Who doesn't love botanical gardens?
Almost every big city in the world has its own Botanical Garden and its always on our list to visit. After seeing the Botanical Gardens of Singapore, Sydney, Brisbane and many more we´ve also visited the Gardens of Cape Town in Kirstenbosch, on the other side of the Table Mountain.
We had one big benefit on our visit. Since there was a running event on the street in front of it there was almost no one in there in the morning so we had the whole Botanical Garden for us. The downside was, that this was shortly after my tick bite fever and I was still very weak. Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day and the Kirstenbosch gardens are definitely one of the most beautiful botanical gardens we´ve seen so far.
With 36 hectares it is the biggest out of nine Botanical Gardens in South Africa, means we´ve walked a lot on that day although I wasn´t feeling that well. As you can see on the photo above there are several section with different kinds of plants and trees. Furthermore it is the starting point of some of the most beautiful hiking tracks in and around Cape Town.
If that botanical garden has any downside than it is the fact that the areal is not flat but uphill and downhill that can get quite exhausting on a hot day.
Even better than all the plants and beautiful shady walks are the views you have in the garden. From almost any point you have an amazing view on the table mountain or onto the city. One of the best views in my opinion is from the 120m long curved suspension bridge that also is one of the highlights of the garden.
Although its a botanical garden I haven´t taken that many photos of plants and trees. Funny I know :), but we were talking about future plans and stuff all the time and I had to sit down every now and then.
Furthermore it was that hot already that we´ve spent most of the time in a section under the shady trees enjoying the silence in the morning and watching little chirping birds at the Colonel Bird’s Bath. It was built in approximately 1811 by Colonel Christopher Bird, Deputy Colonial Secretary. He built this bird-shaped pool (a play on his name) to collect the spring water, and let it stand and clarify before being piped to the house.
Since walking makes you hungry in the morning, this is going to be a food blog for a few lines. We went into Fykos - Kirstenbosch Tearoom one of the two restaurants in the Botanical Garden to have a quick lunch. Well, what should I say, that quick lunch turned into a feast very quickly and honestly it was one of the best meals we had during our time there. Really good food and huge portions.
That lunch really got us by surprise and since we ate it all we were pretty stuffed and could barely walk after that. So we first had a look at the beautiful iron statues in front of the restaurant. Together with the background this looks absolutely incredible.
Not far from the restaurant is the Bonsai exhibition. Bonsais are something that fascinates always, especially when they are as good as they were there. It takes a lot of skills and years of experience to cut these cool little trees the right way. Some of these trees are 30 years and older.
I really hope you forgive the lack of actual plants, trees and flower photos but I was really feeling like shit that day but since Botanical Gardens are a duty we had to do it on that day. Next time I´m there I´m gonna fix that hole of missing photos. ;)
you will find that post on pinmapple as well
[//]:# (!pinmapple -33.988279 lat 18.432321 long Kirstenbosch - National Botanical Garden d3scr)
