Day28

Day twenty eight
Thursday thirteenth February 2020
Current position
Cloud 9 Boutique Hotel
118 Lower Buitengragt St Gardens Cape Town
8001
South Africa
S 33°55.77024'
E 18°24.50328'

Thank goodness Ros was feeling a lot better today. We checked out of the hotel left our bags and went to the station to book the Premier Classe train to Johannesburg. We eventually found the right office only to be told that last night the train had been derailed and hit an oncoming goods train and as a result the man couldn't say whether the train will be running next Tuesday. Oh dear so we took a note of his email address saying that we would contact him on Friday to see how things were fairing.
We then went back to Long Street to look for a wooden carving of an African Colonial Gentleman similar to the one that took my fancy at the nice hotel with a pool in Hermanus. I have seen various ones in the African Market Shops but choosing one is difficult as like people they all have different features. In one shop the assistant kept running off to his so called workshop to get me others to see. When I asked wouldn't it be easier for me to go to the workshop he said not possible as it's very dusty. I finally fell for one but the lady wouldn't do a deal so I decided to go to another shop where I'd seen a similar one. When we arrived at this shop there were empty spaces two spaces in his line up of gentlemen. Then the penny dropped. This is where the other shop assistant was getting his stock. The man in this shop would do a deal but felt obliged that the lady at the other shop get involved in the transaction as she needed to ship it to the UK. In the end with some argi-bargy she reneged on his deal and I was left with no choice but to walk away as she was not a pleasant lady. Still fingers crossed there will be other reasonably priced Colonial Gentlemen that catch my eye at other cities we will be visiting.
Feeling slightly disappointed we got our bags and moved to the Cloud 9 Boutique Hotel which we have booked until next Tuesday when we should have been catching the Premier Classe Train to Johannesburg. This is a nice hotel with a rooftop bar and a small plunge pool. We expect it will be cloudy tomorrow.
After settling in we set off to see if we could get a good vantage point to watch the Military Parade before the President's State of the Nation Address at seven. There was an enormous police presence with all the streets cordoned off with six foot high steel fencing. Although the parade was meant to be one and a half kilometres from the hotel we walked miles as nobody including the police could tell us the direction of the parade and when someone did make out they knew we had job getting there as the street was out of bounds and we had to take the long way R
round. Eventually we found a spot and began to wait only to be moved on by a young policeman who said sorry they're my orders. We said OK we understand and moved back to a poorer position with a van partly obstructing our view. Not wanting to walk any further we decided to stay put. After about ten minutes two policemen took pity on us and waved us over to the metal fencing where we had an excellent view of the procession with soldiers sailors and other troops lead by a  brass band playing beaty African music. We were surprised to see a band of bagpipes and got talking to one of the pipers who told us that the pipes came here way back when the Scottish Highlanders were posted to South Africa. Our conversation turned to surfing sharks Brexit load shedding etc etc he spoke to us for over an hour pausing only to watch the President's cavalcade of vehicles pass by but we had no idea which one of the black cars was his.
After the parade we said good bye to the piper and walked back towards the hotel where we were accosted by a persistent begging man who walked with us asking for food and money and wouldn't take no for an answer. Eventually I got annoyed and said in a loud stern voice go away and leave us alone. He appeared shocked by this and turned on his heels and walked away.
It was getting late by this stage so we decided to eat at the next restaurant we came to which happened to be a burger Bar which actually served a good burger big enough to share. Fortunately it was only round the corner from the hotel so two minutes later we were up on the rooftop bar for a drink.