A couple of weeks ago, I made a businesstrip across the country for a project I was working on. We didnt get to spend much time anywhere, as we made a trip from East London to Cape Town to Johannesburg and back to East London in two days. Most of that time was obviously spend at the office. However, I did get to have a first glimpse of Cape Town and Johannesburg:

Cape Town: It was quite fascinating to fly into Cape Town – you fly over impressive mountain ranges, but also see some lovely looking coast Line. Cape Town itself has a big mountain almost in the city Centre, which makes for an impressive sight. This picture shows the city from the freeway:

Capetown from the highway

And this picture picture shows the mountain range from a restaurant at Victoria Warf shopping mall. A very pleasant place to have a meal and get a feeling for life in this city.

Cape Town Waterfront

I am told that going up the mountain gives some very impressive views as you can see across the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean (they come together here) and Cape Town. Overall, Cape Town seems pleasant enough, although there is also much poverty and (I am told) crime. What surprised me is how much open plane there is next to the city. I always had imagined Cape Town to be in a small area squeezed between the mountain and the ocean, but in fact there is a huge area next to Cape Town with fields and open lands.

Johannesburg: The office in Johannesburg is outside of the city centre, but I am told you dont want to be in the city centre anyway. There really wasnt much to see in the areas of Johannesburg I saw. It reminded me a lot of some places in the U.S. with large highways, big cars on those highways and large billboards advertising products and services. In fact, there was so little to see in Johannesburg that I ended up not taking any pictures there.