I spent the middle of September in South Africa with my beautiful wife on our belated honeymoon. In two words: phenomenal experience! Not only was it a great place to go as not-so-newleyweds, but our wine and dining experiences were, for the most part, nothing short of Amazing…
We started our journey with a 16 hour flight, 3 glasses of surprisingly decent airplane Pinotage and the first few episodes of Breaking Bad, straight to Johannesburg Airport. I don’t know about you, but it’s not easy for me to sleep on a plane, but I managed to catch 3 or 4 hours of sleep after my 3rd glass of wine and a Xanax! When we got to “Jo-Burg” we shuffled to our next plane to Cape Town where we would actually begin this exciting adventure! We made it to our first quaint hotel on a wine farm outside of Stellenbosch and took a deep breath…
It was a little rainy, but the scenery was beautiful! We decided to take a quick nap, and rest up for the evening and get acclimated to the new time zone and season.zzzzzzzz
We woke up and decided to go out for a drink and a bite to eat and had a great time getting immersed into some African traditions, and even made friends with the local entertainers for the establishment… Our meal was simple and good, but the entertainment was awesome, we even got serenaded at our table! I enjoyed a local Chenin Blanc that had just the right balance of fruit and acidity, and went perfectly with the arugula salad!
The following day we had an amazing time driving around Cape Town. We went to a Penguin beach, saw some Baboons on the side of the road, made it to the top of Table Mountain, climbed another mountain,The Cape of Good Hope, and then, before heading back for dinner, we even stopped for a drink at the oldest Hotel in the city…
In our first day and a half in South Africa we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the country, the rapid changes of season in Cape Town (morning it was cold and rainy, by lunch it was warm and sunny), and the overall friendliness of the people we met… we were very excited for what was to come. Stay tuned for our adventures in the Wine Country and Safari, it truly is “just the beginning!”…
