Tuesday, June 15, 2010

June 15, 2010

Today the plan was to head over to Moses Mabhida Stadium and go on a tour as well as go to the top of the arch either on the skycam or taking the 500+ stairs.  It was an overcast morning, with clouds and some rain off and on.  Before leaving, we phoned the stadium and the recording said tours run all day tuesday through sunday, with monday being reserved for school groups.  Upon our arrival at the stadium, the taxi dropped us off at a taxi stand area.  From there we headed into the stadium, through a 40 ft. opening in the front gate.  We walked over to the stadium, but could not find where the tour started.  We even asked a police officer, who was not sure where the tours left from and directed us towards the North entrance.  We walked over there, by security and into the stadium outer concourse.  Something didn't look right, but we kept walking around and nobody asked us who we were or what we were doing as we walked right into the stadium.  So basically we wandered around the stadium for about 2 hours on our own.  Great opportunity for a personal tour!
Doesn't say much for the security of the stadium, but later on events made us feel much better.  After a while of walking around to every area of the stadium seating, we decided it was time to leave.  When we walked outside it appeared that security had gone over the area, closed the gate we came in, and the area was completely locked down.  When our taxi arrived, we went to exit the secure area and the security staff asked us for our badge to check us out of the facility - which we obviously did not have.  They questioned us for a minute, then let us depart.

Next stop on the agenda was the SeaWorld aquarium at uShaka Marine World.  There we spent about 2 hours wandering through the aquarium.  After the aquarium we had lunch at the Cape Town Fish Market (restaurant).  Sarah had grilled prawns and i had fried prawns as a starter and then angel fish with calamari.

After lunch we headed back to our hotel (Cowrie Cove) to relax before dinner.  Upon arrival, one of the hotel employees recommended we go into Umhlanga for dinner, and he made us a reservation at Oil & Water for 7:15pm.  Back home we watched Ivory Coast vs Portugal, and got in the taxi at 7pm for dinner.  Sarah had the ostrich and I had a steak.  Both were delicious!  After dinner we went across the street to a bar to catch the Brazil - Korea DPR match.  Almost every bar had the match live on tv with the sound blaring in the street.  Great atmosphere!  We are both excited for the Spain-Switzerland match tomorrow!

Pictures from our stadium tour
Pictures from SeaWorld aquarium at uShaka Marine World
Pictures from dinner in Umhlanga