Celebrating one year living in our new home, Cape Town

South Africa mountains

Hello! I'm already back on this blog to tell you that we already celebrated a year living in Cape Town. It has been a beautiful year, although we have stopped seeing many new places in this country, due to the Corona Virus epidemic.

But today I'm going to tell you how we got to this house that is located in the Bakoven area. Between the mountain and the beach.

Bye, bye Dubai

As I have told you in my previous post, we live in several addresses before reaching our definitive home in this city. The reason for the delay was due to the fact that the container with all our belongings could not enter the port of Cape Town due to bad weather. For this reason, the ship with our container had to first travel to the South African port of Durban and leave other goods.

Our weeks of waiting were many. We left Basel, Switzerland, in July 2019. From July to September we live with the uncertainty of the arrival of the container. 5 weeks were expected. Of course, there were more. With this uncertainty, we went on vacation to Dubai, as my husband had a meeting in Europe. At the end of a week in the United Arab Emirates, he would continue his trip to Switzerland, and we would return to the new house in Bakoven, Cape Town, to receive the furniture, because just before traveling, they had confirmed the date on which our container would arrive. This was on October 8.

The day has come, the African-style move, but first, to prepare our beds

Our container finilly arrives

We arrived from Dubai on October 7th. The plan was to sleep in a hotel, because although we had the keys to the house, we didn't even have a glass to drink water. But before we go on vacation, we buy some folding mattresses. It was an investment, but we no longer wanted to sleep in hotels or vacation homes as we had been doing since July.

That was how we found the Snooza store, on the internet. We bought two mattresses for weights of less than 80 kilos and one of more than 80. These mattresses would serve us for when we had visitors. And yes we have used them because our daughters have had many guests to sleep during the weekends.

They opened the seal 
from Switzerland

The task of planning all this just before we went on vacation was not easy. We had to buy pillows, sheets, plates and glasses to eat and of course, napkins and even towels. We even buy rugs to get out of the shower. Warm bedspreads were not necessary, as we already had three. The nights in South Africa are cold and those we find in hotels and vacation homes were not hot enough. But these have been a very good investment.

Finding a new place for 
this garden chairs

First meal at new home

We arrived from the airport. It was almost night, but we had rented a shuttle to get home safely, to the new home. Everything went great. We went into our new house and well, we had a refrigerator that we had bought in September. The typical American refrigerator. And we had filled it with three packets of frozen pizza, Tetrapak milk, and some wine. That was our first dinner in our new home.

The night was short, I slept after taking a bath to relax from the trip. The next morning I would have to take my daughters to their new school, the International German School. So I set the security alarm and we went to sleep.

The packers arrived, but not the container

And on October 8 I returned very excited from the German School. The container with our furniture from Europe, would arrive at 9 in the morning. And yes, a group of 5 people, 4 men and a woman rang. They were ready to unpack. The only problem was that the container had not arrived.

Packers option to empty 
one box

These 5 people were waiting for the driver who was transporting the container. Apparently, this one had no GPS and could not find the address. It took him an hour and a half to get to our house. Meanwhile, the packers rested. Good, because afterwards they had to take down a lot of boxes.

The truck arrived. Three packers lowered the boxes and two controlled the number of each box on the list that had been sent to them from Switzerland. I have many comments about it. In Basel many packers arrived. They were very well organized. The boss was a grumpy man, but he knew what he was doing. In contrast, the packers here were not organized. Three people were not enough. Too much physical work, especially since our house is level. And the worst thing is that the next day only two were unpacked the boxes.

I tried to organize them, explaining where the boxes and furniture would go. But they were just too tired to go up to the right place and they were leaving everything in the most accessible place. I was nice to them, but suffered to see them all disorganized. At 3 in the afternoon, I saw the whole garden full of boxes. Rain was threatening and I went and said very kindly to the woman who was checking the boxes, that I did not want those boxes that crossed an ocean to get wet. She assured me that this would not happen. And so it was, they managed to put everything on safety in the garage. At five in the afternoon, they returned home to come back the next day.

New place for our lounge

My job was to accommodate and find everything related to the kitchen. That day I had planned to have dinner at home, we no longer wanted to go to restaurants. Spaghetti with tomato sauce was our menu. I just needed a pot and the strainer. The woman at the moving house had unpacked most of the blocks pertaining to the food. I just needed exactly those two things to start cooking. Finally, after half an hour I found them. That was our first dinner in our new home. And that day we finally slept in our beds, not on the folding mattresses.

Second day of move in, 4 packer instead of 5

The next day the move continued. Now they had to continue assembling the furniture and finish putting all the boxes in their place, the ones they had placed in the parking lot.

With only two packers, the move took a long time. The men kindly tried to put everything in its place, but fatigue got the better of them, of course, because more packers were needed. Time went by very fast and I didn't see them ending. Almost at 5 in the afternoon, they couldn't take it anymore. I started asking them to finish picking up the plastic from the furniture because they were almost out of the house and they hadn't finished.

Finding inspiration at the stores

I also reported some leaks, like cups and plates. But definitely what was his problem was putting the Ikea closets back together. I told them they could search the online page for how to put them together, but they weren't interested. They said someone else would come in the next few days to do it. A handy man.

And finally they left. They almost finished with everything. I signed the papers and goodbye. But now all our clothes and belongings were with us. There was still a long way to go until we could sit quietly knowing that everything was ready.

Buying some Africa feelings

The week passed very quickly. Our daughters were adjusting to the new school and my husband would arrive on Saturday afternoon from his meeting in Switzerland. Work awaited us, but every day the sunset inspired us, a wonderful view of the sea.

Ready, with all our belongings in the new home

Finally my husband finished putting together the closets. A handy man came and yes, he was able to put together some, but he didn't finish because another job was waiting for him. That is how my husband decided to do it alone, because the boxes were in the way. If one day he loses his current job, he can dedicate himself to this profession, as a handy man, because he does it very well.

Another Africa solution

This is how the wait for our move ended. Everything arrived and now a task awaited us to organize and decorate our new home. My husband always reminds me of what I said to him in Basel, especially when we are queuing at a decoration store, or buying something new online: we don't need to buy anything, we already have everything.

One of our first sunsets in this country

In this change of country, we learned to adapt. To be very patient and to calm down when we despaired of the different way of working. South Africa is a very beautiful country, perhaps a little more disorganized, chaotic, if we want to call it that, but warm and full of friendly people. 

We were very lucky at this days, because when the packers left, our neighbor arrived with typical South African flowers and a card. A great welcome detail.

Welcome gift from our 
neighbors

Thanks for reading and until you next time. I will tell you more about our adventure in South Africa.

Reaching the fourth and fifth houses before we got our home

Lion´s Head mountain

Hello! Back to our story of living in a new country, in South Africa. Today I continue the story of our temporary homes. In the previous post, I told you about our three residences. In mid-August, we reached the fourth house. Located on Geneva Drive, in the Camps Bay area.

Living like tourists: Geneva Drive

Living in a new address

We picked up all of our Woodford belongings and drove up this street. There we were welcomed by the owner's sister-in-law. Well he lives in Johannesburg. We really liked the house. It had a pool, and well, we didn't go much, just once, on a sunny Sunday, our youngest daughter was encouraged, even though she told us afterwards that the water was freezing.

Camps Bay football feld

View from Cape Town from the
International German School

In those three weeks, it was even easier to enjoy the beach of Camps Bay, since the house was about a two minute walk. Almost daily we went to dinner at restaurants visited mostly by tourists. Every weekend with sun, we took the opportunity to walk on the beach, before going to dinner. From the house, we also enjoyed the sunsets. We were very lucky to have the view of the famous Lion´s Head mountain. All this while my husband worked in his first weeks in the new position, and our daughters began their academic life at the German International School. While they were busy, I began to walk the typical path of an expat mom-wife: carrying and picking up daughters, shopping and in the gym, which I loved: the Virgin Activ, an institution in Cape Town.

Meanwhile, our patience was decreasing. We already wanted to have our things that still came from Switzerland. The new house was waiting in the Bakoven area. But the ship with our container still did not arrive. We had to wait!

New address before going to Dubai

The last home before we got our definitive
 address in Cape Towh

The three weeks passed, and it was time to change the house again. The reason was that it was no longer available to us, as someone had already made the reservation in advance. For this reason, an apartment on Victoria Road was waiting for us.

This time the apartment was facing the sea. I cannot say that we suffered, even though we had not had a home since mid-July, because with the sunrise and sunset views, we forgot very much about the absence of the container with our things.

Perfect view from this house

The new apartment was approximately fifteen minutes walk from the shops in Camps Bay, which made us walk, which we missed a lot. We were walking in a very safe area, there was no need to be afraid, because the country is insecure. This is a very touristy area and during daylight hours there is no reason for concern.

The temperature in Cape Town was increasing. Summer was felt. August was giving us hotter days, reason for our daughters to arm themselves with courage and enter the pool in the afternoons to enjoy the sun. And we enjoyed them with the ocean views.

Definitly, we love our new home city

But soon we would pack up and leave this apartment as our daughters' vacations would begin. My husband would have a meeting in Switzerland. So we decided to spend a week in Dubai and then he would travel alone to Basel and we would return, to our new home, to receive the container furniture. We were already getting close to leaving the life of nomads. But I will tell you about this in my next post. Thank you very much for reading me on this adventure in South Africa!

Living in five different homes. Part 1

Hello, back to tell you more about our new life in South Africa. The road was still long when we arrived back in the country, after leaving our home in Switzerland. In total we live in five homes, all of them in the Camps Bay area, one of the most visited tourist beaches.

Blue Views

In Blue Views

The first place we stayed was Blue Views. This was the first week in July in which we visited the city to find a new home. Blue Views is located almost in front of the beach. A very safe place because the Camps Bay Police station is right in front and because access to restaurants is only 3 minutes walking. It was very nice to live here for the wonderful view of the sea and especially for the walks on the beach just minutes from the apartment. Another aspect that we really enjoyed was the possibility of buying food for cooking in this department. Just two minutes away we had the Pick and Pay and Woolworths stores.

Camps Bay

During that week, we live sincerely like many tourists who arrive at an apartment in Cape Town. We definitely recommend this place to stay. By living here we were very sure that yes, we did want to live very close to Camps Bay. Why? Definitely for the views. Our dream was to find a home with an ocean view. I will tell you this later.

The President Hotel

With the view of Lyon´s Head

Just after a week, we returned to Switzerland and said goodbye to Blue Views. It was the time when we left our home and took care of moving and other important things in Switzerland. We spent our last night in Basel at our favorite restaurant, which is also a hotel. Au violin That July night, it was one of the hottest nights in Switzerland and of course, there was no air conditioning in the hotel, something very common in Europe.

And we travel again to Cape Town. We were at the end of July and it was still winter in Cape Town. We were living two weeks at The President Hotel. A place located in the Sea Point area, very popular for its shops and restaurants and for its beautiful boardwalk. We were in a room overlooking the sea. The hotel has a nice pool, but we didn't even get the idea of ​​going inside. We were only sunning ourselves a little in their beach chairs. We were very impressed by the national and English tourists because they did enjoy the icy water.

No place for the fridge?

The hotel is very famous for its restaurant. My favorite dish was fish cakes, fish cakes. Delicious. There we had a room type apartment, but without kitchen, only microwave oven and refrigerator. By the way, from this last device I can tell you that they left it in the middle of the kitchen. It was our first impression about Africa. The table in place, the shelves in place, the plates in place, each piece of furniture in place, but the refrigerator, no, was in the middle of the room.

Sunset at The President

This did not discourage us and we really enjoyed those two weeks at Sea Point. Especially because we visit many restaurants. But time was pressing and we would soon visit our third place to live. Another apartment in Camps Bay. Meanwhile, we really enjoyed the walks on the beach and we even walked to the Waterfront.

Sea Eagle: getting to know the winter side of the city

And we arrived at the new apartment located on Woodford Street. Until now we had been very comfortable regardless of whether it was raining or cold. The new apartment was one of three in a house known as Sea Eagle. This was a recommendation from our Relocation agent. On the internet it looked great. Well, we arrived and our new abode was in the pool area. It had no main entrance, it was entered through the garden door that connected to the pool.

Nice view in this swimming pool apartment

First we had to wait two hours to take care of the departments, Lucas. We are very desperate for his delay. Then we begin to realize the negative things about this place. The pool was the most beautiful in this apartment. We were not happy to enter through the pool door and also could not close from the inside. We had to close it outside and enter one of the bedrooms that were next to the pool.

We suffer a lot from the cold. Apparently, not all houses are well insulated and this place was an example of that. If we watched television, we covered it with a quilt. In the bathroom we froze when bathing. We had to buy a Dyson heating. Even extra bedspreads we had to buy to not freeze at night. The house had an electric heating that of course we do not hesitate to use. But it only heated a room.

We celebrate in this place my husband 50th birthday

The apartment was not bad, but our biggest problem was security. We were almost in a basement unlike the other departments of the house. In the garden, anyone could cross the fence without any obstacle .. There was no electric wire and barbed wire, it was totally scrapped. On top of that, the windows could be opened or forced easily. One night, our youngest daughter told us that she had seen a man in the garden. It turns out he was in charge of surveillance, but we got scared. The oven on the stove did not work and you even had to go to the supermarket to buy electricity.

We needed to buy electricity

Enough. After three weeks, my husband dedicated himself to finding a new home before our furniture arrived at the new house. So we said goodbye to the Woodford Street apartment number 4, Sea Eagle.

Bye, bye Sea Eagle appartment

In the next post I will tell you about our last two homes that had better security. For now, I wish you a good week. Thanks for reading!

Preparing Visa for Cape Town

Finally my husband returned after being two weeks in Cape Town, knowing the new office and his colleagues where he will work very soon.

Approaching Cape Town

In those two weeks my daughters and I said goodbye to many friends and especially my zumberas friends who attend my classes. I warned in the gyms where I worked to inform them that in July we would be leaving Basel, Switzerland, to move to a new continent.



Time to notify everyone of our change


Cape Town was waiting for us, but we still had many things to organize. Especially the documents to obtain our resident visa. We also had to prepare the resignation of the department where we lived, as well as cancel everything, electricity, telephone contracts, cell phones, sell our car, cancel credit cards and do not say what we had to do in South Africa. Start again.

View of the 12 Apostols from Blue Views

And this we could start organizing, because my husband signed his contract for the new position. We did not want to do this before, without being sure that his new position was indeed a fact. Therefore, it was time to let everyone know that we would soon leave the country.


It was not easy for our daughters. Although I must admit, our oldest daughter was the one who was most glad to live abroad. He was only worried about his school situation. So far you can tell them that you are still in contact with your Swiss friends and you have made so many friends and friends in Cape Town, that we can say that you have won with the change.


For our youngest daughter it was not easy. When we told him that we would move to another country, he cried. Her best friend and she would go to the same high school, even in the same group. We tried to comfort her by telling her that her friend could visit her in Cape Town as many times as she wanted and that we could also have the desired puppy that in our apartment was almost impossible to have.

Lion's Head view from Camps Bay

I must say that I also wanted to cry. But now, almost six months after living in South Africa, I can tell you that our youngest daughter is happy too. She is more sensitive and at first the change was not easy. But his teacher at the International German School called us to a meeting to tell us that he was worried about Bianca.



Now, in January 2020, she has a best friend. He speaks almost daily to his best friend in Switzerland on Facetime and yes, we finally have a puppy that enlightens his life. Half a year ago we were not sure that it would adapt so easily.



The visa



The first thing we decided was to arrange a trip to Cape Town before leaving the apartment forever. In a week we would visit houses to decide for one. It was May and time was running fast. We had to obtain many documents to travel to the South African Embassy in Switzerland to submit applications. This in Bern, Switzerland.

We had to do general medical exams for my husband and me. The four of us had to have a chest X-ray to ensure we didn't have tuberculosis. This and endless other papers. It was not easy, but finally and with a few weeks of waiting, we were able to leave our documents at the embassy.

Camps Bay Beach

Passports had to arrive before the fourth week of July, because our plane tickets were already reserved. And yes, they arrived, but our youngest daughter's passport had an error. They only gave him permission to travel only once, as a tourist, not as residents. The passports of my husband, our oldest daughter and mine were correct. They had our resident visa.

That was how we had to return to Bern to correct our daughter's passport, before we could travel to Cape Town.



A trip to Cape Town to find a house and even a gym

I found my gym

That was how on July 13, we left Basel, Switzerland, heading to Cape Town. We had high hopes of finding a new home that we liked and accelerating the process of change.

We travel with Emirates, but we do not travel directly. We made a stopover in Dubai. It was six hours from Switzerland to the Emirate. Afterwards, we traveled from Dubai to Cape Town, another eight hours. We were very excited to arrive.

View from the Table Mountain from the Waterfront

It was winter in South Africa. Luckily, we were very well prepared with winter jackets. We came from the heat of the European summer. Here our next Christmas was going to be to visit the beach and not to ski.

Camps Bay seen from Blue Views

We stayed at Blue Views, some apartments located in Camps Bay, one of the main tourist attractions of the city. Being here for a week was very nice, because every night we went out to dinner at the restaurants in Camps Bay. In addition, these apartments have wonderful views of the beach and the 12 Apostles mountain.


In a week, the relocation company that hired my husband's work took us to eight different houses. In the end, we decided that three would be our favorites. And yes, at the end of the week we decided on a house, where we currently live. We were very excited. Sally, the owner of the company, also took us to meet a Virgin Activ and other interesting points in the area called Atlantic Seaboard, where we live.

Hotel Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah

That week we took the opportunity to make many preparations, such as the Bank in which we would register and of course, we took the opportunity to meet new places in the city where we would soon have our new home.


But the time to return to Basel arrived. We expected a great job to organize and much to plan. But while that time came, we stayed one day in Dubai. The flight would remain the same. Cape Town, Dubai, Basel. And we liked this a lot because we could rest in the Arab sun before finally returning to South Africa in the winter.


In my next post I will tell you how the move went. Thank you very much for reading me!