South Africa- city and wineries
We caught a flight from Jo'burg to Capetown. We flew out of Lansaria Airport. It was smaller and seemed to do many domestic and African flights. The loud speaker at the airport made it difficult for us to be adults. About every 15 minutes would be the standard 'keep your bags with you at all times' message. Added bonus is what challenged our inner child, "no joking about bombs" something, something, something "is a criminal offense." Have they not seen "Meet the Parents"? "You can't say bomb on an airplane. Bomb, bomb, da bomb." So every 15 minutes while waiting for our flight we would repeat that in our heads and laugh. Our laugh would be followed by thoughts of who would joke with security or even in the airport these days and what terrorist wouldn't have a code name until the event time. We felt it was great to take security seriously, but it was a fail on delivery. Don't tell me I can't do something, because my inner 5 year old only wants to do it now!
Landing in Capetown and getting around was uneventful because their public transit was great. We were able to hop on a bus at the airport, transfer at the station and exit at the right stop without getting lost. A+ Capetown, on your public transit.
We spent about a week in Capetown, mostly near the harbor. We split our time between 2 different hotels in the Green Park area. The first was a block off of Main Street and really was more of a guesthouse. Altona Guesthouse had a nice kitchen available to cook your own meals and a friendly, helpful staff. We would definitely stay there again. The second round in Capetown we stayed at South Lodge. It was on Main St, but slightly further from the restaurants. The room was difficult to control the temperature, but breakfast was awesome. Cheese plate with our cooked to order eggs and bacon, yes please!
Capetown was a great experience. We think we could happily live there. We spent much time trying various restaurants, walking the boardwalk, exploring the harbor's shops, roaming around town, biking to nearby beaches, and checking out Robben's Island. Just thinking about it, makes us want to go back.
A few of our favorite places to eat were Hudson's, Rockpool, and El Burro. Hudson's, in the heart of Main St, offered burgers, fries, and gluten free options! Brian greatly enjoyed his beef and beer, while Sara loved her gf flatbread with olive oil, garlic, feta, and avocado. Rockpool, just outside the busiest place of Main St, offered a nice view of the ocean and decent pizza. Again they offered gf pizza base... Sara was ecstatic! El Burro, near Hudson's, served delicious tacos! God, we miss tacos! We also ate lunch most days from the market near the harbor (located next to the aquarium). It had many local vendors with mostly homemade, reasonably priced food options inspired by cuisine from all over the world.
We spent much time walking the boardwalk and biking from beach to beach. The sea wall was huge, so it leads us to believe that the seas can be rough there. Or maybe it just encourages ships to use the harbor. Either way, it made for a great place to walk and ride. Many locals were out exercising, picnicking, or napping in the green space along the walkway. It was wonderful to see the locals appreciating their beautiful surroundings.
We often walked through the harbor area. The people watching was dynamite, as it drew wealthy people from all over the world. This area also contained tons of tourist shops and a gigantic mall. It was mind boggling because when we left the airport all we saw were tin shacks with old posters for doors. We later found out that up to 10 people might live in one tiny shack pilled on top of thousands of other tiny shacks. Then after a 30 minute ride you can be at a place flaunting with so much wealth. The mall offered floor after floor and wing after wing of clothing stores and fast food dining options.
We bought gym shoes at said mall. We no longer needed our hiking boots so we went to the post office, also in the mall. We decided to mail our boots and some souvenirs back to the States. We paid about $40 USD to ship our package that could arrive to its US destination anytime in the next 3 months. We had a good laugh because we literally were standing at the port and they couldn't really tell us if it would make a boat the next day or the next month. We did check on the status about a month later and it has made it onto a boat about a week prior and had been placed "in the bag"... Ooh boy, no idea what that means. Taking bets on if and when it arrives to Colorado. The original ship day was June 2nd, 2016.
At the harbor we began our Robben's Island tour. We really enjoyed our 4 hour tour of the former political prison. The ferry ride gave way to great views of the island and Capetown.
Once on the island we had a tour from a former political prisoner. It was informative and insightful. He discussed his hand in fighting, quite literally, the apartheid and this landed him on Robben's Island as a prisoner. He explained the class (colored vs black) system and how it would determine how much one would be fed. Prisoners were also graded on behavior, which would effect privileges like access to reading material, being allowed visitors, playtime in the yard, and for really bad behavior, isolation. All prisoners had to work the rock quarry. The rocks were used to build up the prison on the island. There was much discussion of the division of the prisoners. If the prisoner was a former political leader or worked the kitchen they were housed in their own sections. Of course, this island was made famous for housing Nelson Mandela.
A tour of the island was also included. We saw housing for the guards (and now former prisoners and former guards that work tourism on the island), the rock quarry, and Robert Sobuke's house. Apparently, Robert was a threat but had already served his time. He was kept on the island in his own "house" that he was fenced in and guarded 24 hours a day. They couldn't imprison him with the other prisoners because he might encourage a political uprising. Plus, he had already served his time and was kept because he might break the law again.
Lastly, we saw penguins on the island. Fun! We could continue to talk about the previous uses of the island and its history. The nerd in us wants to continue but we don't want you drooling on your desk. Those that are interested should go and check it out for yourself, especially if you enjoy political or cultural history.
Next up was some of the most beautiful wine country. ..Stellenbosch. We took the train from Cape Town to Stellenbosch. It was about a 2 hour trip. It was one of our adventures. Think New York subway at night, sitting on hard plastic benches, a preacher yelling about Jesus, and vendors jumping on and off the train selling junk food and you might have a small picture of the scene. The train went through some areas that were interesting but poverty-stricken and then all of the sudden there were mountains and the beautiful colonial town of Stellenbosch. All and all it was a good train ride. We were never hassled and everyone seemed to accept us as we were.
Luckily our navigator, Sara, had our route mapped out to our guesthouse because it was about a 1 mile walk winding through middle class neighborhoods that reminded us of Colorado. Our place was a room in a guest house in the back yard of a middle class home. It was great and large. We had a kitchen!
That night we walked to town, which was a ways. We drank a whole bottle of excellent wine at a winery, ate dinner, and explored town. That night we walked home in the dark.
The next day we had a winery tour scheduled. We went with Vine Hoppers. We started at 10 a.m., breakfast of champions! We were the only ones to show up at this time so we had the bus to ourselves. Our super nice tour guide took us to 5 wineries.
Lanzerac was our first. It's what you would imagine of a winery. There was a large formal dining hall/tasting room that had a large fireplace, long ornate bar lined with bottles of wine, tables that could seat 30 people, all with white stucco walls, and chandeliers. It was a perfect start to the morning. We ordered the small tasting which unfortunately included more white wines that we didn't really enjoy. However we also ordered some homemade chocolate that was so good we ended up debating later who got the last of it.
Then, Neil Ellis winery. The mountain views out the back of the property were beautiful. We sat at a picnic like table and enjoyed the blue sky and mountains next to us. We had some great wine too. Our favorite was the Amica wine.
We moved on to Thelema. This winery was under construction and didn't currently have much of a tasting room. However, tastings were free if you bought a bottle so we left with a tasty bottle of shiraz.
We were getting petty hungry and happy by this point so we went to our lunch winery, Boschendal. We could have spent all day here. It was an old colonial style winery with vineyards all around. As well as, a huge vegetable garden that provided much of the food for the restaurant. Their winery also had an amazing backdrop of steep rocky mountains. We went and ate lunch outside in their courtyard. Brian had a very tasty cheeseburger and Sara had french fries. We took our time and sobered up a bit too get ready for our next 2 rounds of tastings. After lunch we moved to the tasting area that was about 100 yards up the courtyard. Brian got a wine tasting with 5 wines and Sara went for the brandy tasting. Sara was going for it! Our server was awesome and very generous. After a couple of hours our driver came by and we managed to time our landing into the bench seat of the van without falling on the floor.
Last stop, Zorgvliet winery. Maybe our most scenic winery! There were mountains all around the winery, a nice pond out front, and horses in the pasture, To make the scene better we decided to add a delicious cheese plate and another round of wine. To quote Anthony Boudain "life does not suck".
It was an amazing end to our South African adventure! We were sad to leave Cape Town. So far our favorite place to visit.