The Heart of Cape Town

We woke up to heavy rain with the forecast showing that it would continue for much of the day. Outside there was screams from the children as they ran across the playgrounds in the rain. The junior school (Prestwick) that we overlook must be well known as we were asked directions to it by someone who wanted to build one like it in India.

We spent some time on admin, blogging and sorting out and decided that we would go to the Christian Barnard museum (called The Heart of Cape Town Museum). John's cousin Georgina was part of the team in the first heart transplant - sister in charge of the intensive ward to be precise.

After lunch, we called a taxi and set off for the museum. The exhibits are set in the rooms where the first heart transplant took place. This part of the hospital is no longer used for patients as a newer hospital was built next door twenty years ago. The original building is rather grand, the new one a concrete box.






The guided tour takes a couple of hours and includes much memorabilia. There were only six people in our group. The operating theatres that were used for the donor, Denise Darvall and recipient Louis Washkansky are set up much as they were on the night although not all the original equipment is there.









Georgina is there too, in photos and in videos. The tour was an interesting and moving account of this phase in medical history and of Dr Barnard himself and how he came to be the one to perform the first operation. In this photo Georgina is with the registrar, being interviewed by the press.





We summoned our taxi to take us back to the apartment and John, hopped out at Michael's second chocolate shop to take photos. It was well past closing time for the shop but Michael was there packing up an order in his workroom.





We had a table booked at a nearby restaurant which had been recommended by the owner of our apartment, La Pigalle. It was also about number 20 out of 400 in TripAdvisor which was also a good indication. It wasn't quite what we expected! It was a very large restaurant (once an ice rink) with a dance floor and band.





We hasn't been able to book a table until 9 although there were pleanty of empty tables and it was 9.30 before we sat down. We just managed to get our order in when a couple of bus loads of people arrived and filled the place!

John ordered ostrich which was cooked exactly as he had ordered. Considering the size of the restaurant, that was impressive. The waiter explained that this was because the owner was Portuguese and that the chef has been working with him for 30 years. All our food was wonderful and we enjoyed the dancing too! The music was Pop, Jazz and Latin American. We got home late!





Pat and John on tour