Day 6 - Kirstenbosch

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is world-renowned for the beauty and diversity of the Cape flora it displays and for the magnificence of its setting against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain.


The origin of the name Kirstenbosch is uncertain, a number of families with the name Kirsten lived in the vicinity and some how the area became known as Kirstenbosch (Kirsten's Forest).


Really it doesn't matter, the cool thing is that Kirsten is my sister's name...the one I got the wedding cup for...the one that got married in France on 20 September!

See...cool, huh.

Kirstenbosch is famous for its protea.

But, it is also famous for the Mandela Gold Birds of Paradise.

This is a special variant to the typical Bird of Paradise and created for Nelson Mandela.

The "plumes" are yellow instead of the typical orange.






After visiting the gardens and having lunch at the Gold Museum...great lunch (just one more meal that helped add FIFTEEN pounds to my waistline in only fifteen days) we had a little city tour.

One of the stops was The Castle of Good Hope which is right across the street from this building...City Hall.

The patio (hmmm...porch, deck, lanai, sticky outy thing) is where Nelson Mandela stood when he gave his famous speech after being released from prison on 11 February 1990, after 27 years.