Morgan's Year in Cape Town: Mikael’s visit part I: Cape Town activities

I don’t know how often people actually read this blog, but in case there are any devoted followers out there, I apologize for the recent absence of posts. Mikael came to visit for about 10 days, during which time I tried to fit in a million activities and thus there was no time to even think about blogging. And since we did do so much, I think I’m going to have to break it down into 2 posts…

I’ll start from the beginning and give you a blow by blow, whether you want it or not  The day after Mikael arrived, I went to work and let him sleep for a while, though in the afternoon I made him go on the Robbin Island tour. With Mikael being such a wine aficionado, Friday evening I made reservations at the fancy Vineyard Hotel to participate in their Meerlust wine tasting/pairing event. Meerlust is one of the most famous of the classy vineyards in South Africa (in particular, their Rubicon wine is very famous and I highly recommend it to anyone who ever has the opportunity to try it). For a total of approximately $30, we had 1 welcome glass plus 5 glasses of wine each paired with a fancy food course as part of a sit down dinner. It was quite the deal!

Saturday we got up early and sorted out our rental car. (Yeah, instead of taking the ’95 Toyota Conquest away from my roommates I opted to rent a VW golf also from the early 90s. You might be wondering why I wouldn’t splurge on a real car if renting, but I didn’t really have much choice in the matter – Conquests and Golfs from the ‘90s literally make up about 50% of all cars driven here!) After a quick stop at the Old Bisquit Mill for a nice breakfast, we continued with the wine theme and headed towards Stellenbosch. Mikael had already picked out the vineyards he wanted to see, and I had mapped out our route. First we went to Warwick, then Kanonkop, then Thelema, then Stellenzicht. I’m no expert, but I do think I’m getting at least a little better at wine tasting these days. At Kanonkop we ran into a colleague from m2m – yet again evidence that white people with access to money tend to make Cape Town and surrounds feel like a small town. Driving through the vineyards all day was really beautiful. Stellenbosch must consist of some of the prettiest winelands in the world, what with the abundance of spectacular mountain scenery. We then checked into our B&B and walked downtown for dinner. For not having any idea of where the best restaurants were located and wandering aimlessly for quite sometime before becoming very hungry and deciding we were eating at the next place we saw, we managed to do quite the job in picking our restaurant. The food was amazing – Mikael had a Cape Malay curry dish with prawns and bananas (Cape Malay food being the South African/Southeast Asian fusion food resulting from the large number of Southeast Asian Muslims who were initially brought to South Africa as slaves during the Dutch rule); I had an ostrich fillet covered with a dark chocolate sauce. Ostrich is so yummy!

Sunday we headed to one last vineyard, Fairview, before leaving Stellenbosch. Some of you may be familiar with the Fairview label “Goats do Roam” – I know it’s relatively common in the U.S. And yes, they really do have goats roaming around their property, plus a large selection of goat cheese. We signed up for the cheese and wine tasting pairing, which was lovely. After Fairview we drove back to Cape Town and I made Mikael drive around the city so he could see all the scenery. We drove out towards Camps Bay (the really exclusive, exceptionally beautiful beachfront neighborhood in Cape Town) and to our good fortune, Chapman’s Peak Drive was open. This is a stretch of road that is cut into the cliffside and allows for spectacular ocean views. It had been closed for months and I think we caught it the first weekend it opened. Anyway, we continued down the Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula, all the way to Cape Point. We didn’t have too much time, but I’m really glad Mikael got to see the beautiful scenery of the tip of the Cape of Good Hope. On the way back, we drove up the Indian Ocean side, stopping to see the penguin colony at Simonstown. Fortunately for us a lot of them were hanging out right by the boardwalk, providing for some nice photo opportunities.

Ok, I’m going to write about our trip to Namibia in a different post. So skipping ahead a few days to after our return from Namibia, we had one last Sunday to enjoy before Mikael had to head back to Montana. Fortunately, the weather was gorgeous. In the morning I walked him all around the Rondebosch neighborhood, showing him the house I used to live in as a study abroad student, campus, and Rhodes Memorial. Campus and Rhodes Memorial are located pretty high up on the side of the mountain, providing for nice views of the city. We then continued our walking theme by going for a hike up Lion’s Head (this being the smaller mountain that lies directly in the middle of the city) with Byron, Wenli, and Julia. This time, the hike was great (as opposed to last time when we were thwarted by a giant cloud that prevented us from seeing anything farther than 10 feet in front of us). After we got back, Mikael and I went out for dinner at the Cellars Hotel, a fancy hotel in Constantia. (Constantia is the wineland suburb of Cape Town. It’s only about a 15 minute drive from the city, but there are a few really nice vineyards in the area.) All in all it was a great day.

Monday morning I had to drive Mikael back to the airport, which was of course sad, especially after having such a great time together. Luckily Christmas feels like it’s right around the corner!

Mikael and our trustly VW Golf