Day 4 – October 6th, 2009 – Cycling in the Winelands
Today was a fantastic day! What more could I have ever asked for than to ride my bike and drink free wine all in the same day. (I know the wine wasn’t really free because I had to pay for the trip but I’ll just pretend!) South Africa is very well known for its plethora of winelands and it has many! We started our cycling adventure in Stellenbosch, a main attraction for wine tasting. We parked the mini buses at a remote area near a small restaurant called Jonkershoek. After taking a potty break and getting ourselves geared up for the bike ride (helmets and all), we mounted our bikes. Right before we left for the ride a ladybug landed on my arm! I figured that was a sign of good luck that today was going to be a great day! Alex, our tour guide for the day was in the lead and his partner drove the mini bus with the bike rack just in case anyone wanted to take a break from the ride.
The first ride was 16km long and took about 1 ½ hours and the scenery we rode through was stunning. We started off down a back road through the woods and it was very peaceful. The weather was perfect for a bike ride, cool enough for a light jacket but still warm enough so you weren’t shivering. We rode over a few bridges and down a dirt road. There were a few trailers we passed which surprised me because I thought they were only in the U.S. Along the dirt road was the first winery we saw! It was beautiful and looked like a palace out of a storybook. The lines of grapes outlined the property and only added to the beauty. There were also two horses that just completed the picture. One white and one brown – they were stunning! After touring through the back road, we merged onto the main road and passed even more winelands. The area was so hilly and mountainous so it made the view even more outstanding. Each wine house we passed was beautiful and I felt like I was looking at famous palaces. Along some of the winelands were workers who would wave to us as we rode past. I saw two more stunning white horses who could have been straight out of a painting. Of course I was the last one because I kept stopping to take pictures of everything!
We rode through some really nice neighborhoods when we approached the town. What was interesting about the houses was that they all had extreme security measures. Nearly every house had barbed wire atop the walls of the house. It was kind of mind boggling because the area was so nice and didn’t look like there could be any criminal activity. Next we drove through Boland College Stellenbosch campus. It was beautiful and unlike any college campus I’ve ever seen. The residence halls looked like fancy palaces with balconies. There were apartments and housing complexes along the next street which didn’t look like a college town at all. We even saw some cute boys playing “football” (soccer in the U.S.) in a nearby field. Of course I snapped a picture J The majority of the first part of the ride was downhill which made the ride pretty nice. After riding through the campus we had to ride back up the loop we had gone down, which meant we’d be riding uphill. I was not thrilled at all! The scenery was still gorgeous but the hill was not. It was a struggle and we were on the opposite side of the road this time so we didn’t have the little bike path. Eventually, the group had split into smaller groups and I was in the tail end group with Louis, Deb, Kyle, Jonny, and one other guy. Along the way we all stopped for a picture of the entrance to a winery. Someone had the bright idea for us to take a picture of us on top of the wall. We all jumped on top of the wall and then climbed up to the higher part of the wall. Luckily, when I got up I saved myself from falling into the barbed wire on the other side of the wall!! I was surprised I even made it on the wall without breaking anything. We took a few pictures then jumped down. It was a nice break from our cycling trek up the grueling hill. After pushing ourselves through the rest of the ride we finally made it back to the group and the restaurant we started at! We loaded the bikes up and headed to our first winery. By now I was pretty pumped for some wine tastingJ
On the way to the first winery we stopped at a mountain overlook. It was beautiful. The whole day we had been surrounded by extravagant mountains and hills that literally took your breath away. We got a great photo op of the Simonsberg mountains and then carried on to the winery. We arrived at the Franschhoek Cellar which was the perfect place for wine tasting. It was everything you’d expect when entering a winery. Wooden ceilings, brick tiled floors, deep red painted walls, and rows of wine bottles. To say the least, I was in heaven! I There were four tables for all of us to sit at. My table had my Global Studies teacher and his wife (another professor on the ship from Spain), Pat (ship counselor and my bus buddy!), Alex (my new friend on the cycle), and Lindsey (a Lifelong Learner’s daughter who’s 20 something). We had a great table and all were very excited for the wine tasting. We each had six wine glasses on a placemat; three for white wine and three for red wine. The wine lady gave us a briefing on the history of the winery and I was surprised to learn that the winery only produces the wine they sell, they do not grow their own grapes. Either way, the wine was great so I wasn’t complaining! They poured our three white wine glasses of different white wines. We had quite the surprise before we started tasting! Kyle proposed to Deb!!!!! We were all a little shocked that it just happened! I had never witnessed a proposal before so it was pretty exciting. They were sitting at different tables and Deb found the ring in her wine glass! Kyle had asked the wine lady to help him out when she poured the wine. It took a while for Deb to realize what was going on then Kyle came over to her and knelt down. It was really romantic and sweet but a little shocking. I don’t think anyone expected to witness a wedding proposal on the Cycling in the Winelands trip in South Africa! So after the excitement, we all settled down to begin the tasting. Before we began the tasting, the woman told us how to correctly taste the wine. First you swivel, then you sniff, and finally you sip! It really makes a difference and when you sniff as you drink the wine all sorts of smells and flavors become so much stronger. I felt like a true wine taster! I loved all three white wines!!! They were amazing – Mom, you would have loved them! The reds were surprisingly good, being that I tend to like whites better. I was sure to get the names of the wine and the distribution list for future reference. After the tasting we went downstairs to have lunch. Our guides had brought in lunch for us: big rolls, ham, potato and pasta salad (nothing like home though), regular salad, cookies, and nacho chips with a fabulous spicy sauce! It was a nice little picnic style lunch after some great wine. I’m pretty sure we had all worked up a good appetite after the cycling and the wine. For the second trek of cycling I opted out of riding because it had gotten really chilly, windy, and rainy. I only wore shorts and a long sleeved shirt so I wasn’t weather prepared at all. Deb opted out too so we rode in the mini bus with the other guide who drove the bike racks. She took us to the Huguenot Monument in memory of the founders of Franschhoek. The monument was very exquisite and symbolized the struggle the Huguenot’s faced when breaking away from their country for religious purposes. It was interesting to hear a little bit of the history of the town we were in! She showed us one of the top restaurants in the world that is located in South Africa, Reuben’s – it looked pretty fancy! We left the monument to catch up with the rest of the cyclers who were biking to the next winery, a solid 19km away!! I wasn’t complaining that I was riding in the bus!
Alex ended up driving our mini bus with Deb and I in it. It was nice to get some one on one time with him to learn more about South Africa. He was a riot and we all got along very well. We stopped on the side of the road to let some bikers pass us and got see the national flower of South Africa. We learned about it in cultural pre-port and it was just as pretty as in the pictures we saw. We passed more wineries and I was convinced to come back to South Africa! It’s so pretty and I wanted to spend more time at all the wineries. Just as we pulled into the second winery, it started raining. We got lucky with timing and entered the winery to stay dry. It was a mix between a museum called the Museum Van de Caab and a winery called the Solms Delta. It reminded me of a barn because the doors were open and we sat at tables inside with stone walls surrounding us. We tried eight different wines at the Solms Delta, most being red wines. All four of the white wines we drank were delicious. There was one red that I liked but the rest were much too strong and had a terrible taste. Usually I could handle it and finish the glass but the Langarm was really terrible. I sipped it and almost spit it right out. Let’s just say I wasn’t asking for seconds. Our wine guide was funny when telling us about each wine we tried by giving them all a code name. We had “cool by the pool”, “fireplace wine”, “picnic wine”, “dessert wine”, “safari wine”, and “party everyday wine”. He also told us about the different shades of wine which I never knew about. Some whites have a more clear color and others are more yellow. Some reds are deep in color, others are a lighter pink. It was interesting to hear more about wine than I’ve ever knew before!
When you’re drinking eight different wines in a row you need to take it fairly slow. Well, our wine guide did not. I’d have one sip of the wine and he’d be coming down the table to pour the next one. In other words, I got my share of high-speed wine tasting and it was a good thing we weren’t biking anymore! Pat was at my end of the table and she was telling us all sorts of Semester at Sea stories from her past voyage. Some kid fell off the boat (he’d been drinking) and into the ocean. He got really lucky because the girl he was with shouted “man overboard!” and it took nearly an hour for the ship to turn around and get him. He’s lucky he didn’t get sucked into the motors. It was a pretty exciting story to end the day and we wrapped up our wine tasting to head back to the ship. Alex and I snuck out wine glasses and almost got caught by our wine guide! We made it out successfully thoughJ I slept the whole way home and was ready for a nice hot shower!
When we got back to the ship I showered and then went out to dinner with Kristin and Katie. We walked along the restaurants on the top level of the Waterfront and found a happy medium! Kristin and I wanted to eat at the Greek and Mediterranean and Katie wanted the City Grill. Both restaurants are owned by the same person so we could eat at one and order off the menu from the other so it worked out nicely. We got some pita and hummus for an appetizer and it was delicious! I ordered the seafood pasta and it came out in a foil swan on my plate!!! I opened it up and was a little surprised at the extent of the seafood; the shrimp had legs!!! I ate muscles (which aren’t as bad as I thought) and prawns. I couldn’t believe it but I was kind of wishing I got the chicken and mushrooms that Kristin ordered! Oh well!! After dinner we were looking for some gelato and ran into Lauren, Becky, and Rosario!!! I was so excited Lauren was back from her safari! Becky and Rosario went back to the ship and Lauren joined us in our search for gelato. We found a cute place inside the mall and I got peppermint and German chocolate = to die for!! We enjoyed the gelato then headed to Mitchell’s for some Karaoke!
Mitchell’s is an Irish pub in the Waterfront that has Karaoke every Wednesday. We walked in and the place was a mix of mostly SAS students. We pretty much took over the bar. I wasn’t too thrilled to be surrounded by that many SAS kids so we headed upstairs. The place was huge and had another bar on the 2nd level and a huge seating area where the karaoke was. We came to the right spot! Lauren, Katie, Becky, Rosario, Jennifer, and I all headed over to the far side of the bar so we weren’t surrounded by SASers. The karaoke was fun and we were all dancing and having a good time. There were locals all over the area so we finally didn’t feel like tourists. We met a group of guys from the British Army who were in South Africa. They were a riot and had a good time dancing with us to “Summer Lovin”. Becky and I decided to get a beer so we went to the bar and met a guy named Gray from England! The bar was packed so it took what felt like an hour to finally order a beer! It was delicious though and well worth the wait! We headed back to our little area and if you can’t guess, I signed up for karaoke! After waiting a bit my name was called and I went into my superstar mode. The crowd cheered and then on comes…”rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river”. I belted out Tina Turner’s Proud Mary, my signature song in front of the entire bar in South Africa! Everyone cheered and I felt very accomplishedJ Shortly after my performance we headed out to go back to the ship. On our way back, lo and behold, we found a PIRATE BAR!!! The bar was literally a pirate ship docked in the harbor just a short way down from our ship. We figured we might as well try it out so we climbed aboard the ‘Jolly Roger’ pirate ship. I walked on and was in complete heaven! There were only a few people at the tiny bar in the back room of the ship (the ship was pretty tiny but my perfect sized pirate ship). The pirate was off-duty and didn’t have his pirate outfit on so he handed me his sword. If only you could have seen the look on my face! Then he gave me his pirate jacket AND hat!! Before I knew it I was in complete pirate uniform on a pirate ship in South Africa – what more could a girl ask forJ Lauren put on the other pirate jacket and had her own sword so we got some great pictures. We climbed up to the forward of the ship and were pretending to duel when a cop car drove by on the Waterfront road. He stopped and was joking with us. I talked to him the entire time in my pirate voice and when they drove away I said “I would never talk to a cop in the U.S. in my pirate voice!” It was awesome! They were great and made me feel even more like a pirate! After exploring the ship and playing pirates we decided it was time to goL More like the rest of the girls decided. As we were leaving the Jolly Roger, the other pirate was coming back to the ship. We stopped to chat with him and I had officially met my future husband. His name was Pedro and he was the cutest pirate I’d ever seen! He even carried the cannon on his shoulder!!! It was love at first sight and all I have left of him is a picture. It was a fabulous way to end the nightJ
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