So, up earlier than usual with the alarm set at 8am, mainly because we had to go and get some cash at the ATM to check out with (love that 10% discount).
We found the ATM hidden around a corner in the shopping centre eventually, and I got the money, then we took a circular walk back to see some more of the houses - Cape Town is very pretty architecturally, even the new houses retain the old style of charm.
We went straight to breakfast when we got back, and another couple had taken OUR seat. After two breakfasts we felt we had a right to a certain seat, so instead we were on the sofa seat at the end. Made it more difficult to flick through the paper...
Then up to the room where we lay on the bed a while, packed again, and headed down at 11am to pay and checkout. I retrieved our pizza and copious amounts of water from the guest fridge, and we settled up. Louis gave us a farewell gift which turned out to be some caramel slices which were actually really really nice - I nibbled on these over the next week...
Took the bags out to the Sombrero, and SS was nice enough to agree that we could go down to the Rhodes Memorial on the way out of town to Stellenbosch and Franschhoek - our new home.
I had remembered where the turnoff was, so we got there easily.
More childhood memories coming back. There was a group of local university students up there as well, bizarrely, but it was nice to have company.
The memorial is said to be at the spot where Rhodes used to sit on a bench looking north toward Cairo, imagining the British link continuing all the way up Africa.
He got pretty close to making that a reality as well, but died very young of his long standing heart problems.
Then we headed back on to the road, and up to Stellenbosch. As you go along the road, there are a lot of shanty towns still, and SS took some photos
and then he promptly fell asleep. It does not really take any time at all to get to the turn off to Stellenbosch, and before we knew it we were off the road, and heading up towards Meerlust - our first stop of the day.
Meerlust had a beautiful drive up to the front of it and the house itself was beautiful.
We settled in for our first tasting. This is where SS got his first experience of the South African secret weapon in cellar sales - the young attractive female. Attractiveness much outweighs the need for experience or knowledge of the wines, but the sales seem unaffected.
Here was what we tasted (we skipped the whites as always).
As this was our first stop we were a bit green and overeager - we bought two bottles. Given how much we could conceivably take with us, and that we had not been to a bottle shop yet to check prices, we ended up paying over the odds, but still, we headed back to our car with our first purchases.
We were feeling a bit peckish, and there was a picnic bench near where we had parked. We had the leftover pizza from Camps Bay, and it seemed a good moment to snack. There were no other guests on the place at all, but the office people decided we could not eat there, so we drove off instead back on to the road, intending to find another spot for our lunch.
Nest stop was Rust en Vrede. Another stunning location, and some beautiful scenery along the way. This was our first experience of a boom gate blocking an entrance to a winery. Getting through involves saying to the boom gate operator "we are here to taste wine" and he opens the gate. Very effective.
We sat outside for the tasting (to be conducted by a young attractive female), and here we encountered the next rule of cellar tastings - there is almost always an animal - in 90% of cases a dog, but in a few cases a cat.
Here the dogs were gorgeous - great big labradors. I immediately thought of my friend Kate, who would have been swooning with pleasure at the big softies. SS was also in his element, enjoying playing with the big lugs (and you will notice his sunburned head...), before one settled down by my bench seat to keep me company during the tasting.
SS very much enjoyed the wine and the presentation, and as a result, yep, we purchased again...
It was still reasonably early, so we looked on the map to see what else was near. Ernie Els' winery was up on the hill above, and I had heard his wine wasn't terrible (SS had never heard of Ernie Els - when I explained he was a golfer he was quite reluctant to go up there at all).
The setting for the tasting was the most spectacular so far. It didn't have the charm of an old homestead like the previous two, but it did have the views and a beautiful modern outlook. The entrance had large sandstone rocks moved in, and a lily pond with koi fish.
It was not SS's favourite however, as our pourer was a young man in a corporate Ernie Els polo shirt - not what SS was used to! But the views from the terrace were stunning and made me feel like I never wanted to leave!
Again, we weren't expecting much from the wine, and the Cirrus was nasty, but the Big Easy was a surprisingly good wine, but then the Englebrecht Els was poured and I was in heaven - stunning wine!
We purchased again, and then started driving back down to the main road. The grounds were so manicured, that I pulled off the side on to a small service road, and we got out, took the pizza, and settled in to eat. My half of the pizza had not got less salty overnight, but it was a nice spot until the ants started biting SS and we finished the pizza in the car.
Refreshed, we headed up the road through Stellenbosch, and then over the pass on the R310 to Franschhoek. There is a lot of roadworks on the road as everything is preparing for the World Cup later this year. This involved a few stops along the way where roadworkers slowly waved red flags around, whilst the rest rested on the shovels, whilst usually one or two out of about 20 were working really hard digging and smoothing.
We got on to the Franschhoek road, and were very happy we had decided to stay there rather than in Stellenbosch. Franschhoek was charming and small. We drove through town and easily found Akademie Street guesthouses. Arthur met us at the door, and asked us to drive round the back where we parked the Sombrero in a driveway and Arthur checked us in. The room (Uitsig) was bigger than I had expected even, beautifully furnished, with a large sunny deck, huge bathroom and small kitchen area.
Arthur left us to settle in, and said if we needed anything just to come down and ask. There was a charming letter waiting for us with a couple of boxes of chocolates.
We were staying for 6 days, so I started unpacking and looking around. Our usual routine - SS lay on the bed and checked out the TV channels, whilst I unpacked and then read the guest book.
This is also when we worked out how much wine we had bought already...
SS discovered the wireless internet worked so was in heaven checking news, and I relaxed on the bed and read my book. I also took an inventory of what was provided in the fridge and snack area - this was all complementary and refreshed every day:
4 packets crisp
2 packets peanuts
2 Windhoek lagers
2 bottles water
bottle milk
half bottle Graham Becks sparkling wine (only thing not replaced each day)
2 miniatures Amarula
2 miniatures Gordons gin
2 miniatures Richelieu brandy
2 miniatures Bells scotch
2 tins tonic
2 tins Coke
2 tins soda water
4 juice boxes
How can two people get through that??? But I started getting pikey thinking about our self catering accommodation coming up, and started hiding some bits in the safe each day so they would be refreshed. This meant by the time we left I had quite the bag of groceries, and they must have thought we were absolute drunken pigs!
We lay around, watching Bloomberg showing the reruns of the bank heads meetings in Washington. Hard to forget work when it is right there in front of you all the time.
At 7:50pm we headed down to French Connection for dinner (even tho' we weren't particularly hungry after the day we had had.
SS started with a vegetable salad, I skipped starters. Then he had mushroom risotto which was huge but a bit cold. I had calamari and chips with vegetables - not very nice. SS had a glass of Eikhorn cab sav and I had a Windhoek Light. We finished up a slightly disappointing dinner, and walked back looking at the property prices locally, already considering buying a holiday house :-).
Back to the room, and relaxed on the bed with a miniature each of Amarula, watching the Golden Globes rerun. Drew Barrymore's speech was quite embarrassing! Then off to sleep with the lovely thought that we were staying somewhere wonderful for 6 nights, and lots of wine was ahead of us over the next week.
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