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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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