Lu-Gerda's Travels

Back in January we spend a morning walking around in my hometown, George.   We took photos of buildings I have passed many times but never really saw.   I have written about some of the buildings before here and here . York Street is one of the main streets in George.   It was named in honour of the Duke of York, the second son of King George III.   This street is very busy during the day due to its location in the heart of the business district of George.   The buildings have plaques with information supplied by the George Heritage Trust.   This made our walk more interesting. Searle’s Shop  Searle’s Shop was a general mercantile shop that was run by the Searle Brothers from 1885.   Their motto was “No gambling but steady progress”.   When I was growing up there were two stores in this building: Woodcraft Furniture and Toyland.   I bet you can imagine why we loved to visit this place.   Later other shops follow...

Voortrek Street is the main street used to travel from the National Road (N2) through Swellendam.   This street has some beautiful old buildings.   Most of the buildings are privately owned and can only be viewed from the street.   Many are National Heritage Sites. View Larger Map The street is very long and we decided not to walk the whole length of it. We first drove to the end of the road and walk around that part of the street. (This part was less crowded because it is not in the central business part of town) We then drove towards the center of town, parked and then explored more of the historic town.   ROTHMAN MANOR GUESTHOUSE (218 Voortrek Street) This house was built in 1834 and was known as the JVDS House.   It has a beautiful gable and thatched roof. OLD BOYS SCHOOL  (147 Voortrek Street) This building was built in 1825 to serve as a house but from 1870 housed the Swellendam Grammar School or Old Boys School.   It is n...

One of our favourite parts of visiting new towns is to walk around in the streets to see what we find.   In Swellendam we had help from a document we received from the Swellendam Tourism Office called “Swellendam Treasures”.   You can get a copy from their offices in Swellengrebel Street or by sending them an email. Swellendam Treasures list 80 historical buildings listed in Swellendam and surrounding area with a bit of information and a map. The buildings are spread out through the town. To save time we drove to a few central spots.   We then walked to see the buildings and then back in the car to another area.   We also found that the town was busy Saturday morning, especially the area around the shopping mall.   To take photos Saturday afternoons or Sundays are better. Here are a few of the buildings we saw.  BUKKENBURG - 8 HERMANUS STEYN STREET  Bukkenburg was built in 1880’s as a “dorpshuis” or townhouse for the Streicher family.   ...