Wine tasting (without wine)

As South Africa is famous for its wines, we took off for a two-day trip to the wineries around Cape Town.

Sven had sniffed out the best places, of course.

Our first stop was the Babylonstoren Farm, one of the oldest ‘Cape Dutch’ farm yard. Cape Dutch is the specific Dutch inspired style of architecture, prominent in the 17th century in the Cape Colony.

We walked through their lovely organic gardens, but as the temperature had already hit 30 degrees, we quickly retired to the shadows at the little restaurant and feasted on some sandwiches and fruit juices.

On to Stellenbosch, the second oldest European settlement in the province, after Cape Town.

The city was founded in 1679 by the Governor of the Cape Colony, Simon van der Stel, who bluntly named it after himself (Stellenbosch meaning “Stel’s Bush”).

Again, the pressing heat made us cut this visit somewhat short. It was just too hot to walk around.

We visited the Stellenbosch Village Museum, a complex of several historical houses from different times of the city’s history, and saw the different styles evolve – and the wealth of the colony.

 

Finally, we drove to Franschhoek, at the end of a long valley full of wineries with Dutch, German, and, of course, French names.

The valley was originally settled in 1688 by 176 French Huguenot refugees, many of whom were given land by the Dutch.

The common Protestant faith made this possible, however the French stayed together and the little village became known as the ‘French corner’. Hence its name.

Today it is a neat little tourist village, full of beautiful old-style houses, galleries, restaurants, hotels, guest houses and B&B’s.

We first took a nap at the pool, and in the evening went for one of the best dinners on this trip, in Reuben’s Restaurant.

There we finally tasted some wine, one white , one red each, as we had not tasted anything during the whole day!

But with the heat we just did not feel like sitting down and sampling and slurping alcohol.

We have two great wineries lined up for tomorrow.