The wine route...

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Rob and I got up early on Tuesday morning and headed for Stellenbosch. After only a few mistaken turns (eep) onto the wrong side of the road, Rob mastered the skill of left-sided driving.

Stellenbosch is a beautiful old university town about 45 minutes north of Capetown. The university dates back to the 1600's and it is one of the only schools that still teaches everything in Afrikaans. We wandered around the town for the morning and early afternoon, then headed to wineries in the afternoon. The area around Stellenbosch is speckled with vineyards and is a wine-tasters paradise. Our first stop was at Spier, a very commercialized place. They also have a cheetah sanctuary (though I wasn't very impressed with the way they keep their animals). The wine was ok, but nothing to write home about. Our second stop was a smaller winery called Hartenberg Estate... It was absolutely fantastic. Stunning location and the service was fabulous. We enjoyed it so much that we bought 3 bottles of wine!!

We then drove to Paarl (another 30 minutes north) which is a very Afrikaans area. Our bed and breakfast was beautiful! We were both exhausted and starving, so we grabbed dinner at a restaurant across the street from the B&B, then hit the sack.

In the morning, we got up and drove to Franschoek (a little town east of Stellenbosch). It was pouring rain, but we wandered up and down the main street just browsing through shops. I loved Franschoek.. it was my favourite of the 3 towns by far... There was a museum at the end of the main street outlining the history of the French huegenots in the area. On our way out of town, we stopped at Boschendal (another winery) and had a quick tasting... we picked up a bottle to bring to Rob's cousin Joanne's place - where we were having dinner. Joanne lives in Somerset West, a suburb of Capetown and she works for the men's golf tour (she used to be a pro herself!). We stayed the night at her place and then headed back to Doug and Fiona's on Thursday morning. Rob's cousin Lauren and her husband Mark took us out for a great Italian dinner Thursday night... It was fun to hang out with people our age and talk to them about their lives here.

Doug took Friday off work and we headed to Blauwberg for the morning. You could see Robben Island (where Mandela was incarcerated) from there. In the afternoon, we explored the Cape Town Aquarium, which had some pretty crazy looking sea creatures! Friday the whole family went out for dinner at a beautiful Thai restaurant.

We left Capetown on Saturday afternoon and headed back to Johannesburg to stay with Rob's uncle Vic.

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Photos

CheetAH
At Spier

Dinner
Mark (Lauren's husband), Lauren, Aiden, Rob, me, Fiona, and Doug.