This past week my mom came to visit me. She arrived on Friday, April 9 and stayed at the Cape Grace Hotel on the Waterfront. That evening we dined at a wine bar called Caveau. Once again, Ben (our resident advisor) knows how to recommend restaurants. Two of the tapas we had were dishes you may not find at home. We had the ostrich carpaccio on bruschetta and the kingklip fishcakes. In normal Cape Town fashion, our dinner took two hours because nothing is to be rushed- especially a good dinner.
Our 6am wake-up call on Saturday was well worth it. We went on a Bike N Wines tour of the Stellenbosch region. Stellenbosch is the main wine lands area about 25 minutes outside of Cape Town by car or an hour outside of the city by the train we took. We ended up having a private tour with our guide named Van. We went to three wineries and a brandy seller for tastings. My favorite was at Spier winery because they paired cheeses to go with the white, rosé, and red wines we sampled. We had a garlic goat cheese paired with our white wine; a cheddar cheese with the rosé, and a creamy cranberry cheese with the red wine. We biked 14 kilometers along the railroad, through fields, and past vineyards. On our way we spotted many ostriches, cows, zebras, antelope, and more. To top it off, we each received a free bottle of wine at the end of the tour.
On Sunday my mom and I hiked Lion’s Head Mountain in the morning. It was much warmer than we expected, considering Cape Town is now supposed to be into the fall season. After making our way down from Lion’s Head, we head to Bo Kaap. Bo Kaap is the Muslim quarter of Cape Town that is full of brightly colored houses. Afterward my mom had her first minibus experience. The minibus taxi screaming “SEA POIIINT!” was the one we hopped on and travelled to Camps Bay in. I introduced her to Kauai when we arrived at Camps Bay. Kauai is a great smoothie place that I will dearly miss when I return home in three weeks. We sat by the beach at Camps Bay for awhile and then cruised back to the Waterfront on another minibus. That evening we were invited to Marita’s flat for dinner in Rondebosch. My mom was able to meet Marita, Ben, Vernon, and Esmé (Vernon’s wife).
On Monday we walked around downtown Cape Town. I showed my mom several places including Parliament, the Book Lounge, Charly’s Bakery, Green Market Square, and my internship placement at Black Sash. In the afternoon we took a taxi over to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. It was very hot, 88ºF, with no breeze so we did not stay too long in the gardens. My mom’s Tauck Tour tipped off Monday evening. Begrudgingly, the tour guide allowed me to dine with them; she did not seem too enthused to have me as a guest. However, it was fun to talk to some of the other people on my mom’s tour who had visited places such as Kenya, Tanzania, and India.
On Tuesday and Wednesday my mom’s tour kept her busy. She toured places including Robben Island, Table Mountain, wineries, Cape Point, and Boulders Beach. I went to my internship on these days. Normally I take a minibus to Black Sash but on these two days I arrived in style because the Cape Grace Hotel provides complimentary driving services anywhere within twelve miles of the hotel. Little did they know that I was not actually a patron of the hotel, but the Cape Grace is not cheap so they could afford a mile trip over and back to my internship two days!
Wednesday evening my mom and I dined at Jardine Restaurant. Ben had recommended this to me and my mom had even known about it after finding a write up about the restaurant in the New York Times. After dinner I said goodbye and returned to 10 Loch Road because my mom’s tour was leaving at 6:30am on Thursday. She is now travelling to Kruger, Johannesburg, and Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe).
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