Slow Start in Cape Town

After a 14 hour flight from New York to Johannesburg, and another 2 hour flight to Cape Town, we finally made it here.  Only our luggage didn't - none of our bags arrived.  I sent the family to go get into our flat, and I waited at the airport for more flights from Johannesburg to see if our luggage was on it.  After 4 flights and 5 hours had gone by with none of our bags appearing, I took a taxi and rejoined the family.

When I arrived, Sue and the kids had already eaten, but I was hungry and a little pissy from my travel ordeal, so Sue was kind enough to join me for a second dinner and a much needed drink.  We found a well-populated burger bar up the street (Royal Burger, or something like that), and I had a really excellent African Wagu beef burger and a delicious local draft.  So the day wasn't a total waste.

Oh. We have no phone or Internet in our flat.  Major bummer. I've been lucky enough to be able to use some of the hotels nearby for Wifi, and they have graciously shared the access codes with me. Sue swears that the flat was supposed to come with Internet.  Kind of hard to believe you could rent with out it.

We're staying in Center City on Long street.  There are quite a few bars around us, and some restaurants.  We have been approached on the street for money every time we go out, but the neon-vested police here do their best to shoo away the unwanted "friend".  There's quite a mix of cultures and races here - including Indians, Chinese, and of course Africans. Cape Town is pretty westernized though, so any of these neighborhoods could be in San Francisco just as easily.

Cape Town shows a lot of promise. Just. Need. Luggage.

Update: As we were leaving Cape Town, we mentioned the luggage fiasco to our driver. It turns out a local radio station caught wind of this particular flight, and had a field day interviewing South African Airways officials about why it took so long for the baggage to arrive.  Apparently a carousel broke in Johannesburg, and instead of delaying the flight and finding another way to get the bags on board, they simply left without most of the baggage.