ship captains can maintain the correct time.  Directly across the harbor, and very near my hotel, is the old historic Ball Drop.  In the days of wooden merchant ships, loaded ships obviously sat lower in the water and could only leave harbor at the high tide.  The harbor master maintained tide logs and when the tide was at peak level, he would have the metal ball dropped on a iron plate creating a loud clang over the water and signalling to the ship captains that it was time to set sail and leave.  I've seen these in Australia, Hong Kong and all over the world.

I ate a late lunch on the waterfront and then fell victim to fatigue and walked back to the hotel and took a nap.  Tomorrow I'm just going to take it easy--no itinerary.  Saturday is race day.