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Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Day 246 – Save water – drink wine! Especially on the Table!

Under an oak out of an oak

We decided that the best way to start our 4-winery tour of nearby wine farms (as they call vineyards in South Africa) is to have champagne for breakfast. It was 8AM, but why notJ. Happily bubbly afterwards we set out to the Franschhoek ("French corner"), or the Huguenot Valley. The valley takes its name from the first settlers – Huguenot refugees – who came here in 1688, and drastically changed the quality of the wine that had already been produced in the region since 1685 by the Dutch.

In one of the beautiful wineries we sat under a 300-year old oak tree sampling most delicious wine and champagne (aged in oak barrels). Life is definitely good.

Along our sampling way, we've also learnt a couple of useful things concerning wine:

  • Apparently, dessert wine is very good with sushi. I never thought of it, but I guess it makes sense to combine sweet and salty. Must be tried at the next good sushi destination.
  • For the aesthetic purposes, it is advised to freeze pink table grapes or strawberry and use it instead of ice for rose champagne. Must be tried at the next champagne party, for sure.

Along the road, we stopped at an antique car museum (a private collection) and some pretty nature sights. Life is not only good, but also extremely beautiful!



Under the Table, on the Table

What a gorgeous final accord in the conclusion of our stay in Cape Town - a bottle of delicious pinotage on the top of the Table Mountain! Table Mountain is absolutely breath-taking, both from the bottom and all the way to the top. Almost always covered with a"tablecloth" - a heavy and at the same time weightless cloud of fog - the mountain is a mesmerizing sight, filling you with a mysterious energy and emptying you of any thoughts...

Table Mountain is now a heavyweight contender in the final round of the New7Wonders of Nature contest, along with Cliffs of Moher, Grand Canyon, Galapagos and some others. I'm definitely voting for it, and if you trust my opinion (and appreciate my attempt to back it up with photos that obviously don't do any justice to the actual beauty of the mountain and the views opening up from its top), do join me!



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