So I’d like to preface this by saying that for several trips now, ALL I EVER WANT TO DO IS BIKE TOURS. However, since my usual travel partner of Little Bro can’t ride a bike at the ripe old age of 25, I’ve never done one as when we travel together we like to do our city tours together. I *suppose* I could have gone on one by myself, but it just seems… less fun than doing a tour together. So, until this morning, I hadn’t done a biking tour. Ever.
When I was planning out my first few tours, I wanted to make sure I got a city overview first, since I usually find that it’s a good way to get a sense of the city and where you’d like to spend more time later on, so that’s one of the first things I looked for in Cape Town. I quickly came across Cape Town City Cycle, which actually is housed in the Information Center on the V&A Waterfront. Seeming legitimate to me, I emailed them and with a quick response to my query and answers to my questions, I booked for the morning tour today!
Since I’m staying in Green Point, it’s an easy walk to the V&A Waterfront, and my alarm went off this morning at 9am for my 10am call time at the Information Center. Finally a SUNNY day, I was thrilled when I looked out my window!! I quickly got dressed, (not without dropping my phone, twice, while my roommates were sleeping… sorry ladies!!! >.<) and headed out. I easily found the meeting spot at the Info Center, and right in front was an awesome artesen coffee shop. I know, I know, coffee? Don’t worry, I didn’t get coffee. I got an “iced chocolate” which is flipping. delicious. It’s essentially like a homemade hot cocoa with extra shots of dark chocolate syrup, over ice. I’m actually kind of glad that place isn’t closer to my hostel, to be honest with you. I paired that with a white chocolate, cranberry, and oatmeal cookie, and that was breakfast!
Check-in at City Cycle was super easy after that. I walked in, signed the indemnity form, and they directed me to where the tour guide was waiting, along with our helmets and bikes.
When you register for the tour, the customer service representative actually asks for your height, so they can prepare the correct size bikes, which I didn’t even think of in advance, but I really appreciated on the day-of, because we had several tall guys whose bikes were much larger than mine!
Anyhow, that was basically it! Once the group assembled, our guide introduced himself, made sure our gear was all set, and then we headed out!
We began by circling through the waterfront and stopping at a few monuments and statues… but not before weaving down a snake ramp that was made for wheelchairs. The ramp was for probably a flight of 20 stairs and I *quickly* learned that I am certainly not an expert cycler…. but the four other members of my tour, a group of friends from Germany… well… let’s just say they must cycle pretty frequently. Clearly the runt of the litter, I took the back of the pack and entertained myself with verbal encouragement throughout the length of the tour… kind of like when I bike at the gym. (I literally just shook my head at myself while writing that…)
As the tour progressed though, I will say that my cycling improved! I managed not to hit any humans, animals, or inanimate objects throughout the course of the ride, though there were several close calls.
After we checked out the monuments around the waterfront, we moved along for some awesome views of Table Mountain, one of the new 7 Wonders of the World. You can see the mountain from basically everywhere in Cape Town, but since it was so clear today the views were excellent. We also got to check out the castles and other historic buildings built by both the Dutch colonizers as well as the English, which is a *very* interesting compare/contrast experience. The building you see here is the Dutch “castle.”
After the historic building experience, we hopped back on our bikes for what I though would be another short ride to another monument close by. I. Was. So. Wrong.
All of a sudden we took a left turn and we started biking slightly uphill. And then the incline increased. And increased. And I started thanking every power above that I’ve been biking as my cardio (thanks, Coach!!) for the past couple of months. We finally stopped, and we dismounted next to what looked like a cleared field. Our guide asked us if we knew what it was and we all shook our heads. 
He told us that it was District 6 (cue Hunger Games jokes). I had read about District 6 in my guidebook so I was really glad the tour took us there since it’s not anywhere near the city center. District 6 actually *is* a very Hunger Games-esque situation… Cape Town is divided into Districts, and prior to 1966, District 6 was a place where people of all races had their homes. On February 11th, 1966, during the apartheid, it was signed into law that District 6 was only open to whites. The entire District was demolished, and those who refused to leave their homes were murdered inside them by the demolition equipment.
This is what District 6 looks like now, and essentially what it has looked like since then:
After District 6, we got to coast back down the incline we had just come up (thank GOODNESS) and we headed over to a street market for a little snack. This part actually irked me a bit because it was a 45 minute break in our 3 hour tour which seemed a bit… long. Despite my slight annoyance, the German crew invited me to hang with them and I had some delicious, fresh beef jerky from the market.
When we resumed the tour, we were wove through the streets a bit on our way to the VOC Vegetable Garden. When the Dutch East India Company was a big deal, one of their big trade routes was for spices, obviously, in India. To get there, they sailed all the way around the tip of Africa, and one of their major issues was that their sailors kept, well, dying, due to malnutrition (no fresh water, no fresh vegetables, rotten bread, etc). Eventually the Dutch East India Co. decided to set up a “Refreshment Station” in Cape Town where they could grow their own produce to replenish their ships as they sailed by on their way to and from India. That garden is maintained today as the VOC Vegetable Garden, which I think is pretty badass.
The peace and tranquility of the garden was just a tease though, because as soon as we were out we were uphill again! This time bound for Bo-Kaap, we trudged (ok well, I trudged, idk how everyone else felt) onward and upward, to be eventually rewarded with the bright colors of Bo-Kaap. We learned that the colors are not just for show, but actually served a purpose years ago. When the streets had no names or numbers, different types of businesses would paint their buildings different colors, so their customers could find them. Kinda’ awesome, if you ask me!
We only stopped briefly at Bo-Kaap, before we were riding downhill again. *fistpump*
This time we looped back towards the waterfront and headed towards the stadium. As is unfortunately the case with a lot of these awesome sports stadiums built for large events, the world cup stadium in Cape Town is no longer really used for any kind of sporting events. Apparently though it’s used for concerts, so at least it sees *some* sort of revised purpose and isn’t just laying completely dormant like so many others. 
Our final ride was straightaway was along the beach back to the information center where we all checked our gear back in and dispersed for the rest of our days. I’d say we were back at approximately 1:20pm or so.
For me, I spent the remainder of the sunny afternoon traversing the waterfront, convincing myself not to buy any knickknacks, and having an insanely delicious and healthy lunch at Nu on my way back to Green Point.
Oh, and P.S. Lesson learned — my booty is NOT cushion-y enough for a 3 hour biking tour. I’m going to be paying for this for DAYS. Whoops…
ADDENDUM:
Our tour guide had taken a group photo of us but after a few days I assumed we weren’t getting it… I was wrong! I received an email yesterday that included a thank you and the group shot that we took!
That said, I’m really impressed with City Cycle and despite the booty pain, I’d definitely book with them again! It’s a great way to check out more of the city than you get on a foot tour, and since Cape Town’s sights are so spread out, it’s definitely worth it!
