Sunday, April 17, 2011

Stellenbosch Again

The next morning, Kaitlin, Alex, and I rented a car and headed back to Stellenbosch while Regina went climbing again. It was late by the time we got everything ironed out, it was around noon so we stopped in at McDonalds (two days in a row) before leaving Cape Town. Once in Stella, we head directly to Tokara, one of the vineyards we had missed on our last trip. It had a really cool exhibit of paintings made using red wine. I bought a couple bottles of olive oil. Next we headed to Boschendaal, where we did a vineyard tour and a wine and cheese tasting before heading to the train station to pick up Regina.

From there, we checked into our hotel and tried to find an authentic African restaurant. Apparently the only authentic African restaurant in Stella had closed. We went to Javas instead. This ended up being my favorite meal of the trip. I had a salad with smoked kudu and strawberries. YUM!

That night, at the Stumble Inn, Alex had a mysterious breakout of itchy red bumps that started on his arms and spread to his back and chest. He had not been feeling entirely well since his family was in town so we were all worried. Regina and I both searched the web for a diagnosis and convinced ourselves that he had Bilhzaria (a.k.a. Schistosomiasis or snail fever), a disease caused by parasitic flukeworms. We insisted that he go to the doctor.

The next morning, we went back to Java for breakfast. Then the girls shopped while Alex (finally) went to the doctor. We were so relieved to find out that he only had an allergic reaction and did not have flukeworms (especially since we had been swimming in the same places as him).

That resolved, we headed to do MORE winetasting! We started at Asara, a vineyard we had all been looking forward to. The setting was absolutely beautiful! I may have mentioned this before, but the wine area around Cape Town is even prettier than Napa Valley. At Asara, we started with a chocolate tasting and went absolutely crazy! My favorites were the campari chocolate and the carmadon chocolates, the Muscat wasn’t so bad either. Next, wine tasting (I thought this was the best merlot I have ever tasted) and, to finish, gelato. Mmmm . . . . We ended up spending so much time at Asara that we only had time for one more winery on the way to Franchoek.

We got slightly lost trying to find Fairview, which is known for having both cheese and wine and for offering very inexpensive wine. The detour, however, gave us the opportunity to buy an entire box of peaches and nectarines (buying less was not an option). Alexis would later regret this decision as we teased him endlessly about how peaches, beaches, and bitches all sounds the same with the French accent. Kaitlin and I were so excited to finally find the pickled figs we had been looking for since Wilderness.

After gorging ourselves on wine and cheese, we finally made it to Franschhoek – the gourmet capital of Africa. It did not disappoint. We had a lovely dinner. The food and wine were fantastic. After all of the chocolate and food, Regina and I may or may not have been a “little” hyper and may or may not have tried to play jokes on Alexis and Kaitlin while they were sleeping. Regina spent the rest of the night planning our future.

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