Green Point Park and Biodiversity Garden — Photographs

The Green Point Park and Biodiversity Garden is a won­der­ful, pub­lic area open seven days a week with free entry for all.  There are two entrances to the park; one off the fan walk (I fol­lowed the signs from the sta­dium) or oth­er­wise oppos­ite the Mouille Point light­house.

There is loads of open space for a pic­nic lunch or an impromptu game of cricket.  The biod­iversity garden fea­tures over 300 local Cape plant spe­cies and is both edu­ca­tional and inspir­a­tional.  Separated into ‘People and Plants’, ‘Wetlands’ and ‘Discovering Biodiversity’, the dif­fer­ent beds are planted accord­ing to veget­a­tion and inform­a­tion boards indic­ate where in the city the veget­a­tion can be found – most informative!

The Green Point Park is a fant­astic place to spend a few hours and what a priv­ilege it is to have such a place open to the pub­lic. Continued

Tickle yourself pink with the burgers at Beefcakes Diner

Beefcakes Diner

“I’ve just had the best bur­ger I’ve ever tasted,” these were the words my friend Lara greeted me with when she got home on Saturday night.

“Really, where?” was my enthu­si­astic response.

“Oh, it’s a place called Beefcakes. It’s this retro 1950’s diner in Green Point. It quite camp, I’m not sure you’re a sequins and boa feather kind of guy.”

“The bur­gers are good though? You know I’m always game when it con­cerns great food”... Continued

Biodiversity Garden — a wonderful visit in the shadow of the stadium

Biodiversity Garden

Remember the slight furore about the Common in Green Point, Cape Town round about the end of 2006, when plans for the new sta­dium became com­mon know­ledge? Locals of the neigh­bour­hood jumped up and down at the men­tion of the word 'sta­dium', sit­ing terms like 'white ele­phant' and 'destruct­ive to the envir­on­ment', which at the time, I thought pretty valid.

In real­ity, what used to be an admit­tedly green, but slightly dan­ger­ous, local ber­gie hangout is now a safe place for every­one. The Cape Town sta­dium has now earned a place in the hearts of (most) Capetonians (pulling huge crowds not only to watch soc­cer but also to hear the likes of U2), and there is also a park for chil­dren, a space in which to pic­nic, and a beau­ti­ful Biodiversity Showcase Garden. Continued

Mano's in Green Point — a review

Mano's in Green Point

I went to Mano’s for din­ner with friends on Wednesday night and I feel like I’ve been let in on Cape Towns best kept secret!  What a fant­astic little haunt this is and judging by the packed interior a lot of other folk think so to!

Located at 39 Main Road, Green Point, Mano’s is open for both lunch and din­ner and has cul­tiv­ated an atmo­sphere that makes it pop­u­lar with young fam­il­ies and city slick­ers.  There were four of us in our group and although seated as a six seater table we were soon shif­ted to a four seater Continued

I ♥ Green Point because...

I ♥ Green Point

Hi, our names are Aissa and Ughetta Parenti from Bluegum Hill Guesthouse in Green Point.
GREEN POINT IS BEST KNOWN FOR ... lately, for The World Cup Soccer Stadium.

GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Signal Hill over­look­ing Green Point, the City of Cape Town and Table Bay!
WHEN THE WEATHER’S GOOD, I LIKE TO walk along the Promenade and watch the pooches and people at play.
WHEN THE WEATHER’S BAD, I LIKE TO visit The Point Virgin Active Gym on Bill Peters Drive for a steamy sauna or sun bed stint to chase the chills away. Continued

Rugby Festival at Green Point Stadium (photos)

A few pho­to­graphs of the Green Point Stadium (now offi­cially called the Cape Town Stadium) taken on Saturday 6^th February at the Rugby Festival. The Stormers won 47–13 after lead­ing 18–13 at half­time ... Continued

The Cape Quarter — step into a veritable treasure trove of purveyance

Cape Quarter

The up and com­ing Greenpoint has most decidedly up and come with the recent open­ing of the Cape Quarter exten­sion.  Already a trendy social hub — situ­ated as it is in the upwardly mobile De Waterkant area – the small-scale life­style centre received a ser­i­ous upgrade in terms of pos­i­tion­ing and space, com­plete with a bevy of new res­taur­ants and stores to tempt trav­el­lers and locals.

The revamp sees the Cape Quarter exten­ded into a huge, open-roofed, four-storey struc­ture span­ning an entire block on bust­ling Somerset Road, which con­nects Greenpoint to the Cape Town CBD. In keep­ing with the his­toric feel of this area, the new exten­sion retains the facades of the ori­ginal build­ing, thus pre­serving the Cape her­it­age of the site. Architectural talk­ing points include an atrium and an 800 square metre, open-air piazza hid­ing inside. And with ample under­ground park­ing, there’s no excuse not to drop by for a peek ... Continued

Dinner & Dance in Cape Town

Pigalle Cape Town

What do you get when you put together a group of old friends, an approach­ing birth­day, deli­cious food and copi­ous amounts of wine? The answer — a reunion and smash­ing birth­day bash.

I have a group of very spe­cial friends who are spread far and wide across con­tin­ents and sea and this week we were lucky enough to arrange for every­one to be in the same place at the same time for a cel­eb­ra­tion. We had friends travel from Eshowe in KwaZulu Natal, Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape as well as the birth­day boy from Hamburg, Germany, his sis­ter from the UK and a pair love birds from the shores of Spain. And of course -  all of the fab­ulous people who reside in Cape Town. This even­ing was an oppor­tun­ity to get kit­ted out in our finest attire and head down to Somerset Road in Green Point for some fine din­ing and bit of dan­cing ... Continued

Green Point Stadium by Greg Lumley

Photographs taken of the Green Point Stadium by Cape Town pho­to­grapher, Greg Lumley. The Green Point Stadium is being trans­formed into a com­pletely new 70 000 seater, all-weather, multi-purpose, envir­on­ment­ally sus­tain­able, mod­ern, tech­no­lo­gic­ally advanced, world class sta­dium in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup ... and its almost done! Continued

Green Point Stadium Progress photographs

This even­ing we received a "tweet" via Twitter from @CapeTown_2010 that reads ... "Installation of the trans­lu­cent mesh facade mem­brane begins at Cape Town Stadium. Soon the sta­dium will glow at night". Well I for one can't wait and judging by the sheer num­ber of pho­to­graphs of the Stadium uploaded to Flickr.com by pho­to­graph­ers from all over the world (but mostly Capetonians) chron­ic­all­ing its pro­gress, neither can the rest of Cape Town! So where are we now?  Continued

41 Weeks to Kick-Off! 2010 Spirit in Cape Town

Update: The Green Point Visitors Centre has been closed.

While enter­tain­ing some friends vis­it­ing from London, it seemed appro­pri­ate to take them to the see the new Green Point Stadium, cur­rently under con­struc­tion and due for com­ple­tion in December of this year. The old sta­dium (or what's left of it) is home to the Green Point Stadium Visitors Centre, where the 2010 Soccer Magic Tour takes place. If you have not been yet, I can thor­oughly recom­mend it. Not just for the views of the new sta­dium, or the views of Green Point, the ocean and Table Mountain, but for a theatre exper­i­ence with a dif­fer­ence. Continued

Hip & Happening Green Point

Green Point

Like so many areas of Cape Town, Green Point is, of late, enjoy­ing a second vogue. Nestled between Signal Hill and the touristy V&A Waterfront, the neigh­bour­hood is shrug­ging off its repu­ta­tion as the stalk­ing ground of ladies of nego­ti­able affec­tion, and trad­ing it in for a shiny new one - that of trendy trade and social hub. Businesses, boutiques, eat­er­ies and slick night­spots are spring­ing up like dais­ies, as those in the know hurry to stake their claim in this rap­idly chan­ging neighbourhood.

Of course, loc­als have always known they had a good thing on their hands. The bust­ling Giovanni’s Deli has been in busi­ness for longer than most res­id­ents can remem­ber, and every morn­ing sees it packed with reg­u­lars enjoy­ing one of Cape Town’s first decent cups of cof­fee and a pastry, or brows­ing the selec­tion of impor­ted deli goods ... Continued