Lifting the media silence...

My last post was on 29th October... Bad Simon.

To explain my absence, over November & December I was not only flat out with work, I had my first exam for my Masters course... I basically checked out of normal life for 2 months.

The plus side is that I got through work, and I think I did pretty well on the exam!

The next chapter if my online silence is my parents trip to Cape Town to spend Christmas with their favorite son! Up until this week I had not stayed at home since before X-mas, and I have been playing tour guide & favorite son for the whole time!

Since there is really nothing to tell about November/Early December other than I worked my ass off and the re-attached it, and proceeded to study my ass off, I won't get into that.

Much more interesting is my X-mas & Newyears!! So here goes:

My parents flew in on the 18th of December, the same day I went on leave. We stayed in Cape Town, at our friends house (as my modest lodgings were far from sufficient) in Rondebosch and I showed off Cape Town as best I could.

We went to Signal Hill (pictured), V&A Waterfront, Kloof St, my favorite local cafe's, bars & restaurants, and Pick n' Pay which turned out to be very exciting for them, a western supermarket (I waited outside...). This was topped off by a lovely pre-christmas lunch at my Aunt's apartment complex and lunch with my cousin David, whom I had met last year, but my parents had not seen in decades.

On the 23rd we headed for Franshhoek, a small wine region about an hour from Cape Town. Its smaller than its more famous neighbor Stellenbosch, but in my opinion far better! Franshhoek it where the Huguenot's settled, the French settlers (Franshhoek literally means "French Corner"). The area is set in a spectacular valley surrounded by mountains and is full of Cape Dutch architecture which is simply beautiful!

In Franshhoek we were staying in a lovely little cottage surrounded by grape vines and mountains. The picture above is of our driveway... Nice.

The other great thing about Franshhoek is that it is, without competition, the culinary capital of South Africa. We were terribly spoilt for choice, but we were also late to book, so we did miss out on Bread & Wine, a very famous restaurant there. Our first day there we ate at Rickety Bridge, with possibly the most stunning deck overlooking vines & mountains.

We had a wonderful picnic there which was beautifully prepared and perfect in the summer sun, and for some unknown reason, we were one of only 3 tables there! Talk about undiscovered.

On X-mas day we had a lovely low key Braai (South African for BBQ) with some stunning wine, cheese, dips, and for dinner we had dessert.

Boxing Day (which I found out is actually called Boxing Day everywhere, I thought it was just an Australian thing because people used to always fight at the Cricket...) was spent at Boschendal, a wine estate that makes my mum's all time favorite wine: Blanc den Noir (its like a Rose, but made slightly differently, its made with red grapes, it literally means "white from black"), where we had a proper X-mas carvery. To be honest, its not really a Matthee scene, but it was lovely.

On top of amazing food, we visited some stunning tasting rooms. One thing that has struck me accross South Africa's wineries (that I have visited) is the amount of money spent on the actual tasting rooms. Even some of the biggest wineries in Australia do not put much money into their cellar door's, so its a nice treat! We enjoyed tastings at Rickety Bridge, Boschendal, and Graham Beck (pictured).

At Graham Beck, which I knew as a very well known maker of South African sparkling wine, we were treated to one of my favourite tasting experiences to date. In a very comfortable lounge-bar setting, which has one huge glass wall that looks into the wine making area (you can see EVERYTHING), I paid R75 ($12ish) I was given 5 half glasses of their finest sparkling. With the wine we were given the complete back story from each wine, and they were good stories! For example, the Graham Beck Brut (second glass from the right) was the wine used to celebrate Nelson Mandela's inauguration AND Barack Obama's inauguration. So, for R90 ($17ish) you can drink the only wine that has been used to celebrate the most important man of the 90's and the most important man of the 00's. That's quite an achievement!

After leaving Franshhoek we made a 1 night stopover in Pringle Bay, at our friend's beach house. It was a very welcome stopover, great company, the beach, crayfish (which had been caught that day by Peter) a Braai and great wine! The next morning we headed to Simon's Town, where we would spend New years. (the road from Franshhoek pictured)

On the way to Simon's Town we made a short detour via Chapman's Peak drive, Cape Town's premier scenic drive. Its a rather strange situation though, it has been privatised, and the brain's trust that negotiated the privatisation contract did not specify how many days per year the road must be open, so now its closed most of the year until tourist season comes! That said, it is a pretty stunning drive! We went from Hout Bay, along Chapman's Peak Drive to Noordhoek then on to Simon's Town. (view of Hout Bay from Chapman's Peak Drive pictured)

At Simon's Town we had three goals: visit Cape Point (the first time for my mum), go Game Fishing (my dad's X-mas present), and eat seafood. I'm proud to say we did all three.

We were staying in a B&B right up on a hill overlooking False Bay.

On a side note, False Bay is a huge bay sided by Cape Point, now to sail from India to Europe ships had to pass the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Point) and head north for Europe, but in the days before GPS sailors would often get over-excited and head north from the point before and end up beached in Cape Town.

To be continued....