Day 4 - Wine Country

We arose early for another stellar day and a really wonderful breakfast. Each day I have learned to tone it down at breakfast... wanting to taste all the flavors the first morning and scale it back each day to just the things I really enjoy. The bacon here is more like Canadian bacon than our bacon, so it is not crisp but is delicious. I love that stuff! The guava juice is also a winner.

Our guide, Michael Raa from Thompsons Africa, met us with his van and we all climbed in. The kids think Michael is a "stud", and Reese thinks he is a walking encyclopedia. We headed West of Cape Town on the N1 (a full multi lane freeway) to Paarl. The first thing we did was see a monument on the top of a hill that was erected to honor the Afrikaans language (predominant in this part of the world). It was very impressive with lots of symbolism that reflected the various influences on Afrikaans. I knew is was mostly 400 year old Dutch (think olde English) was surprised to know that it heavily influenced by Portuguese, English, native languages and Malay. Most people don't know that the Dutch brought the Malay (Javanese) to these lands several hundred years ago to work as skilled carpenters, cooks, blacksmiths, etc. as a way to resupply the ships that had rounded the Cape of Good Hope (the weather was quite damaging to the ships back then). They also planted vegetable gardens and along with brought their own influence. There are many mosques and a heavy influence in the foods here in the Cape.

After the monument we headed to a wine estate. It is just amazing to find these places that were started in the 1600s. The wine in South Africa is my favorite of anywhere, but I especially like the whites. They have created their own grape for a special red called Pinotage. It is a wonderful wine, although they have all kinds of reds here. The most popular is a Shiraz.

From there we headed over to Franzhoek, a sleeply quaint village with lots of old Cape Dutch architecture and outdoor cafes. This whole wine growing area is very similar to Napa Valley in California with a certain "international" flair. We had some amazing light food before heading over to Stellenbosch.

As we entered Stellie (local nickname for it), we passed by the University of Stellenbosch where I will be studying. It is very similar to Stanford, although much larger. It has a student body of about 23,000 students and has as many graduate colleges as UW or WSU or OU. We stopped at the Student Union (called Nellie) and it is just like any Student Union anywhere. We then went out ot the Lanzerac, our home for next few days. It is an old wine estate that is authentic Cape Dutch architecture with beautifully landscaped lawns and vineyards. Our rooms are huge with their own swimming pools and lots of lounging room. The only complaint we have is that they kept contacting us every few hours to see if their was something else they could do for us. The rest of the crew went on a tour of Stellie while I settled into the room to grade more homework.

We had a lovely dinner in the Governor's Room before turning in. The funny thing is that this part of South Africa is pretty formal and the other diners were dressed up much more than we were. Although it is winter here, the weather is like Seattle in June. We had short sleeves on while the rest of the room was dressed in their winter woolies and sweaters or jackets.