Lance Armstrong Races Argus for First Time

The upcoming 2010 Cape Argus bicycle race will be coming up in just a few weeks, on 14 March to be precise, and those looking for accommodation in Cape Town may well wish to try the southern suburbs of Rondebosch, Newlands, Claremont, Kenilworth, and Bishopscourt for their stay in the Cape.  This year bicyclists will be joined by the iconic American cyclist Lance Armstrong, who will participate in the world's largest timed bicycle race. A big thank you too to the owner of Hame Cottages for pointing this out!

According to news about the cycle tour, Armstrong tweeted his decision to enter the race: "Hey South Africa! Excited to come down in March. Bringing your man @darylimpey with me. And yes, we're racing The Argus. Hear gr8 things." Apparently there is also a bit of smack being talked by "the fine folks in Cape Town" about a "twitter ride record", whatever that may mean. To see what Lance Armstrong is saying about the upcoming Argus, follow him on Twitter @lancearmstrong. 

Whoever races this year will find no other bicycle race in the world that goes through such extraordinarily beautiful terrain... enjoy the photos of Cape Argus cycle races past!

A Farewell to 2009

                                                                         There are few places more lovely than Cape Town in which to spend the New Year. Excellent wine flowed throughout the evening all about the Cape, and the weather, though a bit cooler than is usual for the season, allowed many to dance the night away without getting too sweaty.

I will not say we will be wishing 2009 a fond farewell, but rather breathing a collective sigh of relief that we have weathered the worst of the global economic storm. And is that not reason enough to celebrate?

Entering 2010 in Cape Town, we find the Minstrel Carnival still going strong, and there's a short clip of the minstrels on YouTube. A celebration to commemorate the freeing of slaves in the Cape Colony back in the nineteenth century, it has become a tradition that looks to keep going into the 21st century.

Enjoy these New Year photos from around the Cape, and we will look forward to seeing you soon! After all, the mountains, and all the rest of the Cape's fabulous scenery, will continue to be here for everyone to see...
                                                             Remember too that the FIFA 2010 World Cup begins in a mere six months' time, so don't forget to book your accommodation today!

The Best World Cup - Ever (And the Hand of Frog)

"We will show the world what they have been missing for the past one hundred years by making this World Cup, the first in FIFA's one hundred year plus history in Africa, the best ever." Danny Jordaan - CEO of the 2010 World Cup - 19 November 2009

As the day approaches for the draw for the 2010 World Cup, football aficionados around the world wait with anticipation to see where and who their countries' teams will play. Soccer websites like BigSoccer.com are already busy theorising who will play whom well before the FIFA draw for World Cup football teams on 5 December 2009.

Cape Town will be the scene for the December draw. It was the clear favourite for this FIFA event, and you just have to look at the breath-taking scenery around which Cape Town was build to understand why. Cape Town is the mother city, the place where the country that became South Africa was born, so it is only fitting that an event of this magnitude should centre around Cape Town.

Yet there have been a couple of hiccups in regards to the chosen teams who will appear in the World Cup next year in South Africa. Most notably, in regards to the Algerian win over Egypt and the French win over Ireland, both matches which put the other side out of next year's Football World Cup.

According to a UK website, the following countries qualified for the 2010 Football World Cup:

South Africa (hosts), Japan, Australia, South Korea, Holland, North Korea, Brazil, Ghana, ENGLAND, Spain, Paraguay, Ivory Coast, Germany, Denmark, Serbia, Italy, Chile, USA, Mexico, Switzerland, Slovakia, Argentina, Honduras, New Zealand, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Greece, Slovenia, Portugal, The Cheating French, Uruguay

As an aside, it is good to see the English supportive of their neighbours across the Irish Sea in relation to the French "hand of frog", though those with a sensitivity towards profanity should avoid reading the comments below the video. To be fair to the French, one French football support said this:

"I'm French and I hope that we will ask to replay this game! In fact, all French football fans want to replay this game! Because, for us, it's a (real) shame and we could NEVER accept this ! We wanted to win but not in this way! It's only the fault of arbitrator and FIFA !! everybody has seen the hand except the arbitrator!"

But it's all over now, and the French are in the World Cup, along with hosts South Africa and thirty other teams. If you want to see the final matches that helped determine the field of 32 teams that will be in next year's World Cup, visit FIFA's website.

Now, if your team got into the World Cup, maybe it's time to start planning your trip to South Africa, and look into accommodation in Cape Town ...

Pricing Accommodation for 2010

I recently contacted a hotel in Cape Town's southern suburbs to find what kind of price they would charge for accommodation. In particular, I was interested in knowing what sort of prices they would charge during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Now, this was not an upmarket hotel at which I enquired by any means, but one that seemed to offer mid-priced accommodation in Newlands.

I was taken aback when they stated that the price would be R1195 per day... for the room only. Further, they told me that they had no accommodation available over the 2010 World Cup, as it had all been bought up for package deals.

It was then that I realised just how reasonable some of the small accommodation providers in the area were. Offering both bed and breakfast and self-catering options, these smaller providers offered more for a person's money. Most of them are set in idyllic settings, offering an intimate yet private place at which one can lay their head, and more. They offer something that no hotel can offer: a home away from home.

Many of these smaller accommodation establishments in Rondebosch, Newlands, Claremont, Kenilworth, and Bishops Court offer accommodation for less than half of what hotels offer! So why would anyone wish to stay anywhere else during their stay in Cape Town, whether it be for business, pleasure, or to follow their favourite World Cup soccer team.

The New Africa Theatre: Transit

Theatre goers in Cape Town's southern suburbs have frequented the Baxter Theatre since its inception in Rondebosch in 1977. But there is now a new theatre, the New Africa Theatre, that has opened to offer theatre lovers a new venue at which to enjoy performances in Cape Town.

The New Africa Theatre Association (NATA) began in 1987 as a training centre for talented people who could not get into university. Started by Mavis Taylor, a former head of the University of Cape Town's drama school, it began as an academy to teach people the various trades that are needed to put on a theatre performances.

The new box theatre, known simply as the New Africa Theatre, was set up in an old grocery store in Sybrand Park, an area that straddles two areas, Rondebosch and Athlone, that were traditionally "white" or "coloured" areas respectively during the apartheid era. As such, it is fitting that the first major performance would be Transit, a play written by Ian Bruce and directed by Clare Stopford.

(Transit) tells the tale of an ill-fated flight from Cape Town to Stockholm. The plane is detoured by a storm and is forced to make an unscheduled stop in a North African country; which has been destabilised by rebels. An assortment of Europeans and Africans are forced to wait in the claustrophobic transit area of a military airport. The passengers engage with each other in opportunistic, manipulative, and even physical ways that has sweeping consequences.

Bruce says this about the new venue:

“We have great potential to reach audiences from both sides of the apartheid created dividing line. We need this in Cape Town as theatres closer to the central business district are still inaccessible to most Capetonians. Attracting new audiences to the city theatres, no matter what effort you make, is always restricted by distances, transport and the cost of tickets. We have to still find out how successful we will be, but we believe we are in a much better position to reach marginalised audiences."

Rondebosch Guest Cottages has had the honour of providing the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theatre with accommodation for their stay in Cape Town while working with the New Africa Theatre on Transit. Rondebosch Guest Cottages has also been honoured to host other respected performers as John Kani, Athol Fugard, Winston Ntshona, Anna-Mart van der Merwe, performers from the Handspring Puppet Company, dancers from the Cape Town City Ballet, and others.

Of Local Artists, the 2010 World Cup, & Serendipitous Encounters

Lucille of Ivydene passed along some information about a local artist, Lesley Charnock, who has a studio in Newlands at Montebello Design Centre, just off Newlands Avenue and within minutes of many accommodation providers in the southern suburbs of Cape Town.

Lesley Charnock has painted a number of pieces in tribute to workers who are building the new Cape Town Stadium in Green Point, which will be used for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and which I have taken the liberty to display on this blog. She says this about her work:

Our home is close to the site of the 2010 Stadium in Green Point and I am surrounded by the excitement and activity of the construction workers, road diggers and cable layers. Driving across Cape Town to my studio every day I see street sweepers, the ‘The Big Issue’ vendors and the car guards. I find these vibrant groups of men and women at work to be wonderful subjects to paint...

I have empathy for the construction worker’s quest to realise their deadlines. The Stadium will soon be complete and the workers will move on. Their contribution will be a memory that I have sought to record in some of these paintings, a part of the progression towards this momentous event planned in 2010.

Lesley's art can be found at her studio in Newlands at the Montebello Design Centre. Her work will also be appearing at The Cape Gallery on Church Street in Cape Town throughout most of November 2009.

Mel's Place owner Mel, who knows Lesley personally, also commented on Lesley's work: "She is the BEST example of self marketing I know! Her experience and skill has soared and I really do admire her. She is also a very chatty, friendly person and her gallery is well worth a visit."

It is interesting too how people meet each other in the accommodation business in Cape Town, South Africa, and how such chance meetings can change the course of people's lives. Trish of Paterson House describes how she met Lesley:

I met Lesley when she arrived on the doorstep of Paterson House asking if I had any accommodation for her. It turned out that she was looking not for a bed, but for a space to paint and store her canvases while she was between houses.

She rented my pottery studio for a few months and we became friends. Without realizing it she gave me, through her own zest, positive energy and work ethic, the idea to expand my business.

I decided to build a studio cottage in the very large Paterson House garden, in a space where a vine and apple tree were growing …. and so was born AppleVine Cottage. Her studio is a delight, as is she, and the whole ambiance of Montebello lends itself to creative thoughts.

Cape Town Moving Towards 2010 World Cup

I was sent a video titled Cape Town's In Motion, the music and lyrics for which were written by Capetonian composer and author Peter Greenwall to highlight the city of Cape Town's eagerness and readiness to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The video showcases the Cape Town's natural beauty along with its cultural diversity. But rather than detailing in prose Greenwall's 2010 Soccer World Cup video, watch it here!


The FIFA World Cup is coming to Cape Town in June 2010, and all of Cape Town's residents anticipate the event. True, the World Cup will take place all over South Africa, but none of the other cities in which soccer matches will be played offer the natural beauty for which Cape Town is renowned, nor do they offer the cultural diversity and history of the Cape, which melds African, Asian, and European cultures.

Table Mountain will be the backdrop for World Cup football in Cape Town at the new Green Point Stadium, where World Cup soccer matches will be played. On the other side of the mountain, in Cape Town's Southern Suburbs, World Cup soccer teams will train for their football matches at Newlands Rugby Stadium as well as in Athlone.

Accommodation in these areas will be at a premium, so if you are planning a trip to attend the 2010 FIFA World Cup, now is a good time to start investigating Cape Town accommodation.

A big thank you to Jess of Hame Cottages, who found this video. Hame Cottages offer accommodation within easy walking distance of Newlands Rugby Stadium, where some of the World Cup teams will practise, and Hame is also conveniently positioned for easy access to Cape Town's city centre.

Cape Town's Southern Schools

When I started this blog, I knew I had to write about topics for those who were seeking accommodation, specifically accommodation in Cape Town, South Africa, and even more specifically accommodation in Cape Town's southern suburbs.  I know from experience that writing about what you know is relatively easy, but getting motivated to write can be a bit more challenging, particularly when you are unsure as to who your prospective audience will be.

That said, as I mulled over how to fill this first blog post, I thought about the type of people who would be looking for accommodation in Cape Town, and what might interest them.  Even more specifically, I wanted to write for people who were looking for accommodation in Rondebosch, Newlands, Bishopscourt, Claremont, Kenilworth, and the surrounding areas.

Then I read an article in this weekend's Cape Argus and it struck me that one of the reasons why people visit this area would be the same reason why people want to live here.  The schools in and around these suburbs are some of the best in South Africa, and on par with the best schools in Europe, and possibly throughout the world.

Now, I am not just talking about the University of Cape Town, which is one of the most prestigious universities in Africa.  Of course, parents who come to visit their children going to varsity need a place in which to stay.  Hotels are expensive, and so many parents seek out accommodation, and especially reasonably priced bed-and-breakfasts or self-catering establishments in the area.  But I digress.

There was not just one article that caught my eye about the Western Cape's schools, but three, though I will only get into the first one in this post.  The article dealt with high schools and how fifteen of the top 100 high schools were in the Western Cape.  On further investigation, I found that nine of those fifteen were in fact in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town! 

Bishops Diocesan College, Herschel Girls' School, South African College Schools (SACS), Bergvliet High School, Centre of Science and Technology (Cosat), Rondebosch Boys' High School, Rustenberg High School for Girls, Livingstone High School, and Westerford High School are all in Cape Town's southern suburbs, and were all acknowledged by the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation in their Circle of Excellence program. This program seeks to recognise secondary schools that consistently provide high quality education in general, and specifically those that successfully present candidates to the foundation.  The article gave a little blurb about each school, something that I'm not going to do here, though I think I will write something a bit more in depth on each of them, particularly SACS, as my son will be going to their junior school next year. 

The accommodation providers for which I write this are only minutes away from seven of these schools, and only 10-15 minutes from the other two.  In fact, they are also about 10-15 minutes from St. Cyprian's School in Oranjezicht, which is in the City Bowl.   Many of these schools allow students to board, and some parents live far away from Cape Town, with some not even living in South Africa.  It is for this reason why it is so important to find a place that offers something beyond accommodation, something a little like a home away from home...