BG Adventures, Indianola, IA (2024)

06/19/2024

Now is the time for a GREAT DEAL!! The Oktoberfest/Bier Tour has space available due to the unfortunate cancellation of one couple. But their loss is your gain…. THIS IS THE TIME to get a great tour in Bavaria at a GREAT PRICE.
Remember, this is a tour beginning on 19 September through 29 September. Highlights are:
Oktoberfest
Dachau tour
Biergartens and tour at the world’s oldest brewery
Overnight at the worlds oldest Monastery brewery
Hop Museum
Visit the Mallersdorf Brewery with the only remaining Nun brewmaster in Germany.
Take a Bier Seminar in Bamberg
AND MANY MORE SIGHTS….

If you have interest in this “Bucket List” tour, LET’S CHAT! Send me a direct message and I can give you full details.
THIS IS A SIGHTSEEING TOUR…. NO CYCLING

05/28/2024

The Great Danube Adventure…. Day 3/23
Stage 3 - Neuberg to Weltenburg

This is a little late today…. We left Neuberg as expected… about 9 am… after a hearty breakfast. This was a good day, with some castles, big and small. But it was also a bad day with flat tires.
We made a pastry and coffee stop at Donauswörth after the help offered by a guy we met on the trail. Tim was a young guy who helped us at a railroad crossing. The gates were down at the crossing and we didn’t know how to get them up. Tim knew the system and called the controller who said “there’s a train coming. Wait.” So naturally we did. After the train, Tim rode with us all the way to Donauswörth and we chatted the whole way. He is a co-Pilot for Lufthansa and has had lots of training including time in the States. And he offered to take us the a great bakery in the city center. On we went after the break.
We continued along till about 1pm and had a stop at a yacht club for a little refueling before we continued on at the hotel and brewery at Weltenburg.

We finally got to Weltenburg after a lot of forest trail riding. It was a beautiful trip through the woods. The Kloster Brauerei is the oldest Monastery Brewery in the world. It sits on the Danube so with the Danube and the monastery combo it draws a lot of people. Great food and great bier! (We’ll be staying here on the Bier tour in September. We got checked in with no problems and got in the rooms. They were a touch spartan but I’d suspect that given it’s a Monastery. Dinner was served in the Biergarten so we went to dinner as soon as possible after we got cleaned up.

We stayed at the Biergarten after dinner, enjoying another of the wonderful bier here at Kloster Weltenburg. We met a very interesting guy and his girlfriend… we talked about Bier and Taxes. Best breweries (West Hill got an Honorable Mention- the Oldest Brewery in Indianola).

Finally it was getting chilly so we called it a night at about 830 pm. Tomorrow will be another ride on to Donaustauf.

05/24/2024

The Great Danube Adventure…. Day 2/22

I slept well last night but I woke up at 0530 to get ready for breakfast. I wasn’t hungry… I was still full from the Spaghetti Bolognese!! So I had a couple of cups of coffee. It was delicious!!

We finished getting packed and dressed and met up outside by the van. Every one was ready early…. That was great! It let us get started before Nine and with a 70 km ride.

The funniest thing today was getting lost less than 100 meters from our hotel!!
The computers had us going on a military base. But we found the right way for us to go in short order.

We headed out and over the first 22 miles we had a pretty good ride. But from 22 to the end at 46 miles, we had a bit of an uphill ride. Uphill was right!!! Not my favorite ride, because on OUR ride, we climbed 3 pretty steep hills.

We rolled out on the ride at 0850 and made it 22 miles in about an hour and half. We had about a thirty minute stop at a Bäckerei (Baker and cake maker). It was a well timed stop….. people were starting to get hungry and needed a bathroom break.

After the break, we started going out to an area with big hills. There were only 3 hills but definitely more than ANY other ride I’ve done in Germany. For some, they had to walk! And we even saw locals having to walk up some hills. We eventually got them covered and then rode back down to the Danube valley. It was a simpler ride doing that.

As we continued the last 22 miles, there was a lot of riding on dikes. It was nice but the dikes had steep sides… one side was down a steep drop to the valley while the other side it was a similar drop to the river. I kept feeling like I was going to slip off.

Eventually, we got to our end town for today, Neuburg an der Donau (Neuburg on the Danube). We found the general area where the hotel was but we had a tough time locating the hotel. Finally, we remembered Doug put an AirTag in the van!! That got us to the endpoint!!

We got all checked in the hotel and then went to the Biergarten and had a locally brewed Juliusbrau lager bier. Delicious!!

We went to our rooms and got cleaned up a bit before dinner at 600 pm. Dinner took us about 2 hours and then it was time for a quick dessert. Across the street from the hotel was an ice cream shop!! I don’t know about the others but the Strawberry ice cream was magnificent!!

We went back to the hotel and we were ready to go to sleep! Tomorrow will be another longer ride, a 69 km ride to the world’s oldest Monastery Brauerei, Weltenburg Abbey, where we will overnight. And drink some of their bier…

05/23/2024

The Great Danube Adventure…. Day 1/21

I neglected to mention our hotel from last night. We stayed at the Ulm Maritim Hotel. Last year on our Rhine River ride, we stayed at the Königswinter Maritim and we were completely satisfied and impressed. So I decided to give Maritim another go….. and it was perfect! Great buffet dinner, quiet bedrooms, fantastic breakfast. They were a great hotel and one that I will use again in the future…. And recommend to others. And another nice thing is the Donauradweg (Danube Bike Trail) is right behind the hotel!!

So, today is the first day on the Danube. We brought all our luggage down by 0830 to load up. We also got all our bikes up from the garage storage locker and got ready to head out. Once we were ready, we got our picture taken and off we went!!

It was a beautiful day however there is a possibility of thunderstorms around 2 pm. So we kept up a steady pace. Like on all of our rides, there is usually a time or two where we miss a sign or misinterpret a sign. That happened twice today but thankfully they were only small sections and we recovered without incident. As we rode, we could see the Danube on our right most of the way there.

After about 27 miles, we found Gaststätte
Wünsch at exactly the same time one of the bikes had a flat tire! So while a few people worked on the flat, the rest of us had some food. The quickest and easiest thing was to get a couple of Brotzeits. So we did that…. Bread, pickles, tomatoes and different types of Wurst, a little mustard and it was a nice snack. My favorite was to have some of the Leberkäse. if you’ve followed my blogs in the past, you know I LOVE Leberkäs. Usually hot, nestled between two halves of a Brötchen (hard roll). Maybe a little mittelscharf Senf (mittle sharp mustard) thrown in to boot. There is nothing better on the face of God’s Green Earth! And we had some drinks…. A Radler, Hefeweizen, Coke and a bottle of water. A perfect combination!

At this point we only had 13 km to go (8 miles). So we continued to follow the signs. And after relatively short time we came to our end town of Dillingen. And the road we were on took us literally to the front door of Hotel Garni Trumm. It’s a small unassuming hotel with comfortable rooms. Jackie had gotten the keys for us so all I had to do is check in at the desk and pay for the stay. Jackie had checked around town for a place to have dinner. Apparently the German restaurant wasn’t the best and the Hotel owner recommended an Italian restaurant…. Kleiner Italiener. I’ve got to admit, it was pretty darn good with enormous servings. We had a great selection of foods and we filled our bellies to capacity. After about 2 hours, we settled our bills and headed “home” to crawl into bed to get ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow has us riding 70 Km (43 miles) to Neuberg and Hotel & Brauerei-Gasthof Neuwirt. This place is supposed to be a brewery as well as restaurant and hotel. Theres a lot ahead of us tomorrow……

05/22/2024

The Transition- Africa to Europe- The Great Danube Adventure begins soon…. Day 19

Forgot to tell you about what happened yesterday. We went to dinner and came back to the room and there was a message on the phone from the lady at the future cruise desk. She said she had noticed that we had booked a cruise (Australia/NZ) within 30 days of sailing and that qualified us for a special $400 discount! PLUS we got a $250 shipboard credit to boot!! Amazing!!

So….. now on with the story.

The sea was a little active last night. I didn’t feel sick but there was lots of motion. For the first couple of minutes it felt that I might bounce out at times.

Sleep came easily (like it usually does) and I slept till the alarm went off at 0530. And at 0545, the phone rang…. Room service was letting us know breakfast was on the way! Our tray was on the table within 5 minutes…. Oatmeal, croissants, OJ, coffee…. Nice way to get cracking in the morning!

By 0630 we were all set to go… all picked up and packed up!!

At 0715 we went down to the gangway area to wait for our color coded disembarkation area…. Gretchen was Red 1 and I was Blue 1. At about 0745 they called Red 1 and then about 0800 it was Blue 1s turn to go. I went down the gangway and to the baggage area. Red 1 was still there trying to find their bags. Mine was at the beginning of the line and easy to find. Once I got it, finding the airport bus was pretty easy. It was a little confusing though because they changed the bus numbering….. Blue 1 was sent to the Blue 2 bus. No biggie though…. They just wanted to fill it up first. So, after loading my Blue 1 bags on Blue 2 bus, up into the Bus I went!! On the bus and ready to go by 0815…. Departure was at 0830.

Once I got on, the bus sounded a bit like a TB ward…. My God, there was so much coughing and hacking!!! This is the first time I wished I had a mask to wear in ages. And, of course, as I got bags loaded on the bus, I got a skin tear on my right hand. So by the time I got a seat, it was dripping. The 70 year old skin bruises and tears so easily anymore.

The bus ride to the airport went quickly and we got there by about 0915. I went to the AirLink counter and they checked me in BUT I couldn’t check in my bag till closer to departure time. That meant I couldn’t go to the Lounge. So I got a baggage trolley and started exploring the Airport. Hardest part was finding a lift. I went upstairs and found a nice restaurant to kill some time at, the Mugg & Bean. I decided to have an omelette and some coffee…. They make an Amazing Omelette!! I stayed there for about an hour and a half before it got close enough to check my bag.

I got it checked and went through security and found my way to the SLOW Lounge. It was a very nice lounge with windows looking out on the runways. It had a small bar, snacks, clean restrooms and it was relatively calm. I stayed there till about 115 and then walked to my gate and before you knew it, it was time to leave. Boarding was early since I had Business class seats. It was the same type of plane we flew before from Johannesburg and Hoedspruit (but I was in the back). It was a two hour flight to Johannesburg…. They served us a meal (BBQ Beef and Noodles). And before you knew it, the flight was over. We had to deplane down stairs and then on to a bus….

But once I got off the bus, everything changed. It was a little bit like “The Wizard of Oz” when Dorothy exits the House in Munchkinland and everything is in beautiful color. There, inside the beautiful airport I was greeted by these two ladies and then shepherded through the airport and security. Then they took me to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse where they told me I am to wait for them to come back and they will es**rt me to the plane. Of course I followed their directions. Walter was the waiter in the Clubhouse and he took good care of me too. He took my drink order…. It was my last chance to have a Windhoek Draught so I jumped on it. The clubhouse also offered a number of entrees and snacks as well as desserts but I chose the chocolate chunk pistachio cookies. VERY good.

I just sat there till 615 when they returned to get me and we walked on to gate 16 where we went through gate security once more. They then led me through masses of people to the front of the line…. Past the sick, lame, lazy and crazy to the sky ramp which would lead to my seat. We got to an area where the ramp forked one ramp to the right which contained throngs of people and the other ramp to the left with fewer people. I could see it now…. The door to where my seat awaited….

The Guard was insuring only approved people could enter through this door. Just like the Guard at the Wizards door, these spaces were secured to allow only special people entrance. But my ticket, a special ticket indeed, allowed me admission and it allowed me to take my seat in seat 3A in First Class.

So I did….. here I was in the 3A seat in a first class compartment containing ONLY 8 seats. 8 seats, situated beneath the flight deck. It was a fabulous place enjoy a long sleep.

The flight crew got the 8 situated, preflight.
A drink of some sort and some warm cocktail nuts.

I was tired…. Dog tired. So I told the flight attendants that I was going to change into my Pajamas and go to bed, hoping to get a few hours sleep. Well, by the time I got back to the seat from the restroom, my bed was all made up. So I climbed in and settled in. I managed to sleep almost 10 hours sleep!

We watched the various crew members clean the plane before we were allowed disembark. It was about 0545 when we got off and 6 am when we got off. After I got my bags, it was a quick trip through the airport before I caught a cab back to the hotel Craig McDonald stayed last night.
Today, we needed to drive to my cousins house to pick up. Theres, a small town approximately 2.5 hours away was waiting.
Gerlinde always had a treat for us, great German coffee and some Butter Brot. We had a small piece of bread, butter and some cold cuts.

As we finished, we got my bike loaded, along with the bag full of equipment on.
And we headed to Ulm….

Ulm was where we would start tomorrow. We had about 2 hours and thirty minutes to go. And we went!

We made it to Ulm at 130 and started to unload and get bikes stowed away. We did that by about 330 and the. We took our bags to the rooms and had a little time for resting. We decided we’d have dinner we at 630 pm and it was delicious. Now it’s almost time for bed and I’m ready! So I’m finishing this and heading to bed. We’ll start our first leg of the Great Danube Adventure in the morning. Breakfast is at 0630 and we’ll plan to shove off at 900 in the am.

05/20/2024

The Great South African Adventure- Day 18

Well…. It had to happen at least once. We missed a port call because of rough seas. Today we were supposed to “tender in” to shore but the waves prevented us from going in. The periodicity of the waves and the wave height precluded us from safely taking a tender ashore (one of the life boats is used). So we headed on to Cape Town for our last leg of this journey.

I guess it was good for most of the people on board. Most people have used today to pack and get ready for the disembarkation in the morning. We did….. Gretchen is totally ready, I’m 95% done with only a few things left to pack after dinner tonight. I have to put in the last few remaining clothes and only my shaving kit left to pack in the morning.

After packing some in the morning, at 1230 we decided to go for lunch at Waves Grill for a bit. But then we came back to the room to get where we are this afternoon. Since Gretchen finished, she’s already taking an afternoon nap. Me, I’ll watch some TV and likely snooze off for a while. Dinner tonight will be at the Grand Dining Room one last time.

Tomorrow, we will be going ashore at 0800. Like I said a couple of days ago, I have to get to the airport early for my flight to Johannesburg at 1400 (2 pm) and on to Frankfurt. Gretchen, however, has from 0800 to 2100 (9 pm) to wait for her flight. The ship put together an additional tour for the folks who have late flights….. most of our ISU group are on the late Delta flight with Gretchen so she won’t be alone. The tour is out to a winery outside of Cape Town. So this group will get a bus and have all their bags stowed below, get to enjoy a nice winery then get chauffeured to the airport where they won’t have to wait as long.

We’ve had a fantastic trip so far… it has been well worth both the time and dollars. Now it’s on to Germany for me and back to Iowa for Gretchen. She’ll get 2 weeks without me to visit all her peeps.

Like I said, I have a 450 mile bike ride to do on the Danube River from Ulm, Germany to Vienna, Austria. 11 days riding then a few days returning bikes and ending the bike ride portion.

Now we’re in bed, almost ready to turn the lights off. We’ll set the alarm for 0530 and we have room service breakfast coming at 0600-0630. In the morning, we’ll have a few things to do before we head out…..

05/20/2024

The Great South African Adventure- Day 17

I slept pretty good last night… it was a bit rocky but not horrible. Up a couple of times… always seem to wake up around 3 am since 2013. Oh well…

I finally woke up at 9am and if I wanted breakfast I’d better get going. So I got up and ready while Sleeping Beauty continued to snooze. The Terrace Restaurant was packed so I got my oatmeal and went out on the outside on the terrace and ate. It was very pleasant out there. Not a bit breezy. I took some video that shows the ship rocking a little. It’s not the fore and aft movement that’s bad, rather it’s the side to side rolling that is the toughest.

I walked around a bit to get a little exercise. The back pain is markedly decreased and I’m able to walk much more without pain. But the need to occasionally sit down to relieve it persists and makes me take the cane along.

I got Gretchen at about 11 am to go for an Iowa State photo. The ISU flag was hung on the rail around the pool deck and we had to advertise a little. I can’t remember if I mentioned that this was an ISU Alumni sponsored tour or not. Neither Gretchen nor I are ISU Alums…. She started traveling with her best friend back about 2006 or so and ISU keeps sending her the cruises. And we now are picking out the ones we want to go on. It’s kinda nice to cruise with folks with an Iowa connection.

We had lunch after pictures then came back to the room to rest a bit. That’s what Sea Days are for…. Catching up. It looks like we are about 10 miles or so offshore and still heading south in the direction of Cape Town.

Tomorrow’s port call will be in Mossel Bay where we will be going to Oudtshoorn and visiting a farm about Ostriches. I’m sure there will be lots of ostrich related things to buy. I found out yesterday that this is apparently the last ship to take this routing for the season (next 6 months). They have been making some pretty good deals in the previous ports, trying to make a few Rand and reduce their inventory before they go 6 months with fewer sales.

4 pm had me going to the last Trivia….it was pretty simple except for 2-3 questions. Of course, we missed those questions. Well, I said the correct answer for the angles on a Scalene triangle but it never got recorded. So I had 14/15 but we ended as a team at 13/15 for one more point.

After that it was back to start to do a couple of things…. Packing away purchases and sorting them for where they are going. Back to Iowa or with me on to Germany.

After starting the packing process, we got cleaned up and at 645 we headed to the Grand Staircase for a picture of our ISU group before dinner. We got a picture, and headed off for the Grand Dining Room for a group dinner. Champagne, wine, appetizers, soup and salad, main course and dessert were enjoyed by all and at the end, we headed back to our room. It’s still a little rocky but nothing bad. We finished watching “Casablanca” with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman (arguably the most beautiful woman in Cinema, perhaps tied with Grace Kelly). And Casablanca has to be the greatest movie ever made….

Tomorrow morning we’ll get up at 0700 for breakfast and then a 0820 muster at the Nautica Lounge for our departure on a Tender to go ashore for our final tour. Tuesday we have an early disembarking…. More on that later!

05/18/2024

The Great South African Adventure- Day 16

Today has what looks like a potentially great day (after yesterday’s disappointment). The Dumazulu Cultural Village has great potential at least in what I’ve heard. I’ve grown up hearing about the Zulu as fierce warriors so I’d like to hear more about their life.

We got to sleep about 1030 pm and, probably after the late dinner, we both had a fitful night. I was up at 0300 for about 30 min or so. And Gretchen work after me but fell back asleep quickly. But after that I slept straight through to 0700. We got ready and went to breakfast right away since we had a muster of 0845 in the Nautica Lounge.

We waited in the lounge like we were supposed to until Gretchen and Ginny couldn’t wait any longer. We went down to the Gangway and went out to find our bus. Funny, there was no bus!! It had been held up by security at the gate coming in. When it finally got queued up, we were the first on.

We’re at the Richards Bay harbour, built in 1979. Not a lot here at this harbour which is nice. Some smaller boats but it was quiet being Saturday.

To get to the DumaZulu Cultural Village, it will be a 1:30 to drive, 2 hr in village, then 1:30 back. But enroute we’ll get some discussion about Zulu life as well as talking about the land. One thing we heard was that the road we will be on frequently has Hippo crossing signs. They won’t take us on but point of fact, Hippos kill more humans than any other African animal. They’re not as cute as you might think.

Zulu culture…. We got on the death topic again. In Zulu culture, the dead are buried and while they can be buried in a graveyard or cemetery, the preferred location is at home. One dies away from home, they use a Buffalo Thorn tree branch to collect the spirit and transfer to home where it is buried. When travelling in a vehicle, the branch is placed on its own seat for the duration of the journey to return the spirit back to where the family is.

Another part of Zulu culture and religion has to do with Christianity and combining native beliefs. In villages, many homes have the finding of a Round house. This typically means that the family is Christian but that they also consult with ancestors in the Round Houses. But another interesting thing was that almost every Round House has a satellite dish on it. Since these buildings tend to be big with a lot of room inside, they make a great TV viewing room too. Apparently the ancestors like TV too….

Another tree story now…. Eucalyptus trees were brought to Africa in 1800 to make paper and use wood for building. Now Africa has more eucalyptus than Australia. When driving on the road, you can see the stands of eucalyptus trees in various stages of growth and harvest.

Speaking of roads…. The road we are on is the M2. The M2 road runs from far North East South Africa to Cape Town, 2255 km (29 hours), crossing 4 provinces….

Zulu marriage is interesting…. Zulu men can take multiple wives… and kids. Our Guide has a Brother with 3 wives and 32 children!! Wives are bought with cows but the price varies…..11 cows for virgin, 9 for non, - 2 if she has had one girl before, -1 if a boy. And there is more deduction more for kids from another man….. quite a formula. If infidelity occurs and wife dies, her family has to pay 2 cows to husband for the shame and reimburse him burying her. There are a lot of complexities in marriage… this article does a good job of covering this if you are interested. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3060788/ #:~:text=The%20lobola%20ceremony%20is%20a,depending%20on%20the%20families'%20circumstances.

The HIV Aids epidemic has improved considerably. At present, treatment consists of one pill and Infrequent deaths occur. This and prevention techniques has led to this marked drop in mortality.

To get land to build a house in a Village, beer and whisky/vodka is vital. This is used by outsider to get their land. First they must speak with the village elder and get his approval. Then he must get approval of neighbors with booze.…. A party always works wonders with neighbors!!

In the KwaZulu-Natal, 1 million Zulu in this province ….

At this point in my tale for today, I’ve had a whisky at 5 pm, 3 glasses of wine between 7 and 830, went to a Whisky tasting of 4 types and the seas are a bit rough this evening. They cancelled the show and the bars were instructed to secure all their bottles. Any problems in my typing are the result of the above….. thank God for Autocorrect.

We learned the Zulu names for male and female…..Obaba and Omama. We learned a few other phrases which I can’t remember at this point.

We learned that Hitchhikers have different signals for where they are going. Sticking your thumb out will get you a free ride locally but for longer rides you need others.

We got back to the ship by about 230 pm and went right to the Waves Grill. Gretchen had a big lunch of Burger, fries and salad, I had fries and a strawberry malt. Then we went to the room for 30 min before I had Trivia. Trivia got us 2 place again…. Only 2 Big O points.

Gretchen was sawing logs so I went to Martinis for a drink to kill time before dinner we with Ken and Ginny tonight in the Grans Dining Room. I had an Aberlour 10 year old but I was talking to the bar tender and he slipped me a taster of Macallen Oscuro 1824 series. It was good too!!

I went back to the room for a quick shower and to get ready for dinner. And at 630 we headed down to meet up with Ken and Ginny. Dinner was, as always, spectacular.
I had Escargot, Lobster Bisque, Caesar Salad, Penne Bolonase, and ice cream.

By the time we got up at 830 it was rocking pretty good…. Remember that Hurricane up north I mentioned … it may be causing a little of this. The bartender said the captain predicted it to get rough by midnight.

I went up to the Horizons Lounge for the Macallan whisky tasting I signed up for at 900 pm. I was the only one there but Harris, the Bartender from Bali, was there help me through the tastings….. we were sampling of 15, 18 and 21 year old batches. Needless to say they were quite good. Because of the motion, Harris had to grab for the bottles more than once but we got through it.

At 945, I made it back to bed, struggled to get undressed, got clothes hung up and got into bed. Now it’s time to sleep…. Sea Day again tomorrow…. Hope it flattens out a bit by morning.

05/17/2024

The Great South African Adventure- Day 15

We made it to Durban about 0600 and at 0700 we got the first overhead announcement on the 1MC (for the Navy folks following this) that we need to be vigilant here in Durban…. Don’t walk alone in the city center, mind your belongings, always have a guide near you, don’t take much cash ashore/use CCs….. all things that engender confidence in this port call. But Steven, the cruise director, said “remember every major city in the world has areas you don’t go alone”…. And he’s correct. It’s just that we have felt totally safe in South Africa up to this point. We’ll see how things turn out…. Photos and documentary to come.

Since we had a 0745 time to meet in the Nautica Lounge, we ordered a room service breakfast for 0630. It came at 0615 so I was glad I set the alarm for 0600!! Breakfast was great… Oatmeal and Croissant and then we went down to muster at 0730. We didn’t have a long wait… our bus left at 0758.

One thing I noted in the waiting area was the distribution of ages on the cruise. We’ve seen Cruisers aged from mid to late 50s to early 90s. So at 70, we’re in the middle of the group and we can see the progression Old Father Time has planned for us. I’m sure hoping that STAYING ACTIVE with Biking, Traveling and Cruising will help fight the ravages of Time.

We left from the boarding area at the Nelson Mandela Ship Terminal located at the harbour area called the Point. From there we learned a little about the history and economy of Durban. Durban was started between 1854 and 1858, initially as a trading post, then a borough. It has grown from 3.77 Million in 2022, up from 2.97 in 2011. The Racial demographics are also interesting with Black Africans (predominantly Zulu and Xhosa) at 51%,
24% being Asian (predominantly Indian), White at 15% and Coloured at 8.6%.

With the Harbour area being the oldest area, there are many historic buildings here. Understandably, these buildings are in various states of repair. Instead of tearing them down, they are kept as is, waiting for restoration.

One of the industries here is a Toyota plant manufacturing cars. In the harbour area is a secure parking area which can hold 40,000 cars for shipping on to other countries. And speaking of shipping, the harbour is one of the major ports in this part of the Indian Ocean.

The port area looks like most port areas I’ve ever seen but the downtown area is all bright and shiny. And then you look at the streets through town and you see a city with lots of people, busy selling things.

As we drove past some of the buildings, there was a statue of John Ross, a 15 year old who walked 900 km r/t to get and return medicines needed by the community. He was assisted by the Zulus on his return trip.

The town of Durban is in the Kwazulu-Natal province, one of 9 provinces in South Africa.

Our first stop of the day was at the Victoria Market. It’s a huge market filled with all kinds of items but the biggest one seemed to be spices. It smelled wonderful… almost like driving past Tones in Ankeny IA. It was so enticing that we had to stop and get some things.

After the Market, we went to the Durban Botanical Gardens, established in 1849. It has many of the indigenous plants from South Africa as well as many imported plants and trees. One that was actually quite beautiful was the Eucalyptus brought from New Zealand. Because it grows so fast, the bark splits showing beautiful colors, almost looking like a piece of art.

Our third stop was at the Currie Road overlook with great panorama of all of Durban and the CBD. You’ll see my panorama from the Soccer stadium on the left through the CBD on the right. Right in front, as you zoom, you’ll see the Horse Racing Track. The interesting thing about this is the track has a Golf Course covering the infield!!

The 4th stop was the Moses Mabhida Stadium, one of many built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The locals love their stadium, comparing it to a fruit basket. The stadium has permanent seating for 20,000 people but can expand to 85,000 when needed with temporary seats.

After this, we drove on the Durban Beach Promenade road, along the Gold Mile Beach…. A lovely beach with resort hotels lining the road.

One of the sights is the Suncoast casino, an art deco style hotel/casino/entertainment venue. Beyond that, on the beach, hotels and restaurants and clubs line the entire beach.

We next circled back around to see the Durban City Hall, a beautiful Victorian building said to be a replica of the Belfast City Hall.

As we drove back to the ship, we had a chance to look at some signs of stores in the area….. entertaining to see them.

This evening we had a Gondola ride in the canals at uShaka Water Park. Following that was a walk through a shopping area that was 90% closed…. Sadly. And to end the day we got to see almost everything we saw this morning only in the dark with lights on.

We were going to go to Polo Restaurant on the ship but getting in at 830 and having a big dinner was probably not the best idea. So we went back to the room and had room service comfort food…. An Omelette for me and Spaghetti for Gretchen. Now we’re done and ready for bed…. We’ll shove off in about 5 minutes and sail to Richards Bay.

BG Adventures

06/19/2024

05/28/2024

05/24/2024

05/23/2024

05/22/2024

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