Search Results for: greenmarket

An enigmatic hotel at Greenmarket Square

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Longmarket Street

I wonder how many people realise that the building located behind Greenmarket Square (in the background of this photo) is in fact a hotel - the Park Inn, to be precise. I scoured the web for anything about the building's history, but it seems as though there is just NO information... which is kinda strange if you ask me... (I'm thinking conspiracy theory here). ;)

Apart from the fact that the building itself looks like it's been around for some time, the Park Inn's website is just so '80s. (That's really saying something, since the first http website was only launched in 1990.) And why do I say their site is looking dated? Just take a look at the antiques in the photo on this page. :D

Night-night Greenmarket Square

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Night-night Greenmarket Square
Greenmarket Square was built way back in 1696 and at the time was (disgracefully) used as a slave market and later a vegetable market. In the 1950s it was apparently (though I wasn't around to verify this) used as a parking lot, and only in the 1980s was it converted into a craft and flea market for informal traders.

The area is super-safe during the day, though I'd keep a wary eye open for suspicious-looking people at night. This said, I felt safe enough to whip out my camera and take a few photos of the deserted market area.

Gotham City and the Central Methodist Mission

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Central Methodist Mission, Longmarket & Burg
It's hard to miss the Central Methodist Mission church building when visiting Greenmarket Square in the heart of Cape Town's bustling CBD.

Imagine for a moment that all the buildings in the city resembled this one's architecture. Wouldn't that be fantastically awesome and thoroughly scary, especially at nightfall? I guess it would then be mandatory to rename Cape Town to something more appropriate, like Gotham City.

Not that Gotham City looks exactly like that, but you get the idea, don't you? :)

Longmarket Street in the old part of town

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Bo Kaap
I, and many others, have written so much about Bo Kaap I feel it unnecessary rehash all the same information again. Normally, you'll find photos of brightly-painted colourful houses go along with stories about the area. This however is a different perspective on this old part of town.

If you're super religious about reading my posts (and thank-you if you are :) ), you may recall that in April of 2008 I wrote one about Longmarket Street and how (many years ago) farmers used it to get their produce down to Greenmarket Square.

This photo is a different perspective on Longmarket Street. Can you imagine taking a horse cart filled with produce down to the market way below? Wow! :)

The rain in Cape Town

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Shortmarket Street in Cape Town

... falls mainly on Greenmarket Square. Well, not actually. The rain in Cape Town has been falling pretty much everywhere over the last day or two, and in rather large quantities too.

We had to go into the city for a friend's birthday party, and both wondered at times whether it wouldn't have been better to take a motorboat or canoe instead of our car. There's been flooding in quite a few areas, including Camps Bay, Newlands and Somerset West. Fortunately our neighbourhood seems to have escaped with a bit less rain than everywhere else, so we weren't affected in any way (apart from getting a bit wet walking from our car to the restaurant from which this photo was taken).

Of course, the great thing about Cape Town's winter is that we get all the cold, rainy weather in a few short, intense bursts, and for the rest of the time it's sunny and clear. ;-)

Longmarket

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Longmarket
Longmarket Street and Shortmarket Street run parallel and extend from the traditional Cape Malay area (Bo-Kaap) down to Greenmarket Square. For many years these roads were used to transport slaves and later vegetables to and from Greenmarket Square.

Fortunately slave trading was banned way back in South Africa's history and today all that you will find to trade are African curios, clothes and perhaps other items you would expect to find at a flea or craft market.

Cape Town souvenirs

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Cape Town souvenirs

Since the weather was warm, and the sky very blue, we decided to make a trip to the Green Point Flea Market yesterday (not to be confused with Greenmarket Square - that's a story for another day). The atmosphere at the market is so relaxed, and typically African, and the stalls are jam-packed with all kinds of souvenirs and handcrafted goods. It's always amazing for me to see what people can create, even when they start out with very little. The beadwork, especially, just seems to become more and more creative as time goes by.