4 Cape Town, South Africa

After a week of ambling through the southwest we arrived in Cape Town on Christmas Eve. Gorgeous, sparkling Cape Town. Flanked by miles of shimmering shoreline, there are many ways to enjoy your time along the water. Restaurants and tourist shops define the bustling Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (yes Alfred, not Albert), an unadorned yet very entertaining putt putt course occupies Green Point, and there are plenty of white sand beaches to choose from in all directions. We even found penguins twenty minutes south in Simon's Town! Now we saw a lot of animals on safari, but we never expected to find penguins in Africa. They seem to have gotten a better deal than their arctic cousins, waddling around in their little tuxedos on the sunny, sandy shore.

The best waterfront destination, however, is the Cape of Good Hope. It felt as if we just might be at the edge of the world. We hiked out to the southwesternmost point in Africa, looking down the cliffs to the crashing waves of the Atlantic ten stories below. It was fun to think that home was just across the pond...only a few thousand miles away. To a certain extent we found the best way to experience Cape Town was to just drive and take in the awesome scenery all around. Imagine taking the most scenic bend of the road on the Pacific Coast Highway and creating an entire peninsula based on that panoroma. Cape Town...more like Gape Town.

To get a 360 degree helping of Cape Town we took a cable car up to the top of iconic Table Mountain, which is about as aptly named as sprinter Usain Bolt. It was a thrilling ride racing up along the sheer cliffs of the massive mound, the car turning all the while to maximize views. Our plan was to head up for sunset and we were surprised, delighted, and slightly bewildered to find out that after 6pm tickets are half price. Why should we pay less for the city's best panoramic of the pink and orange sunset sky? Because it's freaking cold up there, that's why! It was like another season at the top of the mountain, and we had to be careful not to be blown away as we anxiously prayed for the sun to dip below the horizon.

View more pictures from Cape Town here.