There we are: tired after a 28 hours flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town, waiting at the airport for our airport shuttle that will bring us to our apartment downtown. So far, so good. We get in a mini-bus with about 4 to 5 other clients. Everybody has to tell the driver where he or she wants to go to. The driver then decides the route, and off we are. We are first in line to be dropped-off.

When we near the place we need to be, Canterbury Square in Vredehoek, our driver stops the mini-bus, takes out a big roadmap and takes some minutes to see how he needs to drive. After 3 more stops and a couple of u-turns, our driver decides to ask people in the street for directions. Then we arrive at our apartment, or at least, what we believe to be our apartment, but we are not sure. How do we really know if this is the right place? No clear sign on the building.Get out the mini-bus with our luggage? No, first make sure we are at the right address. We press the intercom button and a whispery voice answers, but it takes some time to make clear who we are and why we are here. Luckily, the housekeepster appears to be informed about our arrival and allows us in. There is, however,nobody waiting for us and we have no keys. Luckily (again) for us the cleaning lady is still working in our apartment so we can bring in our stuff and ourselves. After some time the assistant to the landlord arrives, gives us some brief instructions and our keys.

Nothing to eat or drink in the house. Still time before it gets dark (6 pm), so Peter heads for the nearest shopping mall. It's not far, only a 10-minute walk. After enthusiastically loading his shopping kart, Peter finds out that shopping in South Africa is more expensive than anticipated. The bill is too big for his wallet and he has to take out part of the essential shopping and everything left needs to be scanned once again. And the line-up is getting longer and longer.....

After dinner and when Lasse and Sil are deep asleep, we lie in bed contemplating how we feel. A bit drawn out of our comfort zone, but wasn't that exactly what this was all about?