• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

April 18-19 Cape Town, South Africa

We returned our included tour tickets for the first day because, when we came here in June (never been two South Africa before in our lives and then we come to Cape Town twice in 10 months), we visited the places it was taking us and it ended at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront complex of shops and restaurants which we could get to via ship shuttle.  So we just took the shuttle and wandered around the complex. 

Yes, I typed correctly, it is Victoria & Alfred.  Prince Alfred, second son of Queen Victoria, visited at age 16 as a Navy midshipman, making him the first royal to visit. 

Chris bought a replacement watchband and found a lovely hand-painted fabric table runner.  We had some lunch at the Food Warehouse— full of various food sellers—and visited the Watershed, an even larger warehouse comprised of many, many stalls—most of them of crafts.  On our last trip, we purchased several animals made of discarded flipflops by an enterprising and imaginative artist.  Apparently flipflops left on beaches are becoming a problem in the world’s oceans so he’s helping to address that as well.  We visited the shop again, but didn’t buy more.

The second day we took a 9-hour excursion to the Franchhoek Valley to taste wines and travel between wineries on a tram or train.  The first prestigious Cape Town wine region is the Stellenbosch Valley begun in the 17^th century by the Dutch.  When French Huguenots arrived also in the 17^th century, the Dutch East India Company didn’t want them settled with the Dutch in order to preserve the purity of the language (somehow that sounds more like a French posture than a Dutch one) so they settled them across some mountains in the next valley.  Franchhoek means French Corner (or French Quarter).  The French brought much skill in wine making and created their own prestigious Cape Town wine region.

Outside of the oddity and difficulty of beginning imbibing wine at 10:30 am, we enjoyed the day very much.  I was concerned at the first vineyard (Holden Manz) where I didn’t like the wines, we were out in the sun, glasses were reused, no water was provided, and the hour the tram was allotting us there seemed about ½ hour too long.  Fortunately, the second vineyard (La Bougogne Farm; the wine labels say GML: Mayer Family Wines) was excellent and paired their wines with chocolate caramels infused with the type of wine to be tasted.  The third vineyard (La Couronne) was also good and paired the wines with chocolate; they also grew olives and you could do olive oil tasting paired with pizza and with nuts and such.  

Finally, at the fourth winery (Grande Provence), we had a wonderful French picnic lunch.  The lunch came in traditional wicker picnic baskets for two containing a full bottle of wine, baguettes, meats & cheeses, fruit, salad, nuts, olives, and brownies and was held at picnic tables in a lovely garden.  Idyllic—and then just as we were ready to leave the temperature dropped significantly, the wind picked up, and the rain threatened.  It’s hard to begrudge them the rain since they are still in drought (they hope this winter will provide the needed rain) but it seemed like South Africa was saying goodbye to us.

The day would have been better if lunch came between vineyards one and two rather than at the end, but it was a very good day.  Back in port we moved rapidly through passport control (required on our leaving the country as it was when we arrived in Durban), in queue to register the items we’d purchased for VAT refund, and on to Good Friday service, before dinner–a long, busy day.