Day Three

Today was the first full day in Africa.  The weather was bright and sunny making it a perfect day to be out and about in the city.

Started off with my favorite way in the former British colonies with a traditional fry up.  Yes, I actually do enjoy baked beans with my breakfast.  I got a chuckle when I got back to my table after hitting the buffet only to realize a bit later that the staff gave my funny looks because I actually sat at the wrong table.  They didn't ask me to move but had the other person move.

About 9 AM, I was met by my tour guide for the morning, Renae, of Hylton Ross tours.  She was taking me, along with three other people, on a half day wine tour.  It was a fantastic morning though drinking wine at 9:45 AM isn't normal for me unless it's champagne.  The first vineyard, Anura, took us on a tour of the cellar.  Even on vacation, I can't completely get away from work.  I kept on seeing equipment used in my field especially the filter press which was covered but I wanted to uncover.

The vineyards are located in Paarl (the Afrikaans word for Pearl... lots of place names retain the Afrikaans names) which is located at the foot of the Simonsberg Mountains.  With the crisp morning, it was a beautiful drive out to the vineyard with lots of information being conveyed by our guide.  In a lot of ways, the Cape Winelands region felt like Napa Valley with all the farms and vineyards covering the landscape.

The wines tasted very good and for the first time, I could actually taste and smell some of the notes.  There were only two of us tasting the wines (which brings up the question... why go on a wine tasting tour if you're not tasting wine???).  My tasting companion was a young South African woman who had a sister who worked at the Marriott in Hartford so we had great discussions throughout the morning about the differences between the United States and South Africa.

Once we were done, we drove through the town of Stellenbosch which houses the University of Stellenbosch.  It retains a lot of Dutch character.  The university was originally established for the Afrikaaners and classes were tought in Afrikaans.  That opened the door for discussions about South Africa's past and future.  It definitely was interesting with both of the South Africans in the vehicle being very open and honest about how things were and how they were going.

We made one stop in Stellenbosch at a store called Oom Samie Se Winkel (Uncle Samie's Store).  The store was similar to the typical general store in the US.  It's the place to go if you need to pick up spices, a deck of cards, framed insects, and doll parts all at one time.

We made one more stop at another vineyard.  The wines produced by this vineyard were much lighter than the first.   There were a few wines that would be perfect for a summer day.  The chardonnay was really good and much much less oaky than the US produced chardonnnays.  The other thing we found out during the day is that the oak barrels used in South Africa are from the US or France, primarily France.

We were pretty efficient on the tour and got back to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront with enough time for me to see if I could get tickets to Robben Island.  Unfortunately, they were all sold out so I still missed it.

With my afternoon free, I took the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus to get a good general tour of Cape Town.  It's pretty much the only typically tourist thing I do in cities especially when I'm there for short periods of time as the tickets provide a quick route between distant landmarks.  The best part of this tour is that it stopped at Table Mountain where I rode the cable car to the top and got great photos of Cape Town.

 

There were a few more stops after Table Mountain with a great drive past some beautiful beaches.  Apparently, due to the winds whipping off the mountains, the water in the winter is warmer than the water in the summer.

And just for Kim, I also got a photo of a lighthouse....

I've spent a nice evening relaxing.  As is typical for me, the time zone changes have caught up with me on my second day.  It will be a bit of an early night because I have to get up early in the morning for my flights to Victoria Falls.