Arrival, Day 1 & 2:

On Monday morning at 5 o'clock it was time, we packed Hanna and our not insignificant amount of luggage into the car and my mother drove us to Düsseldorf airport. The three of us went to Cape Town via Amsterdam. Before our first big trip with Hanna, we were naturally quite excited, but Hanna did better than we could have ever imagined: she won everyone over with her smile and happily looked around or slept most of the time on the flight. In Amsterdam, there was a brief moment of stress as we could only leave the plane ten minutes before the planned boarding for our connection to Cape Town. However, since our connecting flight was delayed, all the stress vanished.

In the airplane, we had the sought-after seats in the front row and Hanna had a small baby bassinet (but she ended up liking to sleep on Mom's arm better).

In Cape Town at the airport, we unfortunately had problems with the ATM and didn't get any cash, but things went smoothly at the baggage carousel and car rental.

We finally arrived in Hout Bay late at night, where Vera and Timur were already waiting for us.

On our first day in Hout Bay, Roman was unfortunately sick - he had been struggling with a cold at home and it had gotten worse after the long flight. Therefore, he decided to spend the day recovering in bed. I went to the Imhoff Farm with Vera, Timur, and the kids. The route took us over the beautiful Chapman's Peak with a breathtaking view of the Cape Town coast. The Imhoff Farm is a small collection of shops selling handmade goods and a restaurant where you could eat with a beautiful view (the pictures don't do the actual beauty justice!) while there is a playground and petting zoo for children. The children were delighted and so were the parents.

Back in Hout Bay, we fired up the grill and had a delicious African barbecue for dinner.

The next day, Roman was feeling better, so after a leisurely breakfast, we packed up and headed towards Simon's Town. Unfortunately, Chapman's Peak was closed, so the journey took longer than planned. The penguin colony (by now?!) is also an extremely popular tourist attraction, so it was quite crowded here.

In the evening, Roman finally got to try out Crossfit in Hout Bay. The people here are incredibly nice and all totally in love with Hanna.