Cape Town Day 3

We awoke on our third day in Cape Town ready for a relaxing day touring the wine lands.  We were very lucky that we had clear sunny skies with forecasted highs in the 70’s.  The perfect weather to go to a few wineries and sip some wine!

Today’s group is smaller than the previous days excursion.  There are only 10 of us enjoying the wine lands.  After our breakfast we are off on the road Stellenbosch where the best wine in South Africa is made.  Our first stop is in the town of Stellenbosch where we have the opportunity to roam around for a little bit – about an hour.  Not enough time to really shop, especially since the stores didn’t really open until closer to 10, but it was enough time to do some retail therapy!

We roamed the quaint streets of Stellenbosch and found that some shops that were open.  Our first stop was a jewelry store, which was exciting for me since I love picking up a piece of jewelry from places that I visit so when I am home and wear the jewelry I can remember my trip.  Unfortunately the ring that I really loved did not come in my size.  Next we were on a mission to find the gallery where the artist uses local wine to paint.  We went into the first open gallery and lucked out that it was the artist our tour manager recommended.   The pieces the she created were beautiful and I bought a small piece.  Definitely a great first souvenir!

After our stop we moved on to our first winery, Boschendal!  Since we had an early start to the day we got to the winery early and had the entire place to ourselves!  It was a lovely to experience the winery with just our little tour group.  The tasting felt intimate and we were able to talk with the group and learn more about our fellow travelers than we did on other tours.  We tasted 5 wines that they offer.  The wines that we tasted were delicious and I bought a bottle to bring back with me.  The one thing that I could not get over while we were in South Africa was the price of things.  Usually at a winery in the United States a bottle of wine costs more than $18/bottle. Here a bottle of wine cost $4!

After our first tasting our tour manager Johnathan was nice enough to make a reservation of lunch for out group at another winery.  We at lunch at La Petite Ferme, where we not only had a delicious meal (the eggplant in tomato sauce with cheese was amazing!) we had amazing views!  Johnathan once again outdid himself with choosing a place for us to eat!

After our lunch we went to our final stop and winery of the day Anura.  Here we were taken on a cellar tour where the guide described their picking, juicing, fermenting, and bottling process before we had our tasting.  It was nice to get a different experience at this winery than the first stop.  After the tour we were taken to the main tasting room where we tasted 5 wines that were paired with different cheeses.  This was a different experience from the first tasting and it was just as enjoyable!

Since this was our last night in Cape Town my travel buddy and I decided to hit the town and shop our hearts out for souvenirs!  A few people on our tour suggested the Trading Post at the Victoria and Alfert waterfront was the best place to go to get what we were looking for.  We took a cab from the hotel over to the waterfront and wandered around looking for the store.  The waterfront reminded me a little of a boardwalk promenade with the ferris wheel.  It was definitely a lively place with people walking around and eating at the restaurants.  We walked around and went into a few shops until we found the Trading Post.  Everyone pointed us in the right direction – this store was definitely the pace we needed to buy our souvenirs!  There were rooms upon rooms upon rooms on multiple floors that had everything from little trinkets like stone carved animals to larger pieces like carved furniture.  We were able to get everything we needed and were satisfied with our purchases.  It was definitely a great way to end our time in Cape Town!

Though we were sad our time in Cape Town has come to an end, our next stop is Limpopo Providence where we will be doing several game drives on safari!