After a wonderful B&B breakfast with Lynn and James, we stripped and dismantled the bed we had been sleeping in and made it ready to be picked up for their son Matthew. That’s what you do when you stay all night with people who are moving.
Then we headed for Pretoria. Long ago in our Mozambique days when the girls were in elementary school and rand prices made a very good (for us) exchange with the dollar, we used to come out and stay at a lovely hotel on Burger Square. At that time the hotel was owned by Holiday Inn and kids stayed for free, which made it as cheap for us as the Baptist Guest House, which charged per person, including kids. Across the street from the hotel was a park, and on the south side of the park was the Melrose House where the treaty that ended the Anglo Boer War in 1902 was signed. That is the war in Frances Burkett’s book, The Little Princess. It was also the war that started our old mission, Africa Evangelical Fellowship, which originally brought out missionaries to minister to the English soldiers in the Cape.
Our first visit to South Africa, we came across to the Melrose House and loved it. After a general overview, the girls and I chose bedrooms and imagined ourselves living there and coming down the grand staircase to dinner, walking very elegantly. As I recall there was no one else in the museum except the interpreters, or no doubt Steve would have died of embarrassment. But when we came back on another visit, the girls reclaimed their bedrooms. We would have liked to visit today, but the museum is closed on Mondays. I was pleased to see the gate was open to park, and we were still able to walk around the grounds and take pictures for old time’s sake.
There is a little sewing room with windows on three sides for good light over the front door.
My favorite part was always the conservatory on the west end of the house. On one of our visits they were serving tea there. On another visit all the plants had died, and it was an empty storage area. I was pleased to see from outside that there ARE plants again.
Was this tree there in 1902 I wonder? The roots look ancient. Burger's Park across the street.
Nice post!!
ReplyDeleteI really miss South Africa when I read someone’s experience there. Your experience reminds me of all my experience I had spent there with my friends when I planned my first trip to South Africa but if I will explain, it will be too long. Those trees are beautiful but one of them seems scary. This house is also very beautiful from outside. When I visited King Williams Town, South Africa, I found the local people are of very well nature as they helped me and my friends to find an affordable guest house at night. I and my friends visited King Williams Town and got amused by its beauty but at night we really faced problem to find a cheap guesthouse as we didn’t have that amount to stay and return back to our home. I wish I had got this type of house to stay in. At last, after searching for it a lot, some local people helped us find Intaka Guest House. The guest house was amazing and their rooms and services impressed us. I really thanked those people and now I have made them my Facebook friends.
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