Out of Africa, live from the Europa 2 Capetown-Capetown

[Catlover54]

Last night as we prepared for a sail-in to this port, DH and I indulged in a delicious meal at Serenissima (we chose Parma ham with awesome parmesan, cream of rocula soup, and surprisingly delicate spaghetti carbonara), accompanied by a a bottle of a very nice Chianti Classico. There is a charge on all wines, of which there are several hundred on board from all over the world ranging in price from 18 to 1024 Euro, (most are in the 2 digits), and a couple dozen very nice selections not counting the many dessert wines are available by the glass at 0.1 or 0.25 liters. The European-born (mostly German) servers spoke good restaurant English, as do most in all the restaurants, and only got stuck on how to translate into English the term Wacholderbeeren, the essence of which was supposed to be in the transitional cherry sorbet that was offered (juniper). The prior night a waiter got stuck on Stachelbeeren (gooseberries).

 

We were seated across the way from two middle-aged men, one drinking serial diet cokes, an animated woman of the same age who talked with body language that suggested she definitely needed some of our wine (she only had a 0.1 liter portion at her side), and a clean-cut young man, likely the son of one of them. Suddenly, without warning, all four heads looked downwards into their laps, and they all stopped talking. It reminded me of a scene out of the Stepford wives, and I did not know what was going on until I looked at DH and saw that he had also assumed the same downward-glancing, intense and silent position. Turned out we had just come into port close enough to receive cellular coverage, and on second glance I saw everyone was not hypnotized at all but was just looking at their iPhones (mostly the gold-colored ones) to get their pre-paid mobile plan updated message downloads, which they likely had been craving while at sea, unwilling to pay the 0.19 cents/minute slow internet fee unless absolutely needed. When they revived, the diet coke guy dashed off without having finished his food, I am guessing to take care of urgent business he was alerted to on his phone. The woman resumed her anxious and rapid talking and complaining. Some things are, of course, international.

 

The performance last night after dinner was once again the talented six Spanish dancers, who did a magnificent job performing a different ballet flaminco show to an almost full theatre. Earlier I had noticed that at the pool bar (where they often hang out looking beautiful when not performing) there are Spanish-language newspapers available on display.

 

In about an hour we will be heading out on an excursion to the Aldo Elephant Park. Personnel have started preparing the ship for tonight’s New Years Eve (Silvester) celebrations, where they will have a DJ and bands on the pool deck. There will be champagne, caviar, Berliner (the jelly donuts JFK was accused by opponents of identifying himself with when he gave his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech), traditional“Bleigiessen” (melting lead pouring) fortune telling, and a special Silvester menu in all restaurants except the Yacht Club.

[Floridiana]

Suddenly, without warning, all four heads looked downwards into their laps, and they all stopped talking.

 

What a wonderful description!

[English Voyager]

Catlover54,

 

I hope you and your husband have had a great day, and have worked up an appropriate appetite for this evening's Gala Dinner.

 

I hope that it does not disappoint.

 

I wish you both a Happy New Year.

[Catlover54]

Happy New Year to all Cruise Critic members, and those reading this thread! Hopefully we are all grateful for our good fortunes (no matter what problems we may have), the health we have (even if not perfect for all of us), and our ability to not only cruise and travel, but to do so in luxury, the envy of so many in the world who are less fortunate and whom we visit only briefly.

 

I will post a little about the New Year’s Eve (Sylvester) celebration on board the E2 separately. Here is information about the afternoon events of 12/31:

 

 

DH and I set out on an E2 excursion to the Addo Elephant Park afternoon of 12/31 that was advertised as being in English. It was indeed in English in that they had a a local English-speaking local guide on board, but there were also many Germans who had booked it for unclear reasons (no space on the German tour?) whose English was weak enough to require one of the crew members to also be on board to sort of translate into German. The English guide tried to speak extra slowly so the mostly non-fluent Germans could keep up.

 

Odd signs we saw along the way, only in English for some reason, on businesses and elsewhere

as we drove the 1.25 hours to the park in a half-full bus with air-conditioning levels appropriate to comfort levels of a German raised population (i.e., I had to strip down to my skimpy tank top and pull out my hand fan):

 

"Do not throw rocks at the bus, your family members could be on board”

 

“100% human hair”

 

“ABORTION, using pill, womb cleaning, PENIS ENLARGEMENT”

 

“Headstones and cabinets"

 

Then, after we drove past stinky controlled burn sites, assorted townships in various conditions, pickups full of people in thee truckbeds presumably heading out for New Year’s ventures, tidy little communities surrounded by electric fencing not far away from unfenced not so tidy communities piled high with surrounding trash, giant industrial European-made windmills, and a huge cemetery right near free-roaming cows, when we got to the park, we saw:

 

“Pachyderm proctologist” (sticker on the back of a jeep)

 

“Thirsty Herd Pub and Restaurant”

 

“Dung beetles right of way, do not drive over dung or dung beetles” (not a joke)

 

[i am not sure what you are supposed to do if there is unavoidable dung right in the middle of the road in several places when you need to pass in your car, as no scoopers or bags were provided]

 

The Addo national park was very hot when we arrived (close to 100 degrees, very dry, think Phoenix in August), and after a very brief and welcome toilet break (clean enough), we drove around in an open air but covered big jeep holding about 20 people for two hours through the park looking for wildlife, which we found. Unlike in the Tala reserve, where the animals are tagged, here they live in an even more wild state (though water is brought in for the elephants during droughts). We saw more zebras, "black-backed" antelope, red heart antelope, a herd of elephants near a watering hole very close to the jeep including elephant babies and teens, many warthogs, a jackal, a couple birds of prey, and, last but not least for this feline lover, a lazy lion (lying very flat).

 

It was a good afternoon.

 

Here are pictures by DH:

 

http://s1354.photobucket.com/user/randomguy60/slideshow/South%20Africa/South%20Africa%207

[Ithaca]

Happy New Year to you and DH. As usual, his photos are excellent. Although I was born in the Caribbean and grew up with high temperatures and humidity levels, I am now happier with the cooler temperatures of Northeast USA. Your description of the ship's and tour bus' preferred temperatures give me pause in considering E2. Can you lower the temp in your cabin below 65 degrees? How uncomfortable would you be spending long times in the communal areas? I don't know if you used the gym (we work out every day)...is the room kept at a reasonably cool temperature? Sorry to bother you with these questions...

[Catlover54]

After DH and I returned to the ship from our elephant park and unscheduled local color viewing excursion, crew served Moet & Chandon champagne at the bar with assorted canapés. Yet more canapés were awaiting us in the suite. After cleaning up, we headed to the MDR (Weltmeere) around 8PM which was very full. We have noted 8PM is generally the fullest time and when you are least likely to get a very good table without waiting (best to come earlier or later). When we appeared and checked in, there were only two open tables, one almost on top of another couple, and the other somewhat near the kitchen, but very private and not in the line of traffic and with a fringe benefit that we had a good view of the Spanish dancers, with the women wearing beautiful long dresses and looking like they were getting ready to perform, though this was their down time. Of course, we picked that table.

 

There was a special dinner menu, from which we ordered very tender Venison served with a special wild berry sauce, bursting with subtle flavors, and also splurged on wine, got the Ch. Palmer (Margaux, 1998) that is stocked on board and CC’er Vistaman had recommended earlier on this thread. There are so many French (and other) wines on board it is hard for us, who are mostly immersed daily in nice California wines (only 7 offered here, which we have ignored), to know what to get, but the sommelier or a knowledgable waiter is easily available for consultation. We noticed the sommelier checking our wine cork and nose off to the side before the waitress offered it to us to taste.

 

With the exception of a couple of teenage boys trying to be cool, everyone was dressed up, with men in jackets and ties just like at Christmas Eve (no tuxes), though more women wore glitz and hemlines were either much shorter or much longer than at Christmas, and heels were generally higher. Even the outlier teen boys had on blazers, just no ties on most. The smaller children had apparently been handed off to nannies for the evening, as all but one very quiet and very cute little one wearing 6 triangular multicolored shiny New Year's hats simultaneously, plus some ribbons as a shawl, were nowhere in sight.

 

After our wonderful dinner, and rest in the room the butler meanwhile had per usual immaculately tidied up, we did not go back up to the pool deck for the formal pool deck celebrations until about 11:45. When we left, we noticed that surprisingly almost half of the “DO NOT DISTURB” lights in our PH suite corridor were on. I speculated people were foregoing the festivities because they were already too tired from seeing elephants in the heat, or alternatively were so intoxicated from all the free champagne they had forgotten to turn their lights off when they went to get more. But as we entered the pool deck, we found out the likely reason why so many people likely were not there, and almost turned right around and went back to the room: the music that greeted us — unbelievably — was, yet again, the infamous “Horny, Horny, Horny.” (!) . Emma Lanford was singing it on the stage, gyrating accordingly, the German DJ was out in force, and one of the now apparently inebriated Spanish dancers clad in a fiery red evening gown was also singing it on the edge of the crowd as we entered, and was being escorted away, presumably to her room, by her co-dancer.

 

But despite our initial chagrine at the music greeting us, we decided to tough it out, at least until the countdown, the midnight caviar (I later learned they went through 32 kg on this trip), and the midnight Berliners and big buffet we knew were coming. After a couple hundred more painful iterations of the lyrics “horny, horny, horny”, which took a few minutes, during which time we were immediately offered yet more Moet and Chandon, the DJ then moved on, oddly, to “We’re going to party like it’s 1999.” Various performers, speakers, crew, and many of the pax on board under 50, plus some much older (e.g., one old gent who looked like he was old enough to have survived and remembered the march of the Red Army westward towards Berlin and beyond in 1945), were dancing or at least rhythmically bobbing away to the very dated and very loud music. Several gay couples (the younger ones) we had briefly seen earlier in the cruise were also there having a grand time (men, women, some with well-wishing and supportive extended families, and also a couple of elegantly attired likely transgender ladies I had seen at the Elton John tribute (BTW I have noticed no overt discrimination against LGBT people or racial minorities on the E2, everyone is treated with high levels of service and respect).

 

The DJ then played “We Are Family”, the captain (slightly slurring) did a countdown, confetti came down, people toasted, and at 12:05 many people politely and organizedly for the most part headed for the caviar bar (caviar was being scooped out with large spoons, and there were assorted accompanying condiments you could pick and choose from, blinis, toast points, and Stolichnaya vodka shots available. After I tried the very good caviar and discovered the Berliners were only full of disappointing pudding and not the plum jam I hoped to find, I wanted to call it a night around 12:20 but DH wanted to stay a little longer to see if anything else developed he could photograph, so I just watched the scenes of all these mostly well-off people who had convinced themselves that this is the best thing they could do to welcome the new year (though of course I now know the smarter ones had stayed in their suites). I noticed several people had started smoking (which is verboten under the dome) but no crew came around to tell them to stop, so it appears even Germans who are really good with rules in general, and on this ship, are afraid to be party poopers on New Year’s Eve.

 

Someone opened a door to the deck outside to improve ventilation and help avoid his death from smoking, but then someone else predictably said “es zieht” and closed the door to help prevent his death from drafts. So DH and I just went out to sit on the quieter and refreshing deck with a couple Stoli shots. There, a very old grandmother or great-grandmother, with sad eyes and facial lines suggesting she most certainly does remember the war or the hardships that followed even if the very old dancing man does not, sat on a lounge chair gazing at the ocean, the little boy from dinner with the multiple hats splayed out next to her, deep asleep, hats askew, as she slowly stroked his head.

 

We walked around a bit on the decks towards the bow, gazing at the muted moon, and were repeatedly greeted by off-duty crew wishing us a Happy New Year. Finally we reflectively returned to the well-lit with “do not disturb” signs PH suite row, where we probably should have stayed after dinner and just listened to our own music and drunk our own champagne. If I’m ever again on the E2 on New Year’s, that is where I will be, though I also understand people under the semi-smokey dome that night needed to be where they were. I wonder what the MS Europa does on New Year's Eve.

 

The January 1 evening concert, in contrast, today, was classical, very well done, no need to hide in the suite. All the musicians (soprano, violinist, pianist) outdid themselves. I will write more about that soon, as well as about the interesting crew thank you raffle, and hopefully also about our last day and last excursion around Cape Hope, and final comments after we get home.

[Catlover54]

Happy New Year to you and DH. As usual, his photos are excellent. Although I was born in the Caribbean and grew up with high temperatures and humidity levels, I am now happier with the cooler temperatures of Northeast USA. Your description of the ship's and tour bus' preferred temperatures give me pause in considering E2. Can you lower the temp in your cabin below 65 degrees? How uncomfortable would you be spending long times in the communal areas? I don't know if you used the gym (we work out every day)...is the room kept at a reasonably cool temperature? Sorry to bother you with these questions...

 

You can lower the temp in your cabin to quite cold levels, even below 65, nice (I usually stick to around 70-71). As long as I had short sleeves, breathable clothing like linen or hiking synthetics or breezy airy styles, and a back-up little hand fan, and was not eating very hot soup, I was ok in the dining rooms. DH felt fine pretty most everywhere if he took his jacket off. The tourbuses vary, if they have been standing in the sun a lot, they take a while to cool, and if you are sitting in the sun and the pax complain about drafts, they won't cool down to the level I prefer. However, I am on medication that makes me more sensitive to getting warm, and constantly carry fluids. I was comfortable indoors on SS and SB, sometimes I got hot on Regent, for comparison.

[Catlover54]

You can lower the temp in your cabin to quite cold levels, even below 65, nice (I usually stick to around 70-71). As long as I had short sleeves, breathable clothing like linen or hiking synthetics or breezy airy styles, and a back-up little hand fan, and was not eating very hot soup, I was ok in the dining rooms. DH felt fine pretty most everywhere if he took his jacket off. The tourbuses vary, if they have been standing in the sun a lot, they take a while to cool, and if you are sitting in the sun and the pax complain about drafts, they won't cool down to the level I prefer. However, I am on medication that makes me more sensitive to getting warm, and constantly carry fluids. I was comfortable indoors on SS and SB, sometimes I got hot on Regent, for comparison.

 

Also, DH used the gym almost every day, and said it was nice and cool there for workouts. What he missed there were having enough mirrors to spot yourself if lifting weights.

Edited January 2, 2016 by Catlover54
typo

[Ithaca]

Thank you so much for your answers to my concerns. I'm happy to learn that we will feel as comfortable as in SS and SB. I understand about the outside temperatures affecting the tour busses and the general population's desire not to cool down too much; we'll try to schedule our cruise for more temperate weather. Also happy to learn about the cool gym room. Looking forward to your next installments to this wonderful thread. Enjoy your last days!

[Floridiana]

Very interesting to see how cold you actually like it. I would freeze at 70/71 degrees. That's when us Floridians put on the woolies.

[Catlover54]

(delayed posting due to internet issues)

 

DH and I pretended we were going to pack for disembarkation early on this sea day, as we would be on excursion around Cape Hope on the last day and I like to be ready in advance. But somehow we kept finding more important things to do, such as reading on our balcony as we sailed (so calming!) and going back to Elements for a quiet lunch where there were New Years chocolate horseshoes and chocolate little piggies on the table, for good luck. I had to remind DH, who loves chocolate, that these were table decorations and not meant to be taken away for noshing. Later I learned from other pax that someone had made away with a chocolate piggie from Elements and for a brief moment I was horrified and thought DH had lifted it after all, but he adamantly denied it. At noon the captain came on the PA to give general well wishes and also said the crew would be tossing off the evergreen tree into the sea after his announcement. For background, a tree had been perched up at the tip of the bow of the ship since departure (in the approximate place where Kate Winslett posed in the movie Titanic), then you could place wishes for the upcoming year on it; once thrown into the ocean, legend has it your wishes would be fulfilled. As soon as I heard the captain I dashed off to the bow to catch the images, and so did many others. But I was too late — I only made it to about 20 meters from the bow before I saw many disappointed-appearing pax heading my way who had missed the toss. All we could see was a sad little clump of branches rapidly bobbing down the starboard side. I was surprised how many people had come to see this silly toss, as there are many people who work in science, high tech, medicine, finance, and other allegedly rational endeavors.

 

We also swung by the Yacht Club right after lunch for Italian ice cream with whipping cream (Sahne), where they also handed out apple juice mixed with Aquavit shots (just what you need after a New Year’s party night), filled out the feedback questions (we wrote many comments, hopefully perceived as constructive), and went to the gym or spa. One manicurist on board is a Turkish-descent young lady, born in Germany (many Turkish Germans are descendants of the guest workers Germany brought in during the 1960’s when there was a labor shortage in Germany and have full citizenship status now) and the other is an East Indian descent lady with an Old Testament name, adopted as a baby and brought to Germany. Many crew have such international descent backgrounds, and are fluent in German and at least conversant (or more) in English. All are polite, many are friendly and they are well-trained. No one had a hostile manner, and they generally seemed content. I could see a sign in a crew area that said, “Smile, you are entering a passenger area."

 

The big events of the evening other than more eating of well-prepared delicacies (we had a table for two at the window this time, came early), were the crew raffle results, and the last concert by the trio of classical artists.

Instead of a “crew fund” per se like people donate to on SS, SB, or Regent, here you could buy raffle tickets at 5 Euro a piece to win one of 3 prizes: a flag signed by all 360 crew (for 516 pax), an original Europa 2 safety buoy, and a steel section cut from the ship during constructions. The money goes to the crew. Right before the concert people gathered in the theatre and the captain came in with all the crew they could spare marching in, starting with 60 or so people in chef’s hats, the butlers, front desk people etc., onto the stage. Then the winners of the raffle were called (for one prize two people came up to claim it at first — something had gone wrong). They raised about 6000 Euro for the crew for parties, events, etc. I like this way of raising extra crew money, rather than just writing checks, though the tipping rule on E2 is different than on SS, SB, or Regent, i.e., it is fine to tip, the phrasing is something like “tipping is not required, but is welcomed”. However, no one stands around with their hands out, ever.

 

Then came the concert, an absolute delight, Ute Selbig soprano, Jacob Meining violin, and Camillio Radicke piano.

My favorites were Meining and Radicke doing Vittorio Monti’s “Csardas” for violin and piano, very lively, though sad. Selbig also sang Puccini, “O mio babbino caro”, Aria of Lauretta from the opera “Gianni Schicchi,” among other lovely songs or arias.

So the evening of New Year’s Day ended much more to my liking than New Year’s Eve.

 

Day 15 (today, our last cruise day) was my birthday, (free French champagne from the E2) and we did an excursion sponsored by the E2 around the Cape of Good Hope on this beautiful weekend day. But the roads and destinations were packed with people and the hired bus arrangement was less than optimal (almost full bus, and only the people on the right could really see the views from the bus windows as we drove 2.5 hours in the morning, and then 2 hours in the afternoon). The guide would not stop to allow people on the left side, who were seeing almost nothing, to take pictures, because we had a busy agenda, many places to go (and Germans must be on time, so we were). At the end of the excursion, I submitted a verbal and then written complaint to E2 staff (my first and only one) that the excursion was misrepresented as a ‘scenic drive’, but to be scenic, one must actually see, and here most of the time we did not see. It will be interesting to see how they handle this, i.e., see what, if anything they do, (talk, comp, send a form letter, or ignore it). It was not a cheap tour.

 

We are packing tonight, so sadly DH has no time for picture editing of the dozens of almost identical penguins we saw today once we finally stopped, and more food porn collection. I hate the sight of all the pax suitcases lined up in the hall for pick-up.

Edited January 2, 2016 by Catlover54
typo

[Catlover54]

After our Cape of Good Hope geographically counterclockwise bus day trip on the very busy cape, we had to decide where to eat our final meal on the E2. Weltmeere’s MDR menu was very tempting (see below) though we ultimately landed in Sakura, the Japanese place, so we would have tried it at least once on our trip (oh, the difficult task of E2 food quality control!). Sakura is located on one side of the Yacht Club in a quiet section, on the 9th deck. We sat in a booth, and had excellently flavored coconut and shrimp soup, lightly battered delicate prawn tempura, sashimi which was served on ice, and a complicated and very tasty version of a California roll, rivaling Japanese food we have had in the San Francisco bay area, while sitting looking out at the lights of Cape Town at sunset, accompanied by sake. Both chopsticks and silverware were provided, and the servers were well-informed and were conversant about the Japanese cuisine in both German and English. I imagine Japanese natives or bigger experts than DH and myself might find something wrong with it, but it was a nice alternative offering to the rich European cuisine we’d been enjoying most meals for two weeks and assuming quality is maintained, I would not hesitate to go back if on the E2 again.

 

Weltmeere options that we missed due to our alternative Japanese feasting were:

 

"

Carpaccio of Beef Tenderloin “Cipriani”

with mustard sauce and Pecorino

 

Tomato Consommé with monkfish, vanilla and star anise

 

Carved Slice of Suckling Lamb Rump

with zucchini, goat cheese casserole, lavender and jus

 

Sorbet of Rhubarb

 

Halibut with caviar sauce, truffled cream spinach and potato gnocchi

 

Ballotine and Crepinette of Guinea Fowl

with autumn trumpet, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, chanterelles and radishes

 

Reblochon with fig compote

 

Passion Fruit Panna Cotta on pomegranate sauce

 

Wild Berry Cream Cheese Mousse with chocolate sprinkle sail

 

Warm Pear Tart with cinnamon calvados sabayone

 

Selections of Ice Cream

International Cheese Selection from the Trolley "

 

 

And then of course in the Yacht Club there were other wonderful options on the buffet menu too numerous to list.

 

As for more basic options, frequent cruisers know that

when you are exposed to so much high end food day after day, all day, in unlimited amounts, it is hard to keep up the eating appreciation pace, and sometimes you may just want something simple and earthy. A couple days ago DH and I were walking around early evening on the deck and through the window near the Yacht Club we noticed some people eating what looked like fully loaded juicy hamburgers on buns, ketchup busting out of the sides as the pax took big bites. We had not seen hamburgers on the menus anywhere, not even at the Yacht Club Grill, or on the room service menu, so we stopped and looked more closely, trying to figure out details and origins. We noted a very nice burger condiment bar in the corner and wondered how we’d missed it. The consumers of the juicy burgers that reminded us of home were a couple kids. As we pressed our faces to the glass, intrigued, perhaps vaguely resembling starving children in a Dickens novel hungrily looking into windows as well-off people inside ate their fill (at least in our poses, though not in our adipose tissue content), a crew member stepped out through a door to the deck and asked if we wanted to come in from outside, or needed something. After we explained we were just wondering where the burgers came from, as we had not seen them on the menu, she said we were actually looking into what is called the Knopf Club, which is a separate small children’s eating area on the ship where crew and nannies serve kids on board things that kids like, and where they have the option to sit in a separate area from other Yacht Club pax so as to be around other kids (and by implication, so they don't have to be quiet all the time). We were assured that if we want a hamburger, we can have one any time we want, and need not eat it in the Knopf Club (e.g., instead of something like “Ballotine and Crepinette of Guinea Fowl”, above). The equivalent keep-it-simple comfort food for Germans that is on the room service menu is the Frankfurter sausages option, and Wienerschnitzel, or the white sausages with curry in the Sandbar, which are excellent.

The presence of the Knopf Club eating area might help explain why even the Yacht Club was not overrun with small yelling children at buffet time. Crew recently said there were 60 kids on this cruise (though I think half of those were teens, and overall with rare exceptions the kids were well-behaved), but the cruise following ours, leaving Capetown for the east coast of Africa, only has 7 kids on board. We were told this is more typical for non-holiday time cruises on the E2, so the Knopf Club will likely be a very lonely place the next couple weeks, or perhaps even until Easter holidays.

[Floridiana]

Thank you very much for this wonderfully written review! I hope 2016 will give you more delectable cruises! Happy New Year!

[mpfund]

I, too, join in a chorus of applause for this terrific series of posts. Gosh, you bring back memories!

 

Many thanks for the time you've taken to write this.

[vistaman]

also many thanks for the wonderful posts

i am glad you enjoyed the Europa 2 - i am counting every day to join her in Dubai

[Ithaca]

I also join the grateful chorus; yours has been a wonderful and very valuable review of E2. Have a great new year and many more cruises!

Edited January 3, 2016 by Ithaca

[Catlover54]

I am pleased that some have benefited in various ways from this thread, and I hope that others interested in the Europa 2 in the future will be able to use it as a reference.Writing it has helped solidify memories. After I am home, I will submit a summary, short formal review to the “members reviews” part of Cruise Critic, but will say nothing new.

 

Attached below is a link to the final set of DH's photos we were able to complete editing while hovering in assorted business lounges today with properly functioning wifi on our way home. We are now only halfway through our long trek home (CPT-JOHANNESBURG-FRA-SFO) and it will be almost 30 hours enroute before we are finally home to our likely angry and resentful cats, a huge pile of mail and, of course, waiting work to be done, so we can earn more money for more cruising :)

 

On our last day, Jan. 2, , when we did the E2 excursion counterclockwise down and around the Cape of Good Hope, the day was strikingly beautiful, showing Capetown in its full, contradictory splendor, but unfortunately due to the layout of the bus (we were on the viewless left side), the fact that the bus was full so we could not change to the right, had high blocking seats, and an absence of stops for photoshoots (except to see the facade of a prison where Nelson Mandela once stayed), because the guide was in a hurry ( poor planning), DH was unable to get any shots of the trip for 4.5 hours on a twisty stretch of road to and from the cape which reportedly had striking views driving both south and north. We did finally stop at the actual Cape, and to eat, and to see local penguins. On the way south, we drove past a huge line of people eating to get on the tour to Robben Island. It stretched for thousands of feet and was not moving. Tourists and locals alike were out in force everywhere on this holiday weekend, traffic was horrendous, and most beaches were extremely busy, with people segregated by race though not by law, rather, by choice or finances. (Thomas Sowell would likely have a lot to say bout this phenomenon). Discarded trash was lying and flying everywhere, and I have noticed this is a problem in many parts of the country we have driven through, even though there are often trash cans around with cute slogans on them inviting people to use them. If returning, I would recommend going to see the striking scenery of the drive to the Cape on a weekday, when there are no holidays, to avoid the mob scene experience and to be able to properly contemplate what it must have been like for the explorers hundreds of years ago to make their way past these treacherous rocks. A private tour would likely be best.

 

The restaurant the big group excursion took us to, Seeforth, is a popular open air seafood restaurant. It had no air conditioning and was very warm, and required a 10 minute or so walk down from the parking lot past tacky souvenir shops and stores advertising things such as naturopathic cures for spastic colon and gout, over sand and stones and trash and past large groups of sitting and lounging contented appearing locals with multiple children and extended families, some in Hajibs, out for the nice day. Many were eating fish, KFC, BBQ-ing on the sidewalks, and drinking large bottles of soda and juice, then throwing the used containers on the ground. It was quite striking to see how much trash was being thrown around in such a beautiful setting, with people obliviously sitting right in the middle of their, their neighbor’s, and yesterday’s neighbor’s old plastic bags, wrappers, some discarded sharps, and God knows what else. A couple of our guides had previously commented on South Africa’s lack of attention to the environment, but that it is improving, however I think she was more focussed on SA’s coal burning than on people not cleaning up their trash. As we paraded past the locals in the sand on our way to the destination Seeforth, several splayed out locals made disparaging and mocking remarks in English towards a couple of our fellow travelers, mostly relating to the women’s slightly excessive weight and large hip shapes, and their Germanness, and obviously the locals were not happy to see us, privileged white people, marching towards the nice restaurant while they felt they had to lounge in trash in the sand. Fortunately, the German women did not understand that they were being insulted and just smiled, so it all worked out, for now.

 

The Seeforth restaurant itself was busy with one tour group after another, I think we have all seen that kind of place on excursions. Food included fresh fish, but was mediocre, as was service, though frankly at this stage of the trip it’d be hard to find anything that tastes good or is perceived as being served well after all the gorging and pampering on the E2.

 

Finally, we walked to see a small penguin colony, that had sprung up spontaneously about 30 years ago. No one knows why it started, with just a pair, as penguins are supposed to like real cold water, which is not to be had at the Cape. They are interesting creatures who I understand mate for life and have tremendous ability to recognize their partner in a crowd. This particular display was interesting, but not as spectacular as the big penguin preserves I saw on a Silver Sea cruise to South America a couple years ago. BTW, selfies of self + penguins are not allowed, which greatly frustrated a contingent of Chinese tourists that had come by. Again, I think this is a site best seen when it is not a holiday, and not with a group.

 

Here are the final photos. DH and I must relocate to another lounge, as it appears a group of unsupervised Russian children has taken over this lounge, playing military-themed action video games without headphones. They and their parents are not responding to requests to quiet down, or go to the children’s area (makes me appreciate the well-behaved German kids who were on board the E2 :)

 

 

http://s1354.photobucket.com/user/randomguy60/slideshow/South%20Africa/South%20Africa%208

[Catlover54]

DH and I finally arrived home a few hours ago after a long series of flights back to the San Francisco area which, despite having refreshing shower opportunities at the layover in Frankfurt, were of course tiring (it was almost 48 hours from arising for a final in-room Nespresso coffee and relaxing room service by Mario in our PH suite on the E2 to collapsing in bed with the grateful cats at home).

 

In Lufthansa business class, already not known for fine cuisine, it was impossible for me to find anything I really wanted to eat: everything offered did not excite my appetite at all, as it had to be compared with the E2's food, and of course the weight I have gained (5 lb in 3 weeks) is driving my brain's "set point" to stop eating so much and get back to my usual weight. The weight gain was further exemplified about an hour into the FRA-SFO flight, when my seat cushion started to slowly deflate, to the point that I found myself sitting on mere cloth-on-plastic, no cushioning at all, right when I was drafting my formal CC "member review of the cruise" for submission and thinking and writing about the food. DH and the pleasant German stewardess, after some seat disassembly efforts and circuit breaker resets, got me reinflated at least to the point that with a few extra pillows I was able to get comfortable enough for the rest of the trip.

 

I finished my summary official review and submitted it over LH's on-board wifi, expecting it to take a week or two to get published by CC, as seems to be the norm for reviews. But by the time we were home, surprisingly it was already online (link below), though unfortunately with jet-lagged typos which I missed and cannot correct.

 

DH and I will be showing some of our Africa pictures to frequent traveler neighbor friends this weekend up near our weekend home on the Sonoma coast when we go there for dinner, and where I will silently be comparing our friends' usually excellent cooking with the E2, and must resolve not to be rude. We hope we will be able to convince them, and others, to give the Europa 2 a try, perhaps even in Africa, where the ship will be doing the same cruise in January 2018. I hope not to wait that long to get back on, however, even if just as a solo. Right now our next scheduled cruise, with DH, is with the SB Quest to Norway in late July, which we had booked many months ago.

 

I would like to visit more, and read more, about Africa, as the scenery is striking, the contrasts are fascinating, and the people (at least most of the ones we encountered in our admittedly limited exposures) seemed generally friendly and gracious despite the many difficult struggles they have, doing the best they can in tough political and economic situations.

 

 

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=522236

[vistaman]

once again many thanks for all the posts and the review as well

feeling sorry to hear you did not like the food on LH business - as i have a LH flight to join Europa 2 in Dubai :eek:

contrarely to a lot op people i do not like complimentary wines - i like to order and pay for it

it seems however the major amount of guests "non germans" on Europa 2 - excluding the other German speaking countries of course - is coming from the UK.

i wish you the very best on your next cruise

[brazilgirl]

Catlover....

 

Your review is wonderful . Your descriptions and wit made for a fascinating read. You have more than sold me on the Europa 2.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tgh]

The perception by some of of German "Aloofness" is something I would choose to comment upon.

As a somewhat garrulous Australian, I have found Germans (and most Europeans) , both at home and abroad to be very open and friendly, once the characteristic wall of reserve is broken.

I just barge in , chatter away ( in heavy 'strine vernacular…) like I have known them for years, crack a few jokes and seldom fail to find a friendly person who is often great company.

 

I'm trying very hard to organise a cruise on the Europa 2 this year.

[mpfund]

But how do you break the "wall of reserve"if you don't speak German?

[cathaana]

I'll be on this year's Christmas cruise so you can all come and chat with me. ;)

[tgh]

But how do you break the "wall of reserve"if you don't speak German?

 

Most Europeans , and especially Germans speak and understand English very well.

So just start talking , ask some questions like a name so that the obligation to be polite overrides the reserve.

It is well worth the effort and we have met some very nice people this way.

 

In some places it's a culture thing : Way out in the boonies of Argentina , they would spread out the tables in the restaurant to segregate everyone. I put up with this for one night , but the next night did a table crawl at the start and invited everyone to get together. The staff had to very quickly rearrange a tribe of us(including several Germans) into one long table in the middle where the wine and the conversation flowed for many hours...

[English Voyager]

But how do you break the "wall of reserve"if you don't speak German?

 

I just ask

 

Do you speak English?

 

Mein Deutsch ist ganz schlecht

 

and generally if the person speaks English they will start to have a conversation.