Wine Tour

Africa

In vino veritas or how to blissfully spend a day

It was the morning after my late arrival in Cape Town in the night before, so I was pretty tired in the morning. But after a shower and a coffee, we were ready and excited to start the day and went via Uber to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, THE touristy area in Cape Town. Just next to the Watershed and the Aquarium was the starting point of our tour that day: a full day wine tour with the famous Red Bus of City Sightseeing in Cape Town. I usually avoid being on a bus full of tourists, but for this trip, I had to make some exceptions to use the limited time wisely and to be safe. 

The modern double-decker bus arrived perfectly clean with shiny tires. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we enjoyed the view out of the window on the way to the first stop: a winery near Franschhoek. Here we started the day with a glass of bubbly (on still empty stomachs) and a short tour, which wound up in a large room with the longest table I’ve ever sat at, set meticulously and nestled between old, oversized barrels. Wow. Impressive. We sat down and enjoyed three different wines and one brandy together with the matched chocolates. Not bad for breakfast!

The next stop was in the town of Franschhoek with some time to wander around and enjoy lunch. With our ticket, we had the option to enjoy a free tasting at a restaurant, which is an excellent way to get customers to have lunch there. Franschhoek is a beautiful little town with white painted houses, and for sure well worth a more extended visit next time. Of course, we redeemed the vouchers stayed for lunch. J The food was a lot better than the wine samples, but my highlight was the elevating discussion during lunch with Marianne, a well-travelled senior from Sweden, who was on the bus with us. The three of us talked about life and love and had a wonderful time.

Every town has its micro-climate, and it was scorching hot in Franschhoek that day so that we were glad to return to our airconditioned bus. Many of us took a power nap on the way to our last stop: the picturesque Vergenoegd vineyard. Before the wine tasting, we watched the runner ducks run along a track. What seemed to be a strange tourist attraction at first turned out to be a necessary routine. The winery used the ducks as a natural alternative to insecticides, and the running was an exercise to train them to run in predefined tracks. We would have loved to stay longer, but unfortunately, we had to get back to the bus to stay within our schedule. Traffic is the one thing the crew was not able to organize. 😉

We arrived back with only a little delay. It is customary to tip the crew, which we did, of course. We spent an enjoyable day, learned a lot about wine and the history of the area for only 580 ZAR / 33 EUR each.