There are a few things missing from Cape Town’s new airport terminal that money couldn’t buy and to which the terminal’s planners probably paid little, or no, attention, if they even knew.

I’m going to miss walking across the apron at Cape Town International and tasting the crisp wind and smelling the sea air (now you walk up an air bridge into the building). I’m also going to miss strolling out of the little old airport – as funk an African airport as you could hope for – and seeing Table Mountain spread out in front of me in a proper Cape Town welcome that did more for the city’s global fame than a gazillion travel brochures and marketing campaigns ever could, because now there’s multi-story car-park in the way.

All that said, the new terminal is smart and pretty sexy in weird kind of airport-fetishist way. It’s more like one of Europe’s redesigned railway stations than an airport – clean, efficient and spacious under that, high vaulted roof.

On Friday night, I watched people walking and staring at their new airport. Some had specks of spittle on their lips as they pointed at the the roof, the glass, the restaurants … Surely not all of them were there to catch planes or meet family?

Still, why not hang out in the airport. It’s clean, safe, out of the wind and it’s cost us taxpayers a pretty bomb, so we might as well enjoy it to the max.

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4. Army takes to Cape Town’s streets. Blocks traffic.
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