Bouwmannis in South Africa

BouwManni’s in South Africa

Without Bloomie. Sorry. Bloomie location at time of writing still in Zurich, Switzerland. She should be shipped to the Netherlands tomorrow or the day after. We had great hope that we would see Bloomie yet and could arrange the fixer-upper with the garage in person before leaving the Netherlands. But that is not how it is. Meanwhile, we have traveled to South Africa by plane (wouldn’t have done that with Bloomie anyways).

Ok, so without Bloomie

Today we passed a local garage with a whole fleet of T3 / Vanagons. ‘Brothers of Bloomie’ when they have a dull color according to Anna), Sisters (if they have a bright color) and cousins if doka or panelvan. We also spotted a bunch of driving T3’s. Anna waves every time, a nice gesture among T3 owners yet currently we have a colorless (white) rental. One that every 3rd person drives here (and it starts and drives just fine). The main challenge is driving on the left, especially when cornering where there is little traffic (old habits die hard).

South Africa!

Last Saturday we left. But first we leaned down from T3 multiple cubic meters to a few bags. So even more to cram into the storage (a small sea container…). Believe me, a full Bloomie down to 3 suitcases is incredibly hard to do. The storage we have rented is quite large, but let’s say we used it ‘in full’. After the storage we had to drop off the loaner car at ANWB Badhoevedorp close to Schiphol airport. We were picked up by a taxi. Ordered size E-class but a VW Golf Station showed up and so with bags on our laps we arrived after a short ride at the airport.

Two times lucky

Schiphol had a very busy day as the day before a lot of flights where cancelled due to heavy winds. We looked a the very long check in line but were allowed to pass (all the common people :-*) in order to check in at a special counter but then caused a queue behind us as the flight to Cape Town with a lay-over over in Frankfurt wasn’t possible to be correct administrated. The service assistant was determined to resolve it and not let us figure it out in Frankfurt with a baby and all the language so it did take some time.. Eventually things where solved and checked and we were lucky that we did not have to pay for excess baggage we had b a great margin. Whomever you where: thank you for the great service!

After lunch with my sister, we went through security to the gate where we could board soon. First stop Frankfurt. At 20.30 hours we departed for Cape Town. We (again) where lucky to two empty chairs before us that steward communicated to other to ‘be ours’ in support of travelling with a 4 year old and a baby. Yeah! So for Anna and Livia we made a bed and might be able to sleep through the night. After a somewhat restless but for us a surprisingly good night we arrived in the morning in Cape Town. I think passengers around us where also relieved that things went this well.

Welcome to the mother city

We have visited Cape Town twice in the last few years so third time around we knew the airport. We walked to the car rental booth and for the first time it was pretty chilly outside (I guess 16 degrees or so), but with a nice sun out. We got the car quickly, and before we knew it we were on the highway with two little girls sleeping sound. We drove on until lunch time and enjoyed it at a place where we had been almost two years ago with with friends from Mozambique.

In the mean time we are in South Africa for 4 days already and the weather and house we are staying is great! We have settle down enjoying the beautiful home of generous friends. We will ‘in our element’ with the sun, sea, sandy beaches, friendly laid back attitude and each other. What else would you want? We are enjoying our time together and are more serous making plans for our future. The first conclusion has been drawn: we want to live in a country where we are near the sea.