Stellenbosch and Franschhoek Day Trip

This is going to be quick because it’s already 8:30pm and I’m tired after a 10-hour day trip. It was a great time, though, and I met some amazing people.

Left to right: Diane and Brian from Melbourne; Karina is a pediatric surgeon and Carlos is a liver transplant surgeon from Mexico; Wayne and Wayne’s wife (can’t remember her name) from Sydney; Me; Maureen and Bill from Houston (Bill is also a surgeon and was at the same surgical conference as Karina and Carlos); Leo, Celina, Betty and Allesandro were the youngsters of the group and are from Zurich Switzerland.

We went to two different wine farms. The first one was a large-scale production house, and the 2nd was a small boutique house.

Fairview Wine farm.
Some of the large stainless-steel casks at Fairview.
For the first tasting we paired 6 wines with cheese. Four of the wines were red, which I usually don’t like, but these were very light, so they weren’t bad.

The tour included lunch. I had a delicious sirloin steak but forgot to take a picture. Sorry foodies. But, hey, it’s the first time.

Courtyard at the place we had lunch.

Then we went to the pretty little town of Franschhoek where we had a little time to wander the streets.

Church in Franschhoek.

The wine farm in Franschhoek was LaBria, one of the oldest wine farms in South Africa established in 1694. This was much smaller with an output of 70,000 bottles of wine per harvest.

In addition to fermenting in the casks, the wines will also ferment in the bottles for up to 10 years.
For this tasting we paired the red wines with chocolate. Two of them were way too dry for me so Carlos was happy to take them off my hands. I ate the chocolate though.
We enjoyed some sparkling wine on the patio. It was a beautiful view.

Then we went back to Stellenbosch where we had a little free time to wander the streets. Carlos, Karina, Maureen, Bill, Diane, Brian and I headed straight to a bar…cuz we hadn’t had enough to drink already. They had beer while I had a sickening sweet strawberry daiquiri which was delicious.

Pretty little church in Stellenbosch.
An interesting building we think was a church but we’re not sure.

Finally, it was back in the van for the 45-minute drive back to Cape Town. It was 7:45 before I made it back to the hotel, so it was a very long day. But I had a great time.

Tomorrow is another long day beginning at 7:50, two hours earlier than today. This time I’m heading down the peninsula to visit the Cape of Good Hope and the penguin colony. I’m really looking forward to it.

For now, I’ve got to get ready for bed; I’m exhausted. Talk with you tomorrow.

4 thoughts on “Stellenbosch and Franschhoek Day Trip”

  1. Looks like you had a very full day of having fun and drinking wine, and drinking wine, and drinking wine!

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  2. Looks like an absolutely wonderful day! You know how much I would have enjoyed it! 😊🍷🤣. The scenery is so inviting — and it looks like your new friends enjoyed the day as much as you! Not sure what the word is there, but Salute, Prost, Cheers!

    Reply

    1. Yes, it was a wonderful day. For me it was about the scenery and the people; less about the wine as I’m not a big wine drinker.

      Reply

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