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Published: November 23rd 2009
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Today is a chilly, rainy day. I would prefer a warm sunny day, but the rain is soothing and the day is relaxing.
We grudgingly left Leuwenvoet House at 9:30 this morning, saying good-bye to Frankie (our resident cat) and the two wonderful women who were our hosts -- and who seemed to work 24 hours a day.
Brian drove us to the bottom of the cable car for a view through the clouds -- a view of Cape Town and sea beyond. Suprisingly, the cable car was running despite the think tablecloth of clouds draped over Table Mountain. Even though Brian clearly thought we were crazy, we took the gondola to the top. On a nice day it is very crowded. Today it was only the four of us and a South African family, who were very friendly and enthusiastically asked us to pose for pictures with them, and then shook hands with us; the three part handshake that a woman in Langa had taught us yesterday.
The visibility at the top was . . . zero! It was a bit eerie and very quiet, being enveloped by the thick cloud. It felt like being at the
top of a ski mountain (but a bit warmer.) We had a cup of coffee then returned to the van.
I was inexplicably exhausted (seeing how last night was the first 8 hour sleep, I should have felt refreshed.) Brian drove us through Cape Town, describing many of the same landmarks we had walked past with Diane yesterday. I was asleep before we left the city center, and slept soundly as we traveled through the rainy day, east to Stellenbosch. We stopped there briefly at an interesting general store, then continued on to Franschhoek.
We are staying in another renovated Victorian house called La Fontaine Guesthouse. This is wine country, originally settled by French Huguenots bringing the craft of winemaking with them. Tomorrow we will do some wine tasting.
This area is also known for its restaurants. We ate at a bistro called The French Connection. I had mushrooms with garlic and then fishcakes with horseradish, and an amazingly fresh vegetable salad.
We had a very lively discussion with the two couples sitting n ext to us -- one couple from Ireland and one from Wales. They love South Africa and come here every year. One
of the couples owns a house a few hours from here. They are here in Franschhoek for the golf. We talked about politics and they told us how much they like Barak Obama. The health care bill just passed the House last night (which I knew because I got an automated email from THOMAS :-) and we talked about that as well.
Carrie, Linda, and I are now in a pub watching soccer (Chelsea vs Manchester United) drinking beer and all writing in our journals. The pub is called Elephant and Barrel. We have made some new Africaans friends -- Elizabeth and her friend. We first caught their attention by our exaggerated singing along to bad American music that was playing " . . . Down town". They chimed in and then we talked for a while. We shared our stories (they thought we were students of some sort, writing so feverishly in our journals) and they expressed their love for this country. Elizabeth invited us to a party at her house on Saturday and told us we should adjust our itinerary so that we could come!
We are on the second story of the pub, there is
a balcony with what should be an amazing vew of the surrounding mountains, but it is shrouded in clouds. The clouds lifted briefly, allowing a view of waterfalls, a huge estate (Elizabeth told us it belongs to a "filthy rich" German owner of a winery) and a Hollywood-esque "Franschhoek" sign. By the time I got my camera out, the curtain had dropped again and you can barely tell there are mountains there.
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