Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
The Outeniqua Transport Museum, located in George in the Western Cape of South Africa, is a must-visit destination for history and transport enthusiasts. The museum is housed in a former railway station and showcases a fascinating collection of railway memorabilia, vintage locomotives, and carriages that tell the story of the region’s railway heritage.
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The Huguenots were French Protestants who fled France in the late 17th century due to severe religious persecution after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which had previously granted them religious freedom. Many sought refuge in Protestant countries across Europe, but a significant number were granted asylum in the Cape Colony by the Dutch East India Company in the late 1600s and early 1700s. They were welcomed to South Africa for their expertise in farming, viticulture, and craftsmanship, which was highly valued in the development of the colony. The arrival of the Huguenots significantly influenced the agricultural practices in the region, particularly in wine-making, establishing the Cape Winelands as one of the world’s foremost wine-producing areas. Their contributions have left a lasting imprint on South African culture, especially in the Afrikaans language, architecture, and food.
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Between the city center of Cape Town and Signal Hill you can find a special city quarter that is mostly known for its colorful painted houses: Bo-Kaap. It has narrow and steep streets and is obviously not the prime location to built a city quarter on (even though it is really close to the city center); it is the place that the so-called Cape Malays were allowed to settle in. They’re a Muslim group whose ancestors were enslaved by the Dutch East India Company and brought to South Africa.
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The South African Museum was founded in 1825 and is a wild mix of 1,5 million exhibits connected to South Africa. You can learn about regional stone carvings, sharks, land-bound animals, dinosaurs, the life of Nelson Mandela and visit a planetarium connected to the museum. In fact, the South African Museum is a combination of a natural history museum and an archaeology museum which feels a bit odd at the first moment as these types of museums are typically separated in Europe.
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Walking through the Company’s Garden at Cape Town you’ll discover the South African National Gallery at its southwestern end. It is an art museum that was founded in 1871 and that exhibits African and European art. The collection started with works donated by Sir Thomas Butterworth Bayleys and was extended with European artists over time. Thereby this was a special place showing foreign art and the curators are aware about the effects of colonialism on their collection. Since 1990 the focus is to add South African artworks and especially paintings by black artists to the collection.
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District 6, once a vibrant and diverse neighborhood in Cape Town, holds a poignant place in South Africa’s history. Prior to the 1960s, District 6 was home to a thriving, multicultural community of Black, Coloured, and Indian South Africans, with a rich cultural and social fabric. However, under the Group Areas Act of 1950, which enforced racial segregation during the Apartheid era, the government forcibly removed over 60,000 residents from the area, bulldozing their homes to make way for a whites-only residential zone.
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The Castle of Good Hope, located in the heart of Cape Town, is the oldest surviving colonial building in South Africa and one of the city’s most significant historical landmarks. Built between 1666 and 1679 by the Dutch East India Company, the castle was initially constructed as a defensive fort to protect the Cape Colony from potential attacks by sea. Its star-shaped design, featuring thick stone walls, bastions, and a moat, reflects the military architecture of the time. Over the centuries, the castle has served various roles, including as a military garrison, prison, and governmental headquarters.
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Are you in for some art? The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), located in Cape Town at the historic V&A Waterfront, is one of Africa’s premier art institutions dedicated to showcasing contemporary African art. Housed in a transformed grain silo complex, the museum features a stunning architectural design by Thomas Heatherwick, blending modern aesthetics with the building’s industrial heritage. MOCAA boasts an extensive collection of works by some of the continent’s leading artists, encompassing a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation art.
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North of the city center of Duisburg you can discover the Innenhafen, an inland port connected to river Rhein which is today surrounded by modern residential homes and office buildings. Part of the harbor is also the Küppersmühle, a former mill that dates back to the year 1860 and which was active until the year 1972. Since 1999 it houses the MKM Museum Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst, a beautiful museum of modern art that utilizes the former structures of the mill building very well.
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A massive art museum made of the concrete and glass, located in the Immanuel-Kant-Park close to the main railway station of Duisburg – that could be the shortest description of the Lehmbruck-Museum. It is named after and dedicated to the sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck born in 1881 at Meiderich near Duisburg. His works were mostly focused on the human body and that is what you get to see most at the Lehmbruck-Museum: faces and bodies.
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