Grahamstown

Grahamstown is a medium sized university town in the hills north of Port Elizabeth.  It is home to South Africa's Rhodes University, as well as a few smaller schools and any number of college prep schools. I'd like to say that there was some obscure South African slant to the way the town is arranged, but frankly a college town is a college town no matter where you go.  It is primarily notable for the fact that town has had at least ten different wars fought over it -- the first ones were between local tribes, but eventually the Afrikaaners and English joined the fray as well.

Rhodes has a large icthyology department.  It first gained world-wide notice in 1938, when the first modern Coelacanth was positively identified here.

This is the plaque for the statue above.  If this is a forged copy, I wonder where the original is?

The world needs more New Wet Collection Facilities.

South Africans embrace their dialects in the same way that Australians do.

We stayed in a lovely B&B.  It has the distinction of being the first place I've ever seen sewn leather waste baskets.

The B&B also had an open bar every evening.  South African hospitality is really quite fantastic.

And cuban cigars for the taking.  Did I say fantastic?  I meant stupendous.

You can no longer get Wimpy brand burgers in the U.S.  You can, however, get a Manly-Meal.

The African Musical Instrument Museum at the college has about two hundred different instruments.  There's a sign saying "do not touch", but if you ask nicely they'll let you play them.  Of course, then you have to figure out how...

More instruments.  I have video of Mom playing the large xylophone-looking thing.  It's not what it looks like.

The museum is also a library.  With a card catalog.  I don't remember the last time I saw an active card catalog.

This collection of 18 small books gives an broad introduction to the ethnicities running around the South Africa.  It's quite a lot of different groups for a place that is  significantly smaller than Alaska. One thing to note is that Coloured people in South Africa are people of Asian (mostly Indian and Pakistani) descent.

Our last day in Grahamstown we made an excursion out to see the Big Pineapple.  On the road out there we saw these signs, with no context to tell us what they meant.  They may have been information signs telling us about local plants.  Or maybe it's the local symbol for lethal radiation.  Who knows?

There's something cheery about all of the Pineapple People getting together.  I'll bet mixed drinks figure prominently.

That is one Big Pineapple.  Frankly, it puts the Big Banana to shame...