South Africa

South Africa / Travel — Comments Off on Cape Town Day 8: Cape Winelands & Send-off Braai
04
Jul 10

Cape Town Day 8: Cape Winelands & Send-off Braai

Sunday, July 4 – Happy Independence Day!

Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, and Cape Town, RSA

Our USA flags went back up on our rental car for the day and we wore some of our USA gear to celebrate our Independence Day.  We called Sylvia (from our Jo’burg B&B) for help in arranging a driver tomorrow in Jo’burg.  She totally remembered who we were and was as delightful as ever!  And she got us a driver!  We made one last valiant effort to find stamps to mail our postcards (Thanks again Richard and Carol for taking care of that for us!) and then took off with Claire and Ali on a tour of the Cape Winelands.  We drove through Stellenbosch (and the Stellenbosch campus) and then on to L’Ormarins in Franschhoek for wine tasting and old car viewing.  There is a car museum (Franschhoek Motor Museum) there with a TON of priceless cars on site.  There are so many cars that they rotate the selection through the three viewing warehouses.  Josh really liked checking out the old cars.  After the wine tasting, a worker there gave us a personal tour on the grounds past the historic buildings of the winery with beautiful Cape Dutch architecture.  The worker was quite taken with Josh and was certain that he was famous, but just couldn’t place him.  Ali tried to tell him he was a Kennedy, but the guy thought he saw him in a movie so we told him maybe he thought he was related to Daniel Craig.  It was so funny how sure this guy was that Josh wasn’t related to anybody, but actually WAS in the movies.  After our little tour we moved on to the Fairview winery in Paarl for cheese and wine tasting.  We checked out their goats and then headed back home for a proper braai send-off with Claire and Alistair, Richard and Carol, and Malcolm.  We had a great dinner with amazing people.  We were so sad to leave them.  After Malcolm, Claire and Ali left, we had one last evening of tea and biscuits with Carol and Richard.


Cape Winelands:

L’Ormarins in Franschhoek:

Franschhoek Motor Museum at L’Ormarins in Franschhoek:

Wine tasting at L’Ormarins:

The grounds at L’Ormarins on our personal tour:

The old historic buildings:

Fairview at Paarl:

Cheese (and meats) and wine tasting at Fairview:

Claire & Ali at Fairview:

J, Ali, Claire, & Josh at Fairview:

Fairview’s goats:

Our send-off braai, Richard, Claire & Malcolm:

Ali & J:

South Africa / Travel — Comments Off on Cape Town Day 7: Muizenberg, Chapman’s Peak, Hout Bay & Camps Bay
03
Jul 10

Cape Town Day 7: Muizenberg, Chapman’s Peak, Hout Bay & Camps Bay

Saturday, July 3

Cape Town, RSA

Our previous drives to Hout Bay and to the Cape of Good Hope had left a small stretch of the Cape Town peninsula that we hadn’t seen.  After sleeping off the previous night’s wine and writing some postcards (though no one appears to use regular postal mail service in South Africa – that was a struggle, our lovely hosts Carol and Richard took the hassle on for us! Thanks guys!), we headed to Muizenberg with Claire for brunch at Knead.  There are some super famous changing shacks there for surfers and swimmers.  And Knead is a gorgeous refurbished building, as well.  From there, we drove the rest of the way of our missed loop around the Cape up to Chapman’s Peak, through Hout Bay to Camps Bay.  We stopped at roadside (really, cliffside) stalls for some crafts shopping, but didn’t buy anything.  We were in Camps Bay in time for the day’s first game so we went back to Sandbar.  We got to watch the Germany-Argentina 4-0 blowout and have sundowners (finally, proper sundowners – drinks in hand, with a view of the setting sun).  We also did some more shopping, buying a handmade soccer ball from Vida.  Our loop of the Cape now completed, we drove over the mountain pass back to Claire and Alistair’s house for wine and some Ben time!  We walked over to their neighborhood pub, Caffe Verdi, for dinner and the late Spain-Paraguay game.


Muizenberg:
Changing rooms:

View from Chapman’s Peak:

Josh, J & Claire at Chapman’s Peak:

We noticed how buggy our car got after our road trip while we were here:

Sandbar at Camps Bay:

Our Sundowners:

Enjoying drinks and the game and the view:

Camps Bay at dusk:

South Africa / Travel — 2 Comments
02
Jul 10

Cape Town Day 6: Anniversary Extravaganza: Waterfront

Friday, July 2 – Happy 5th Anniversary to us!

Cape Town, RSA

We headed down to the waterfront and found parking near the Clock Tower.  We were able to make it inside (through the line at the door) Paulaner after the 1st Brazil goal (10′).  It is a Beer Hall style establishment and we joined two old German gentlemen, 68 and 72 years old.  This was the 10th World Cup they had attended in a row – 40 years straight!  We got to hear their great stories and we had a good time.  We watched the Dutch beat Brazil!  After the game, we walked around the V&A Waterfront, before settling in at Hildebrand (under Alba, the bar we went to with Claire and Ali when we first arrived in Cape Town) for our anniversary dinner.  It is a grand, old waterfront restaurant.  Formal enough for a 5 year anniversary dinner with candlelit tables outside, under a tent with a heat lamp, on the water, but it still had TVs tucked away in the corners so we could watch the late game!  We had their carbonara and Cape Rock Lobster tail and tried our first Chenin Blanc.  It was an AMAZING CRAZY World Cup game:  a missed PK in the absolute last minute, last play of overtime, due to a handball, leading to a PK shoot out because it was still tied – where the Uruguay goalie then “guessed right” 4/4 times and managed to block 2!  The Africans everywhere were displeased by the “cheater” who handballed it, leading to the PKs in the first place. All Africans were pretty much rooting for the last African team in the Cup – even our formal waiters were lined up at the back of the tent watching the final, tense minutes.  After the craziness we headed home to recap our awesome day of Groot Constantia, District 6, Bo-Kaap, Paulaner Brauhaus, Hildebrand, the V&A Waterfront and two great soccer matches with Richard and Carol over more wine.  We had a GREAT 5th anniversary and we were happy to be back in Cape Town! (And Josh was so glad soccer was back, a great anniversary gift!)


South Africa / Travel — 2 Comments
02
Jul 10

Cape Town Day 6: Anniversary Extravaganza: Bo-Kaap

Friday, July 2 – Happy 5th Anniversary to us!

Cape Town, RSA

We visited Bo-Kaap (official), the Malay Quarter.  It is a gorgeous neighborhood of bright pastel houses and buildings.  Many Muslims live there and there are great calls to prayers.  It is definitely unique from all the other neighborhoods and has a very distinct, community feel.  We really enjoyed our time there and had a nice chat with a gentlemen who was returning home after afternoon prayers (he liked that we enjoyed his neighborhood).  We walked all over the neighborhood, up and down the slopes, and found some cute hipster stores encroaching on the edges.  We headed back to the center of Bo-Kaap for a Cape Malay lunch at Biesmiellah.  We had Denningvleis (a yummy lamb dish) and Bobotie.  It was super good.

South Africa / Travel — Comments Off on Cape Town Day 6: Anniversary Extravaganza: District 6
02
Jul 10

Cape Town Day 6: Anniversary Extravaganza: District 6

Friday, July 2 – Happy 5th Anniversary to us!

Cape Town, RSA

We drove from Constantia to the District 6 Museum.  It reminded us a bit of what happened with the forced relocations here in Boston in the West End.  We learned a lot about how the forced removals of black South Africans were legalized and how the museum is a place to keep the memories of the people of District 6.  It was heady stuff.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →