The round trip starts with Stellenbosch

Monday 04.01.2016

Hilary and Jen are punctual at 9:00 am and have brought us a lot of provisions, including biltong (dried meat), which doesn't look very good, but tastes super good. Dried apricots, almonds - delicious.

Now our big trunk has to show what it can do - and it can! We drive to Bree Street, where G. gets the decorated ostrich egg she saw a few days ago. Next stop is Bloubergstrand. I read that you have a great view of Cape Town from there, and it's true.

View of Table Mountain and Cape Town from Bloubergstrand

Bloubergstrand is a kilometer-long beach and surprisingly has very few restaurants despite the great view. The café "Petit Fours", where we sit outside, again offers a great selection for breakfast and we enjoy the view of the sea from the terrace, with Robben Island and in the distance also Cape Town with Lion's Head, Table Mountain and Signal Hill.

This is also Bloubergstrand...

On the way to the wine region of Stellenbosch we first drive to Paarl. Here there is supposed to be an 11km long Main Street lined with ancient oaks. We imagined it differently somehow. The street is rather lined with shops and restaurants, you really have to look for trees. So we continue to Stellenbosch. It is not quite easy to find our Beauclaire Cottage, although I have the directions and address and our GPS also thinks it will take us there. In the end, we have to rely on phone navigation with the manager.

Our domicile with a pretty Cape Dutch gable

Our cottage is something like the servants' house of a villa and is located behind high fences and beautiful plants in front of a small pool. Since the main house is uninhabited, we have everything to ourselves. The cottage, with one of those typical gables, has two floors. Downstairs and upstairs each with its own bathroom. Downstairs there is also a kitchen-living room. My bed feels like 8 square meters.

It's almost 40 degrees outside. So let's take a siesta in the shade by the pool first. At 5:00 pm we take a detour to a winery called Neethlingshof, which is one of the oldest wine estates in the Western Cape and dates back to 1682.

Directions to Neethlingshof Estate

The sales room is still open, but we don't try anything now and just take a few photos of the estate. We continue to downtown and look for something to eat.

Everything is full, so in the end we eat at a brewery on Church Street, where they serve flamkuchen.

Stellenbosch is a pretty town with beautiful facades and many restaurants that have really great menus. We will try them out.

Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch

Back in our cottage, we look online for wine tours for tomorrow, but they are all fully booked at short notice.