Johannesburg City Tour continued

Hector Pierson Memorial

The Hector Pierson Memorial - a young boy who was killed by white soldiers during the Apartheid struggle

Regina Mundi - The church is located in the center of Soweto and was a center of activism during Apartheid

Soweto slum

Views of the City of Johnnesburg

Johannesburg City views - a relatively modern city

City Tour Johannesberg - The Nobel Laurates

A wonderful lunch near the Nobel Square in Soweto.  We enjoyed Castle beer

Members of the Zulu tribe are dancing in the square

Art work about the 2 Nobel Laurates - Nelson Mandella and Desmond Tutu

Mandela House

City Tour - Soweto The slums of Johannesburg

The hotel made arrangements for a car and driver to take us on a city tour of Johannesburg.  Actually - the city is really clean.  It was a beautiful, sunny clear day.

 

The Apartheid Museum

We toured the Apartheid Museum - a very thorough depiction of the struggle by the South African people for their freedom.  And a powerful tribute to the life of Nelson Mandela.  During our visit - President Mandela was in his residence in Houghton Estate near our hotel.  But he was very ill.  He passed away later in the year.


The FNB World Cup Soccer Stadium - "The Calabash".  Home to the 2010 World Cup.  And home to Chiefs

A view of SOWETO - the largest slum area in Johannesburg

Peace activists have beautifully painted the former Orlando Power Station.  This is a decommissioned coal plant.  The towers were painted in 2006.

views of the SOWETO slum

The Residence Inn 2 - tour of the property

The Residence hotel was really a former residence of owners of The Ringger Steel.  They were able to acquire the house next door which was the residence for the Chinese Ambassador.  With the two properties - they created a 12 suite boutique hotel. Every attention to detail.  Decorated to perfection.

 

We also drove past Nelson Mandela's current home - a beautiful estate about 2 blocks away.

 

The sitting room for the home

Another section of the hotel

the courtyard

Upstairs terrace

Upstairs bar

Darrell reads while we wait for our car and driver for a city tour of Johannesburg

The parking courtyard.  As evidenced - security is extremely important for the property.

The Residence Inn - an oasis of beauty in Houghton!

Well after traveling all over the world - Elaine misread the time of the flight from Nairobi to Johannesburg.  We should have left at 4 am.  We arrived in time to fly around 4 pm. 
The airport was in chaos because of the fire in the International Terminal on the day we arrived in Nairobi.  The check in desks were only manned just before the flight - so we were unable to talk to anyone until just prior to boarding.
With a cash bribe to the attendant at the flight desk - we managed to get on another flight and arrived about 1 hour later than expected.  However - this mistake caused havoc the next few times we flew as missing our original departure caused the remainder of the flights to show cancelled.  A lot of patience, persistence and not taking no for an answer went a long way to ensure our scheduled flights.

However - we were met at - the Johannesburg Airport by the coolest dude -  Luckey - in a Mercedes van!  A private drive to Houghton Estate - a suburb of Johannesburg

http://theresidence.co.za/

How lucky could we be - The Residence Inn in Houghton was an oasis of luxury! 

The sitting room in our suite

Luxurious bedding



What an amazing bathroom!  After staying in tents in the African bush for 3 weeks - this was heaven

Our breakfast

The Residence pool